THE
APPARENT CONFLICT between our desperate need for the economic democracy
promised by socialism and our equally desperate need for spiritual
sustenance has traditionally been a major barrier to building a
revolutionary socialist movement in the United States. But the conflict
is an illusion – the result of a colossal misunderstanding on one side
and a diabolical campaign of misrepresentation on the other.
Theoretically, it could therefore be resolved by socialist declarations
of tolerance guaranteeing the spiritual freedom of all persons –
believers and unbelievers alike – within the revolutionary community.
Implicit in the declarations would be socialist recognition of the need
for spiritual anarchy: that one's spiritual quest – assuming one is so
inclined – is ultimately (exactly as First Nations peoples understood),
an individual and therefore intensely private matter.
But
that re-assertion of our First Amendment right would be only half the
battle. The vast majority of Abrahamic ecclesiastical authorities would
denounce such guarantees as devilish lies. This is because most
ecclesiastics whether Christian, Jewish or Muslim are as much a part of
the Ruling Class as the Wall Street barons and their corps of wholly
owned politicians and bureaucrats. The Ruling Class priests, ministers,
rabbis and mullahs are therefore bound to serve the earthly One Percent
at least as devoutly as they serve their god – which means any socialist
attempt at defending our constitutional guarantee of religious and
spiritual freedom is bound to trigger new frenzies of slander and
oppression from church, mosque and temple – particularly now as the
United States deliberately morphs ever closer to unabashed fascism
reinforced by Christian theocracy.
Barbara Mor succinctly summarizes the problem in the opening pages of The Great Cosmic Mother (Harper
& Row: 1987), an epic work that is (or should be) indispensable in
the formulation of the new socialism toward which so much of the
post-Occupy Left seems to be instinctively moving. “Marx and Engels,”
wrote Mor, “confused spirit with established religion – as their
doctrinaire followers continue to do – because, as Western white males,
they could not see the total paradigm of ancient women's original
communism.” Their error, she stated, “has given fuel to the propaganda
engines of the reactionary systems in all countries, so that the world
is ripped apart in a false dichotomy between 'Godless communism' and
'divine capitalism.' For if communism is atheistic, its opponents can
claim to be mandated by God, however phony this claim might be...Both
systems – Western capitalism and Soviet communism – are based on the
denial of communal celebration...Neither the God of the Dollar nor the
God of the State – nor any of the alienating patriarchal gods from which
they descent – allow for this participation.” (Quotes are from Mor's
second edition, pgs. 15-17).
Mor's
text of 26 years ago is relevant today for many reasons, but its
significance here is as an inadvertent prelude to the Occupy Movement.
This is because the quest for a new politics of community and
celebration that satisfies hungers both physical and emotional was
perhaps Occupy's deepest yet most unarticulated yearning. Indeed it is
at least arguable the movement's refusal to state explicit goals was
tacit recognition, no matter how subconscious, of the limitations
imposed by (patriarchal) language on our ability to express our most
profound needs. In this context, what might be termed the “old
socialism” – that is, the Stalinist pseudo-socialism Mor so rightfully
deplored – was (correctly) viewed as merely another rationale for
(patriarchal) tyranny and was thus rejected as no more liberating than
capitalism. But at the same time there was within Occupy a passionate
interest in the potential of combining socialist principles with the
communal, environmental and spiritual values implicit in recognition of
the sacredness of Earth. Two years later, similarly minded Seattle
voters elected Kshama Sawant, a declared Marxist, to the City Council.
Recognizably part of this same accelerated process of political evolution is Truthout's posting of a Chris Williams piece
entitled “Capitalism, Ecology and the Official Invisibility of Women,”
which notes how capitalism “has fueled a world in which women are
rendered invisible and saddled with the majority of labor.” The
subsequent discussion enlarged upon Williams' theme. As I said in
response, “Williams seems to be drawing ever closer to the
consciousness-changing recognition that capitalism is in fact a logical
outgrowth of patriarchy...This lineage is clearly traceable through the
advent and maturity of capitalism during the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and
20th centuries, and it concludes with capitalism's final-stage,
apocalyptic imposition of fascism on the world today. Thus our ultimate
challenge is whether capitalism's inevitable maturity into fascism will
be the end of our species. Will the One Percenters obliterate our world
in fascist wars of conquest, or we will manage to mobilize sufficient
resistance to replace fascism with an egalitarian, cooperative,
sustaining and therefore necessarily socialist society?”
*****
More Relevant Remarks on the Comment Threads of Other Websites
“Homeless Couple Gets a Home on Christmas Eve, Thanks to 'Occupy' Group”
A homeless couple in Madison, Wisconsin gets a tiny, 96-foot square
house, a poster on the comment thread wonders what has gone wrong and
fears we will all soon be living in such shrunken quarters. I explain
how capitalism applauds such wretchedness precisely because it means
even bigger profits.
“Q&A: Libyan Women Were Handed Over as Spoils of War”
Karlos Zurutuza reports from Tripoli on Libya's post-Gaddafy oppression
of women. I note that “whenever and wherever the USian Empire
intervenes in an alleged Middle Eastern 'revolution,' the victors are
invariably the most misogynistic of the religious fundamentalists. Iraq,
Afghanistan, Libya -- in fact anywhere women have managed to gain some
rights -- their gains are quickly and totally undone. Does the USian
Empire -- despite all the lip service it gives to female equality --
actually support the re-imposition of official misogyny? As the old
intelligence adage puts it, once is happenstance, twice is coincidence,
three times is enemy action.”
LB/30 December 2013
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