Reply #79: the key [View All]

[William Z. Foster]

What changes people's minds is conditions, not any persuasion or sales job by any of us. Capitalism will inevitably create deteriorating and intolerable conditions. That is the main reason we oppose it - not because we don't "like" it, not because we don't "believe" in it, not because we have a commie agenda we are trying to force on everyone, not because we are pie-in-the-sky utopia promoters - but rather because it does not work, and causes tremendous destruction and misery as it hurtles towards inevitable disaster, and holds in place a tremendous level of inequality and injustice in the meantime.

Being on the political left is not about getting recruits, converting believers, or selling any program or plan, rather it is about bringing the conditions to people's attention in an understandable way, and understanding the process and the historical context so that we can be of some use to people when things start falling apart. One group, a small group of those benefiting most from Capitalism and a cadre of sympathizers and apologists around them, will fight ferociously - is fighting - to scare people back into compliance. The left can stand fast on this and say "no!" where liberals and progressives and Democrats cannot, because they will always be vulnerable to offers of peace at the price of compromising. The left can continue to agitate since it cannot be bought or intimidated, and in that way a small number of people can have an enormous effect and perform a tremendous service for everyone.