“The production of illusions has become one of the most important ways in which capitalists deal with humanistic visionary consciousness and the efforts of the oppressed to organize and fight against capitalism”

Ljubodrag Simonovic: The Last Revolution

Contents

The Last Revolution -- Chapter Fourteen

The integration of people into capitalism

(Translated from Serbian by Vesna Todorović/Petrović)

Capitalism, as a totalitarian order of destruction, created appropriate means and methods for destroying critical and visionary consciousness and such forms of mediation between man and world which prevent man from abolishing capitalism and creating a new world. In the past, people’s consciousness was controlled by the clergy. Today, it is controlled by TV presenters and other capitalist manipulators, united in show-business, who use the results of modern science and technology and myths based on them, along with instrumentalized mysticism that produces a quasi-religious consciousness. Instead of being directed towards disclosing the destructive processes that question man’s survival on the planet and towards creating the vision of a new world, the mind is directed towards the production of spectacular phantasms that destroy man’s critical mind and visionary consciousness. Hence such popularity of various Coca-Cola mystifiers and intellectual con artists with their stories about mysterious “world rulers”, “extra-terrestrials”, “mystical forces”, “parallel worlds”… The art of mystification replaces historical analyses, while mysticism replaces visionary imagination. Modern, technocratically based “fairy-tales” are one of the ways in which capitalism degenerates the mind and creates a mass idiocy. With the existing world being less and less human and with man being more and more lonely and thus less capable of changing his life, the need to retreat to an illusory world is increasing. Illusions are the most wanted commodity on the “consumer society” market, resulting in a hyper-production of illusory worlds. The production of illusions has become one of the most important ways in which capitalists deal with humanistic visionary consciousness and the efforts of the oppressed to organize and fight against capitalism. Manipulation no longer resides in the ideological, but in the psychological sphere. The story about a “bright future” and the “American dream” is gone. To flee from the increasingly darker reality has become the opsession of the average (petty) bourgeoise in the “democratic world”.

The destruction of the mind and historical self-consciousness of the oppressed is a link between modern entertaining industry and Nazi propaganda machinery. Here are Adolf Hitler’s instructions to Nazi leaders (1942) intended to “help” them to establish efficient domination over the “conquered peoples”: “Hence we should not allow the appearance of teachers who might suddenly ask for compulsory education for the conquered nations. The knowledge of the Russians, Ukrainians, the Kyrgyz people and others of reading and writing would only do us harm. It would enable those with bright intelligence to acquire certain knowledge about history and thus develop political ideas, which could somehow be directed against us. – It is much better to set up a radio in each village, in order to inform people and offer them some entertainment, than to enable them to acquire their own political, scientific and other erudition. Also, rather than telling the conquered peoples in the radio shows their history, we should play music, the more the better. Because, popular music improves work efficiency. And, if people insist on dancing, according to our information and systematic approach, this we could welcome.” (22) Hitler’s instructions on how to manipulate the consciousness of “lower races” are, actually, the basis of the contemporary capitalist strategy for establishing domination over the working class in the most developed capitalist countries and over the peoples on the “margins of capitalism”, who are doomed to be exterminated by the West.

Giving a spectacular dimension to the marginal – on which both the advertising industry and the entire ideological sphere of capitalism are based - is one of the most important ways for destroying the quality criteria. As a result, people cannot realize the true nature of the ruling order and, at the same time, see the actual possibilities for the creation of a new world. Without the possibility of recognizing quality, it is not possible to acquire a true visionary consciousness. When everything becomes “fantastic”, “ingenious”, “incredible” – then the true values sink into the mud of the trivial. The public “dispute” over sports events is a typical example of marginalizing the important, of people’s depolitization, of the creation of false sociability and mass idiocy. The ruling media are broadcasting increasingly aggressive and primitive entertainment programs in order to destroy people’s interest in truth and separate their mind from the real world created by capitalism: destruction of nature, mass deaths from lack of food, water and from diseases, criminalization of society, creation of a police state, increased chances of using the nuclear weapons, monstrous technical projects for causing Earthquakes and fatal climate changes, mass killings of children for “obtaining” organs, disposal of nuclear waste in the oceans, nuclear plant accidents, white plague, increased illiteracy, destruction of national cultures and historical self-consciousness… In the “curved mirrors” of capitalist ideology and in the lights of spectacular advertisements of the “consumer society”, the important things become distorted and marginalized, while the marginal acquires a fatal and spectacular dimension. Advertising slogans, such as the Coca-Cola slogan: “Can't beat the real thing!”, which are constantly broadcast by TV and radio stations, impair man’s ability to discern and comprehend what is really important. Contemporary spectacles do not involve the creation of classical illusions by mental manipulation, which means to “seduce” man by way of his prejudices, fears and desires, but on the creation of spectacular illusions, void of all content, which comes down to aggressive stimulation of senses by technical means. Instead of a melody, what we hear is a deafening noise; instead of a visual effect, we have a dazzling light… There is no emotion, no imagination, no reason… In addition to being marked by escapism, the creation of illusions serves to imapair the senses and destroy the need and possibility of dreaming about a humane world. The illusion is not only a spectacular manifestation of a destructive capitalist nothingness, it is also a technical means for destroying humanity.

The life itself, degenerated by capitalism, has become the means for drawing people into the value and existential orbit of capitalism. The “consumer society” is directly reflected on the political sphere. For Marx, workers' non-working time is the result of their struggle against capitalist exploitation, which gave them a chance to develop class-consciousness and start an organized political struggle. In the “consumer society”, non-working time has become consumer time, which pulls workers into the spiritual and existential orbit of capitalism. Through the “consumer society”, capitalists created a new market, enabled further development of capitalism, and (temporarily) purchased “social peace”. At the same time, they drive people into debt slavery and thus integrate them into the ruling order. Capitalism has degenerated the workers' class consciousness by creating a consumer mentality. The need for freedom has turned into the need to purchase and destroy. Workers have become “consumers”, who contribute, through their working and consumer activism, to the development of capitalism. Not only do they make “their own chains” (Marx), they also destroy life and cause their own perishing as biological and human beings. At the same time, the increasingly deep existential crisis turned the proletarian youth in the most developed capitalist countries, as mercenary soldiers, into the tool of the most powerful capitalist concerns for dealing with “rebellious” peoples and establishing the (American) “new world order”.

As far as the “social state” is concerned, the official ideology claims that it is the result of a “compromise” between bourgeoisie and working class. Indeed, the “social state” is one of the established forms of the bourgeois class domination over the workers. Rather than being founded on humanism, it is a political answer of the bourgeoisie to the ever deeper crisis of capitalism and the changing (revolutionary) potentials of the workers' movement in the most developed capitalist countries in the West. Its purpose is to establish a “bearable exploitation” of workers by capitalists, which means to reduce their existential threat and thus prevent the workers' class struggle and enable a stable development of capitalism. Essentially, the “social state” is a legal form of plundering from workers, who, through the taxation system imposed by the capitalist state, finance their own “social contributions”, which should enable them to survive the capitalistically created existential crisis without any complaints. At the same time, the “social state” serves to destroy workers' class consciousness and pull them, by way of the consumer mentality, into the value horizon of the “middle class”, as one of the pillars of capitalism. Ultimately, the “social state” enables the survival of capitalism and consequently contributes to the destruction of life on the planet.

The criminalization of workers is one of the most efficient ways in which the oppressed are being pulled into the spiritual and existential orbit of capitalism. It is the worst possible form of degeneration of people and society, which perfectly corresponds to the ruling spirit of capitalism. The criminalization of the oppressed turns the society into a capitalist menagerie. The workers' struggle for a just society becomes the struggle of atomized citizens for survival. With the insreasingly deeper crisis in the capitalist states, the chances are increasing that criminal gangs will take power and establish dictatorship. They will undoubtedly be supported by capitalists and the bourgeoisie if they see it as a chance to prevent radical social changes and enable the survival of capitalism. It should be remembered that during the economic crisis of capitalism in the wake of the Great War, Italian and German fascists were financed and brought to power by aristocracy and capitalists in their attempt to deal with the workers’ movement. By destroying social institutions, capitalism creates conditions for criminal gangs to become the sole social power capable of dealing with workers and preventing the demise of capitalism. Indeed, cooperation between mafia and ruling capitalist groups have for many decades been the key factor in establishing power in the most developed capitalist states. Destruction of the emancipatory legacy of the bourgeois society, acute ecological and economic crisis, high unemployment rate, degradation of democratic institutions, mafia-style capitalist and political organizations, deeper social differences, general criminalization of society, religious fanaticism, flourishing of fascism… – all this creates preconditions for the crisis of capitalism to turn into a widespread chaos, which could easily breed a new fascist barbarism. A general chaos is, actually, the “answer” of capitalism to the capitalistically created existential crisis and to the existence of objective possibilites for the creation of a new world.

“Mondialism” is the most important political manifestation of modern imperialism. We are witnessing the creation of a mondialistic bourgeoisie, deprived of national identity and thus of cultural and libertarian self-consciousness. Rather than having a “supranational” character, mondialist ideology is based on the destruction of nations and the creation of mondialist institutions, used by the most powerful capitalist corporations to establish a global domination. It is, actually, a modern form of imperialism, based on the American “new world order”, which appears in the form of a destructive capitalist totalitarianism aimed at destroying entire nations and “surplus” proletariat. In that context, “mondialism” is the means for destroying proletarian internationalism and global anti-colonial movement based on international cosmopolitism. No longer must man be responsible for the survival of his nation, or perceive his country as a historical and living space. It is about the creation of a “mondialist man”, suited to the nature of modern capitalism. He is deprived of libertarian and visionary consciousness and, particularly, of any responsibility for global destruction. The chief task of “mondialists” is to cleanse the world from its libertarian history and national cultures and turn it into the capitalist concentration camp. A mondialist class is being created all over the world, ready to use the means for mass destruction in order to defend their consumer way of life and privileged social position. The more dramatically capitalism reduces the living space, the louder are the calls from the most advanced capitalist states in the West to ruthlessly exterminate billions of “surplus” people and thus “prevent the demise of humankind”. The increased militant character of “mondialists” comes from the increased ruthlessness of capitalist destruction of the planet. The mondialists’ cynicism towards “traditional humanity” and the suffering and hardship of the oppressed all over the planet indicates that we are dealing with capitalistically degenerated people. Capitalism is causing a deluge and is building a new “Noah’s Arc”, which will be boarded only by the “chosen”: capitalists, politicians, monster-scientists, members of secret agencies, high-ranking army and police officials, clergy, kings of the underground with their prostitutes, show-business stars… and only a small number of “ordinary people”, who will do “dirty jobs” and serve the “elite”.

As far as “masonic lodges” are concerned, the capitalist democracy includes two forms of political organization and activity. One, which appears in the public political domain (political institutions, parties, media, elections…), and the other, which appears under non-formal capitalist groups governing from the shadow. They work in unison in their defence of capitalism and disagree only when it comes to defending their particular interests. “Masonic lodges” belong to political groups acting behind the public political sphere. They are based on a class order and the ruling spirit of monopolistic capitalism, which means on an order enabling a relatively small group of people to own the means of production and the capital and, consequently, govern the society. Rather than being masters of the world, bankers are slaves of capitalism. Without the capitalist system of reproduction, “their” money has no value. The story about the “omnipotent masonic lodges” serves to proclaim a mysterious illusory power to be the ruling power and thus avert people’s attention from the actual thiswordly power, which means from capitalism and the most powerful capitalist groups. These groups are possible because capitalism is a class society where the economic, military and political power is alienated from citizens and concentrated in the hands of capitalist oligarchies. Their power does not come from their racial or national origin, nor from mystical thiswordly or otherwordly sources, but above all, from the expansionist economic power of capitalism, with its totalitarian and destructive character. The ruthless economic war between the most powerful capitalist corporations, based on the ruling principle of monopolistic capitalism, “Big fish devour small fish!”, means that financial, military, scientific, technical, political and media power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer capitalists, with mega-monopolies seeking to gain control over the entire world. The so-called “international organizations” are but a long arm of the global centers of power, which define their policies in proportion to their economic, military and political power. The political, economic and military power of capitalist monopolies is based on the increasingly deeper crisis of capitalism, which they cannot prevent. They are all at the edge of a volcano emitting ever more terrifying roar. They all say the same things and their actions have one and only one purpose: how to ensure their own survival guided by the existential logic of monopolistic capitalism “Destroy the competition!”. The terror over their citizens is the expression of their inability to stop the spreading crisis of capitalism and their fear that people might rise up and overthrow their capitalist system. They “create the future” using the consequences of capitalism in their attempts to stop its collapse. Capitalists can destroy the world, but they cannot prevent the demise of capitalism.

The “conspiracy theories” are one of the ways in which capitalism is relieved from any responsibility for the destruction of the world. Their main task is to misguide the critical thinking. Thus, they serve to conceal the fact that capitalism is a class society and that it is the capitalist class, and not some mystical groups, which is causing the increasingly deep existential crisis. Similarly, they serve to conceal that capitalism is in its essence a destructive order, which means that global destruction, rather than depending on the self-will of individuals and groups, is actually the inevitable consquence of the development of capitalism. At the same time, the “conspiracy theories” devalue the emancipatory struggle and the emancipatory potentials of citizens and the oppressed working people and colonized nations. People deprived of their rights appear as blind instruments for realizing the economic and political interests of capitalist groups. It follows that an authentic libertarian movement of those deprived of their rights is not possible, just as it is not possible to create the world of free people. It is actually a fatalistic logic, which abolishes the emancipatory potentials of the historical development of society and, in that context, the libertarian practice and creative potentials of the oppressed, which means the possibility of creating the future. Now that capitalism has brought humanity to the brink of disaster, such an ideology not only has an anti-libertarian, but also an anti-existential character. The example of the International Olympic Committee and “international” sport is the best illustration of the hypocrisy of the “conspiracy theory” proponents. They do not bother to question the legitimacy of the International Olympic Committee, as the fist “supranational” organization with a global character, with Olympism as the first mondialistic religion. The reason is that Olympism embodies the underlying principles of capitalism (bellum omnium contra omnes and citius, altius, fortius) and that the Olympic Games are a spectacular service to Gods who rule the world. If we consistently stick to the “conspiracy theory”, according to which everything going on in the world is based on the (self)will of “shadow rulers”, then it follows that the critics of the “conspiracy theory” are but the tool of the world oligarchy for global domination.

“Non-governmental organizations” are a form of the legal activity of political groups working for the most powerful capitalist concerns and as such are the arms of the mondialist jellyfish. In spite of a small number of activists, they are given far more coverage in the media, held by capitalist clans, than millions of working people. “Non-governmental organizations” serve to create a capitalistically degenerated “public” to be used as the advertising space for the most reactionary political powers in the West. Their “public word” comes down to public appearances of their salaried employees, who are the proponents of their “sponsors” interests. Through “non-governmental organizations”, capitalist groups from the West seek to privatize the public sphere and stop the critical mind from appearing in public, the mind that can unmask the ecocidal and fascist nature of the “new world order” and create the vision of a humane world that can integrate the oppressed in their struggle against modern imperialism. In that context, their task is to deal with the national self-consciousness (which means with man's cultural, historical and libertarian being), with the state (civil) sovereignty, based on the emancipatory legacy of modern society, and with the workers’ class consciousness, based on the idea of collective (social) ownership and social justice. Ultimately, “non-governmental organizations” should create such political “atmosphere” in the public that will enable the country under their policy domain to become a Western colony and its military training camp, with citizens being the Coca-Cola slaves.

Capitalism destroys man as a spiritual being. Religion is less and less a spiritual need and more and more man’s escape from capitalist nothingness and the expression of existential fear. In contemporary capitalism, appealing to “God” is, actually, a way in which petty-bourgeois relieves himself from any responsibility for global destruction. Religion used to be the means for the development of capitalism (Protestantism), but it turned into the tool for dealing with spirituality and life. In spite of the fact that capitalism is detrimental to spirituality, churches will do anything to protect it. They have survived by discarding the humanistic legacy of religion, which enables a critical attitude towards capitalism and spiritual integration of humanity, and have become part of the mechanism of capitalist reproduction and, as such, lay institutions that use religion to deify their private ownership and class order. The current religions do not only deal with the emancipatory legacy of the bourgeois society, but also with the belief that preservation of life on the planet is possible. Their claim that man is only a “guest of the Earth”, their concept of “Doomsday”, belief that life on the Earth is “worthless” and that “true life” shall begin in the heaven – all this indicates that the so called “great religions” are complementary to capitalism as a destructive order. The idea of an illusory “heavenly world” (“paradise”) becomes not only the means for devaluing the fight for a just world, but also the means for devaluing life and escaping responsibility for global destruction. Apocalyptic fatalism produces defeatism. From the means for destroying man's libertarian dignity, religion has turned into the means for destroying man's life-impulse. In spite of everything, religion cannot be identified with church dogmas and church activity. Although the church religion has become an anti-existential thought, an increasing number of religious people, who are aware of the fatal consequences of the capitalist “progress”, try to affirm the notion that the world is “God’s creation” and that man must fight to preserve it. Ultimately, people are not divided in theists and atheists, but in those who fight for capitalism and those who fight against it in an attempt to preserve life and create a humane world.

As for Islam, what makes it an “aggressive” and “militant” religion is the same as what makes Christianity an aggressive and militant religion. Islam is the ideology of a class society and the means for deifying the private ownership; as such, it is the tool of plutocratic clans for defending the ruling order. The “outward” aggression has always been an instrument for internal integration and for dealing with those who fight for social justice. At the same time, the fierce fighting between various Islamic groups (above all, Sunnis and Shiites) indicates that Islam (similarly to Christianity and other “great” religions) is but a screen concealing the plutocratic clans that fight for their own interests. A struggle against the class order and private ownership and for the emancipatory legacy of the civil society, is the only way to combat militaristic Islam, along with militaristic Catholicism, militaristic Orthodox Christianity, militaristic Judaism… This approach to Islam is not present in Western media, since they want to “get rid” of Islam in a way which will protect the “sacred” institution of private ownership and will not question the class (capitalist) society, including Christianity as the dominant Western religion. In addition, Islam appears in the West not only as a way of protest by oppressed Gastarbeiters from Islamic countries, who are deprived of the right to their culture and reduced to “dirty” labor and a “lower race”, but also as a possibility of critically approaching spiritual hopelessness and distruction of elementary forms of sociability (above all, family). The languages of Gastarbeiters in “democratic” countries in the West are not treated as a call to respect their cultural self-consciousness, but as a call to national and racial discrimination. A language is not the technical means of “communication”, but the most important form of a nation’s historical existence. It is the key to national cultural treasures and thus the basic way of providing historical confirmation for a nation’s existence. Language enables nations to appear from the darkness of the past and acquire historical self-consciousness. What is being imposed is not a respect for other cultures, but a “multiculturality”, which is actually one of the ways in which capitalism deprives people of their cultural being and thus of humanity. The “integration” of Gastarbeiters into “democracy” involves a “voluntary” renouncement of their own cultural and therefore national self-consciousness and libertarian dignity. Rather than involving the development of their cultural and national (self)consciousness and libertarian dignity, it involves their “education” (namely, training) to perform the dirtiest jobs and unquestioningly obey their masters. In the “democratic world”, the Gastarbeiters from Islamic countries and “peripheral” areas of (Eastern and South-Eastern) Europe have the status of working animals. While the “fight against Islamic fundamentalism” serves as an excuse for contemporary crusades (such as Huntington’s theory on the “clash of civilizations“), whose aim is to get hold of oil fields and the territory that will be used as a military camp for an attack on Russia, the USA and European governments have over half a century financed the most reactionary Muslim groups in order to prevent the Muslim youth to join the leftist movement. Ultimately, why would the integration of races and peoples not be based on the fight for survival of life on the planet and for the creation of a humane world?

As far as the faith in the “almighty God” is concerned, how can any Jew believe in “God” after Auschwitz? How can any Serb still believe in “God” after the concentration camp at Jasenovac? How can any Arab man still believe in “God” after all the atrocities suffered by the Muslims in the past and present “crusades” of the West? How can any man aware of everyday crimes still believe in “God”? Every single day, over 30,000 children die of hunger, thirst and diseases all over the world. Is this “God's will”? If it is not, then why a “merciful God” allows mass killings and murders of children? Even Voltaire, after the horrific еarthquake in 1755, which almost destroyed Lisbon and killed over 100 000 people, asked (in his “Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne” from 1756) what “God” would allow the death of thousands of children? The worst fascist criminals: Hitler, Musolini, Franco, Pavelić, Horti… were all “good Christians”. The SS belt buckets had the inscription: “Gott mit uns!” (“God is with us!”). Not only did the Catholic Church not remove Hitler from its membership, it even did not put his “notorious” book Mein Kampf on the “List of Prohibited Books” (Index librorum prohibitorum). As far as contemporary executioners of humankind are concerned, such as Bush, Clinton, Blair, Obama, Merkel, Sarkozy… – all of them are “good Christians”. Their political practice is under control of the most powerful capitalist clans, who openly advocate the annihilation of billions of people. Of course, all “in the name of God!” Hitler is but one of personalized manifestations of the capitalist genocidal barbarism. Today’s leaders of the American “new world order” are far worse than Hitler. While Hitler wanted to exterminate the Jews, Slavs and the Roma people, the leaders of the contemporary “new world order” seek to exterminate over 6 billion people! No doubt, they would already have managed to do so if Russia did not have military weapons capable of destroying the USA and Western Europe within seconds. Compared to the “future” plans made by the leaders of the “new world order”, Hitler’s ideas from Mein Kampf sound like a naive children’s tale.

In the most advanced capitalist countries there is an increased number of citizens' movements who regard the “return to nature” as the alternative to the increasingly unhealthy capitalist world and as a way to fight for a “healthier” life. They are, actually, peculiar “naturalistic communities”, who live in a parallel world. By viewing nature in contrast to “technical civilization”, they give nature an idealized dimension. Nature becomes a virtual world, where man is supposed to find his lost naturality and humanity. “Naturalists” establish a mythological relation to the times when man used to live “in unity with nature” and thus deal with the visionary consciousness and struggle for the future, and consequently with the emancipatory potentials of people who used to live “in unity with nature”. Instead of confronting capitalism departing from the life-creating principle, as the most important emancipatory idea, they create naturalistic myths, which are then used to deal with the idea of future and become the means for immortalizing capitalism. “Naturalists” abolish the historicity of human society and reject the emancipatory heritage of humankind, which developed on the basis of man’s taming of natural forces and becoming an emancipated natural being. Instead of creating a humane world departing from the emancipatory potentials of humankind’s historical development, they insist on the idealized life of “ancient people”. One gets the feeling of absurdity: those who spend all day at computers and cannot imagine life without cars and cell phones, become the most fervent advocates of a “return to the natural way of life”. As for the idealized life of North American natives, it was no more then a step in the historical development of society. Following naturalistic fundamentalism, why would we not return to even older forms of life, eg. when man did not know how to make a bow and arrow; when he could not tame a horse; when he could not plant corn and potatoes and when he was not aware of himself as a specific (libertarian and creative) being? Why would we not return to a caveman life?

“Technical intelligentsia”, which is largely deprived of humanity and is reduced to well-paid and privileged specialist-idiots, is the most earnest supporter of the “return to nature”. They are capitalistically degenerated petty bourgeoisie, with a technocratic and conformist mind. They are not capable of understanding the emancipatory potentials of man's control over natural forces, meaning emancipatory possibilities of technique and thus their own innovative (potentially creative) activity. “Technical intelligentsia” is the most authentic product of capitalist civilization and its relation to nature results from a capitalistically degenerated mind. Rather than viewing nature as an increasingly threatened living environment, its members view it as a space where they can “relax” and “forget their problems”. Many of them, living in a capitalistically degenerated world, have become mentally deranged and are no longer capable of treating others in a humane way. They speak about a “return to nature”, but they are, actually, trying to “solve” their mental problems caused by their solitary hopelessness and slavery position in the work processes, which only contribute to the destruction of nature and humankind. As capitalism ever more dramatically destroys man as a human being, there are increasingly extreme “naturalistic” movements, whose members “feed themselves on sunrays”, “talk” to insects, animals and plants, go into a trance, where they “connect with cosmic forces”, “communicate with extraterrestrials”, “reincarnate” into rats, pigs, lizards…

As a way of overcoming the aristocratic and creating a new bourgeois world, the European Enlightenment thought came to the idea of a “return to nature” and naturalistic movement which flourished in France in the second half of 18. century (Helvetius, Holbach, Rousseau…), and in early 19. century Germany (Klopstock, Goethe, Schiller). Naturalism was a way of fighting for the abolishment of a society based on privileges and for the creation of a society based on (natural) rights of man and the citizen. Rousseau's relation to nature does not have a sheer “naturalistic”, but a political character. The call for a “return to nature” was, actually, a way of developing a critical view on the ancien régime and fighting for a new world. In Rousseau's time, unlike today, nature had an intact life-creating force and stability: it was “healthy” and as such a concrete otherness to the human world. A “return to nature” not only symbolized the strivings for liberation from the chains of the aristocratic way of life and aristocratic values, it offered man a realistic possibility to identify with a truly undisturbed life-creating natural forces and thus “return” to his original natural being. Capitalism, in the form of a “technical civilization”, integrated nature into its existential orbit, making it impossible for man to “return to nature” as to his original naturality. Nature, under the increasingly ruthless influence of capitalism, “loses the quality of a different reality” (Marcuse). By becoming the global and totalitarian order of destruction, capitalism turned entire nature into the organic part of a capitalistically degenerated world. The air is poluted; forests are exposed to “acid rains”; radiation is increasing; rivers and water springs are contaminated, while oceans and seas have become nuclear waste dumps; soil is contaminated by pesticides and other chemicals; aircraft emit exhaust gas and disperse contaminants; ice is rapidly melting in the Arctic and Antarctic; the ozone layer is damaged and sunrays have turned into death rays; in the vast nordic region and in the depths of the North Sea, huge amounts of methane are being released, contributing to the pollution of the air; a number of animal and plant species are already extinct or belong to the list of endangered species… There is nowhere to run.

Capitalism destroys the emancipatory legacy of the bourgeois society by opening the door wide for ideologies that deal with the modern way of thinking and man as an emancipated social and natural being. This, above all, refers to Eastern religions, where man is not viewed as an emancipated natural, historical, social, political and reasonable being and where the so called “meditative activism” amounts to the exclusion of man from the existing world. They are part of the increasingly aggressive escapist industry, designed to stop people from turning their dissatisfaction into a political movement capable of abolishing capitalism. Their aim is not only to deal with the critical and visionary consciousness, but also with people's mental integrity. They appear, similarly to other commodity, in a commercial package, with an emphasis on physical and mental “health”. Essentially, they destroy people as social beings, badly affect their sensual relation to the world and direct their mental energy to certain “points” in organism that connect man to “cosmos”, as peculiar mental fixators. The “enlightenment” experienced during a meditative session actually serves to deprive man of his libertarian and historical self-consciousness and thus the possibility of maintaining a critical attitude towards the process of mental manipulation. It is a peculiar hypnosis session designed to sideline his rational mind and make him the victim of his sub-conscious.

In the Eastern physical culture, based on the immersion in the natural processes which acquire a mystified cosmic dimension, man relates to his body “from within”, by way of meditative activism, designed to exclude the senses and direct the mental energy to the nerves and muscles which condition the functioning of vital organs. It is about a peculiar auto-hypnosis, which above all involves a particular pace of breething and, consequently, heartbeating. It also involves a suitable (for meditation) surroundings, as well as a meditative imagination, which creates the images that slow down the senses and increase meditative concentration. The most important condition for a successful meditation is to block the impulses and cut oneself off from the world, which above all means to stop the reaction of senses to external stimulation. It is no accident that supporters of meditation are not people who are keen on developing interpersonal relations and changing the ruling order, but those who are prone to loneleness and escapism. The main reason why capitalist olygarchies in the West are so favourably inclined to the increasingly numerous sects that promote meditation is the fact that they mutilate man as a social and thus a political and libertarian being.

Why does technical intelligentsia, which insists on “observing the facts” and on the “scientific mind”, accept the Eastern mysticism that appears in the form of (often illiterate) gurus, who offer the types of escapism that amounts to the worst forms of mental manipulation? It is because it does not have an emancipated historical self-consciousness and therefore lacks humanistic consciousness that offers the possibility of a meaningful life. The inclination towards mysticism is the other side of the technocratic mind. Technicization of the mind is the worst way of making man mindless. Technical intelligentsia is a good example of how capitalism deprives man of humanity and thus leaves him to the influence of the most primitive ideologies, which draw him into a total nothningness. Without an emancipated historical self-consciousness and without the possibility of being realized as an authentic social being, man is inclined to search for the purpose of life in the sphere of mysticism and to fall into the trap of occultism. As for satanic sects, they are based on the personalization of evil produced by capitalism, which makes people feel close with the force that determines people's destiny. When young people wear the horrible images of “Satan”, they feel protected by the power that governs the capitalist world.

Where does the self-confidence and aggressivness of “technical intelligentsia” come from? They come from its being the most important means with which capitalists ensure “progress”. This ensures it a privileged social status and enables it to destroy nature and humanity without being punished. The worst criminals become “eminent citizens” if they can create technical means for ensuring expansion and profit. A typical example is the Nazi criminal Wernher von Braun. Instead of being hung in Nuremberg, this team leader of Nazi monster-scientists from Peenemünde, who constructed the rockets (V1 and V2) used to destroy large parts of London and killed tens of thousands of citizens, played a key part in the development of the postwar American rocket (military) industry. Today, over 85% of American scientists work on the realization of technical and biological weapons for mass destruction, as well as on the design of systems that can be used for establishing a totalitarian power. According to humanistic criteria, they are the executioners of humanity; according to the criteria of the capitalist olygarchy, they are the “heroes of the free world”.

As far as the Green-peace movement is concerned, it is based on one of the most fatal illusions created by the capitalist propaganda machinery, namely, that within capitalism it is possible to technically and by technical means deal with the increasingly fatal consequences of capitalist “progress”. Instead of fighting to eradicate the causes of the destruction of life, they insist on fighting with the consequences of capitalist development. It is about “perfectioning” capitalism, which only furthers the process of global destruction. This is the key point of “international ecology conferences”. At the same time, to place such importance on the fight against the consequences of the capitalist development becomes a way of diminishing the importance of the fight against the causes leading to the global destruction. Actually, a fight against the fatal effects of climate changes can only be efficient if, at the same time, it is a fight against capitalism. It should be a call to abolish the production based on profit and establish a production that does not destroy nature and is aimed at satisfying genuine human needs.

Capitalists use technique to reduce the immediate adverse effects of environmental changes and thus make an even larger profit. The ecological crisis threatens man's survival, but it is “controlled” by the development of technique that selectively reduces its effects. This is one more way of using technique as a political tool with which capitalists manipulate man's living conditions and thus become the masters of life and death. Ultimately, it is not about creating a new world, but about a parallel world, used as a shelter for capitalistically degenerated man. Capitalism destroys the living world by producing its technical surrogate – capitalist catacombs. The creation of the myth about the “omnipotence of science and technique”; about the “cosmic future of humankind”; “man-kiborg”; the idea of man's being based on technocracy; Olympic maxim citius, fortius, altius and Olympic calculation of time with a mythological character… – all this is used to destroy both the critical thought that could unmask the destructive nature of capitalism and the visionary consciousness that opens a space for the future.

One of the potentially most fatal lies, which the (petty)bourgeoisie, due to the increasingly deep crisis created by capitalism, more and more take as a “truth”, is that “overpopulation” is the main reason for environmental pollution and therefore the biggest danger for humanity. Firstly, one billion people living in North America, West Europe and Japan spend (waste) the amount of energy, food and water equal to the amount spent by 500 billion people in undeveloped countries with the current living standard. Secondly, in the most developed Western countries, over one billion tons of food is discarded (one third of the global food production), primarily in order to keep the prices on the market. If that food were rationally used, it could feed the entire humanity. Thirdly, oceans and seas could become the source of nutritious food for tens of billions of people. Fourthly, the economic development creates conditions for a global social development, which means for women's emancipation and family planning. If countries with the biggest birth rate experienced economic and overall social development, humankind would, in the following decades, stabilize the number of people who could live in harmony with nature. It should be added that capitalism reduces the reproduction capacity of people living in the most developed capitalist countries. It is absurd that those who claim that “overpopulation of the planet” is the “biggest threat to the survival of humankind” face the increasing “white plague” in their own countries! The increasingly dramatic biological demise of people in the most developed capitalist countries makes the idea of exterminating the billions of “surplus” people increasingly popular, particularly with members of the “middle class”. An existential panic is being created, similarly to the panic caused by the economic crisis of capitalism in 1929 in Nazi Germany, which led the majority of the Germans to welcome the ideas of the annihilation of the Jews, Slavs and the Roma people and the conquest of new “living space” (Lebensraum) in the East. The chances are increasing that the ruling capitalist clans in the West, supported by the bourgeoisie and the young people, who were turned by capitalists (among other things by sport) into fascist hordes, might use the most deadly technical and biological means in a genocidal crusade against the “surplus” population. Indeed, the basic precondition for the survival of humankind and life on the planet is not the destruction of the “surplus” population, but the destruction of capitalism.

The loud outcry over the “environmental demise of the planet”, raised by political leaders of the most developed capitalist countries, is not the expression of a genuine attempt to prevent the destruction of life, but is the expression of their endevours to prevent the environmental demise from becoming the political platform of the oppressed that will unite them and radicalize their struggle against capitalism. At the same time, the capitalist centres of power seek to use the environmental demise of the planet, caused by their ecocidal practice, to seize the territories which are not under their direct control and to establish colonial domination over entire continents. As for the “ecological engineering”, it mainly serves to create the illusion that capitalism, by way of science and technique, could reduce its own fatal consequences. The use of science and technique for “repairing” the ecosystem, based on the development of capitalism, can only lead to even more fatal climate changes. Man cannot (and should not) manage the ecological system, but he can eradicate the causes of its destruction.

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The Last Revolution (Part 14)

“The production of illusions has become one of the most important ways in which capitalists deal with humanistic visionary consciousness and the efforts of the oppressed to organize and fight against capitalism”

Ljubodrag Simonovic: The Last Revolution

The Last Revolution -- Chapter Fourteen

The integration of people into capitalism