Alienation, autonomy, and ideology
Many readers know I like to set a common theme for the year. For this year’s theme, I chose value and the corporate workplace, a topic I’ve also written about in prior years. So far, I’ve hit this theme in a number of ways. But one way I might summarize it all? Work won’t love you back.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I found out labor journalist Sarah Jaffe recently wrote a book called Work Won’t Love You Back.
Let’s take a look at Jaffe’s book.
Many leftists propose some form of vanguard theory of socialist change. From the Leninist idea that a vanguard party will form working-class consciousness to the identitarian view that certain identity groups will lead the way, leftists have long looked for shortcuts to change. Some – most recently, various DSA caucuses – propose unions as a vanguard. This calls to mind older ideas like workerism or certain forms of class reductionism.
But, whether new or not, is it right? Can unions be a vanguard for socialist change?
No. At least, not in anything like their present form. Nor in any form they’re likely to take in the near future. Let’s talk about why.
The ideology of identitarianism – the reduction of political issues to issues of identity – formed one of the earliest focuses of this blog. Mostly we find this view on the far right, specifically with Trumpism in a U.S. context. But we find a milder, less offensive version on the ‘left’ – in the work of, say, Ta-Nehisi Coates. As I’ve pointed out, identitarianism tends to lead to nihilism. Nowhere do we see that more clearly than in the view called ‘Afropessimism.’
A couple of years ago, I wrote one of my most widely read posts on this blog – a list of anti-capitalist films! In this post, I’ll take a look at 5 anti-capitalist books. I’m limiting the list to anti-capitalist books beginners will find useful.
Enjoy!
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19: 23-24)*
Contrary to ‘prosperity theology‘ trends we find among some right-wing Christians, most Christians long upheld the virtues of the marginalized (not to mention a skeptical attitude toward work). We find the injunction to do so most clearly in Bible passages like the one above. And we find a similar tradition in leftist politics – positing the working class as the main agent for social and political change.
Are these the same ideas? Can the wealthy play a positive role in society?
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