Alienation in the Post Cold War Era
Chapter 12
How the Alienating Features
of the
Socialist/Progressive Movement Contribute to Its Failure
(page 5)
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The Pressure to Conform in the Left and Progressive Movements
The pressure of the old crap is so intense that we must conclude that as long as crippled humans — that is, majority of the people — are the product of alienated capitalist society, and as long as socialism does not change the fundamental capitalist type psychology, most people always ends up swimming with the prevailing current; this is so in particular when the conformist current provides the illusion that one can get closer to the privileges of the elite. If the water of this prevailing conformist current is treated with “left” and “socialist” colors, most socialists and leftists capitulate to such prevailing “socialist” current. The pressure to swim with the prevailing stream is so intense, that most leftists stay with the current, even if a dictator who leads the conformist ships in the name of socialism (Stalin for example) kills thousands of revolutionaries to protect the new elite’s privileges. As long as their character is dominated by alienating capitalistic features, many socialists and leftists can exchange their revolutionary positions of yesterday for new ones to stay with the mainstream currents of the left. Thus, if socialist principles are not deeply connected to the struggle to develop a non-alienating humanistic personality, these principles can become only dust in the brain, or a shirt with “revolutionary” slogans that can be exchanged for another shirt with new slogans.
The real person behind the facade of socialist ideology is always driven by deep psychological insecurities that involves giving up the struggle to become emotionally and intellectually independent. Until the roots of this alienated character in capitalist society is dealt with seriously and a transformation of such character occurs, no genuine socialist society with a humanistic quality can be successfully built. There always be people out there who will go for the security of the selected elite and the material privileges that comes from the position of power.
Trotsky explains that the pressure to conform applies to the best working class revolutionaries who cannot swim against the current. Such workers capitulate to alien capitalist pressure when the class struggle and the hope for a real socialist future ebb, and in fact, this is one of the reasons why Stalin was so successful:
“But there are many revolutionaries in the party and the state who come from the masses but have long since broken away from them, and who, because of their position, are placed in a separate and distinct class. Their class instinct has evaporated. On the other hand, they lack the theoretical stability and outlook to envisage the process in its entirety. Their psychology retains many unprotected surfaces, which, with the change of circumstances, expose them to the easy penetration of foreign and hostile influences. In the days of the underground struggle, of the uprisings, and the civil war, people of this type were merely soldiers of the party. Their minds had only one string, and that sounded in harmony with the party tuning-fork. But when the tension relaxed and the nomads of the revolutions passed on to settled living, the traits of the man in the street, the sympathies and tastes of self-satisfied officials, revived in them.”[5]
In times of regressive social activities the criteria for selecting bureaucrats is the lack of self-identity and integrity to feel and think independently. Thus, when the revolution in Russia started to ebb people who surfaced to the front were weak characters who could tailor themselves well for the society of yesterday where material privileges played the decisive role. Stalin always picked people with no personality to his inner circle. Trotsky describes one of them, Menzhinsky:
“The impression he made on me could best be described by saying that he made none at all. He seems more like the shadow of some other unrealized man, or rather like a poor sketch for an unfinished portrait. . . Stalin generally gave his support to people who existed politically only through the grace of the government apparatus. And so Menzhinsky became the true shadow of Stalin in the G.P.U.”[6]
Such characters were not restricted to bureaucrats in the Soviet Union. These type of personalities with different variations occupied top positions in the Communist Parties on the international scale. Many of the leaders of the Communist Party internationally who capitulated to Stalin became the shadow of Stalin and his politics. The pressure to conform which is associated with the crippled personality drove them to the securities of the predominant Communist Parties dominated by Stalinist bureaucrats. The consequences of this were tragic for the cause of socialism.[7]
We Need to Start Transcending Alienation Now
As long as the left and the people in the progressive movement absorbed the feebleness of the average person, personal considerations and dependency between “leaders” and members always plays a prominent role behind the scenes. This helps the people in power to manipulate the movement and control it.
It is impossible to change the fundamental economic and social system without a fundamental change that uproot and transform the entire system from top to bottom. But without a humanistic maturity of those who want to bring about this social change, it is difficult to fight the system effectively and bring about this fundamental change. Thus, those who want to fight the system cannot restrict themselves to economic and political questions. They must be aware of alien pressure that is effecting their character. They must struggle for the transformation of their own alienated character that is driven by the same anxiety, stress and fears that drive the majority of people in our society. Only by transforming their own alien personality can they achieve the emotional well being that permits them to be free from manipulation and demagogy. Only with such emotional well being can they achieve true independence that enable them to think objectively and master strength and clarity for the necessary strategy and dialog to unite a growing number of people who are dissatisfied with the capitalist system. Without making the efforts to change nobody can withstand the constant pressure and disruption of the ruling class.
I do not pretend to have a cook book that guarantees the building of an anti-capitalist movement with a genuine humanistic character. A starting point can be a large scale dialog on alienation between people who want to build an anti-capitalist movement with a humanistic face. Such dialog can examine the effect of alienation on the movement and how to overcome it. For this to happen we need to develop deep awareness about the problem. Such awareness involves the willingness to take the time and the risk for even taking the baby steps for such a transformation. I say baby steps because I am acutely aware how difficult it is to struggle against alien pressure, in particular when this involves a change of our own alienated enfeebled character. But history does not leave us alone about it. The 20th century illustrated that the embryo of liberated humans — that is, humans who can use their real and full potentials — cannot remain an abstract sketch until the establishment of a humanistic socialist society. Such an embryo must evolve at the present society to the point that it is strong enough to play an important role in providing the alternative to capitalism.
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[5] Leon Trotsky, My Life, pages 503-504.
[6] Ibid., page 448.
[7] Despite the tainting of socialism by the Stalinist bureaucracy, I believe that sooner or later it will become easier to explain the political and economic foundations of a humanistic socialist society. As time has progressed the memory of Stalinism has started to fade, and people has started not to associate socialism with Stalinism as much as they did in the past. It is normal that a new generation that has not seen the Stalinist’s atrocities and mockeries of socialism, may not have so much bias against socialism — in particular since such a generation has not been bombarded with constant anti-communist propaganda. I am hopeful that the young generation see sooner than later that humanistic socialism that run democratically by the working people has nothing to with the Stalinist dictatorship’s monstrous distortion of “socialism”. Such development, however, can bear fruits only when global capitalism enters a deep crisis, and only when the dissatisfaction will produce mass struggles. Under such conditions the new generation that is less inclined to believe in anti-communist propaganda may be open to the natural humanistic alternative to global capitalism; that alternative is world-wide humanistic socialism run by the working people democratically from below. Such humanistic socialism stands against the Stalinist top to bottom tradition.