I was up at 4am today, way too early, to watch MSNBC’s Way Too Early Program in order to learn if Bernie Sanders’s Matrix Revolutionary Generation had done a good job beginning the revolution in Iowa. We are slowly acquiring an understanding of what Sanders is proposing and being called a democratic socialist is a beginning. This Wikipedia entry says that “The Democratic Socialists of America defines democratic socialism as a movement to eliminate capitalism by evolving a ‘social order based on popular control of resources and production…’, however the definition of ‘popular’ remain elusive.” I can only assume that the definition of ‘popular’ is less elusive now. I am not going to address the other interesting aspects of this Wikipedia definition but cut to the chase and address “What does it mean to be a revolutionary in facing today’s crisis?”
The Marxism 2009 Conference sponsored by Counterfire was held after the financial crisis of 2008 and some of the Socialist/Marxist big guns debated and discussed the crisis of capitalism. There were two presentations on “What does it mean to be a revolutionary today?” Alex Callinicos lead off presenting a general view about what implementing such a strategy requires – I found myself seeing Sanders often being described. Slovoj Zizek then continues with an analytical presentation of what the thinking processes involved entails. A question I have coming from the end of Zizek’s very stimulating presentation is “Bernie are you only interested in dusting the ball of the Capitalists? Or are you preparing to cut them off?” David Harvey presents a dynamic 7-point framework for understanding the change process required to manage the evolution of capitalism to one possibility, the empathic civilization, that Jeremy Rifkin outlines. As a democratic socialist, Bernie, you have to be thinking along these lines.
What does it mean to be a revolutionary today? – Alex Callinicos
What does it mean to be a revolutionary today? – Slovoj Zizek
The Crisis Today – David Harvey
The Empathic Civilization – Jeremy Rifkin
