Education is the Obligation of the Left
You have to tell people about things in order for them to know things.
But it is ensured by the ruling class that the lower classes remain divided; if they were not, the numbers of laborers would trample the bourgeois in their homes and offices.
Vladmir Lenin believed that the working people would not envision or pursue communism on their own, that the most class consciousness they could achieve without intervention is labor unions. Leftists like to say that “communism is inevitable,” as though that absolves them of putting in no effort toward achieving that goal.
Communism is only as inevitable as when the will of the people can outcompete the destructive force of capitalism; in other words, the working class must unify and rise up before the capitalist class ends the world, from runaway climate change or nuclear war. Time is not on our side. Standing idly by waiting for communism to happen is only allowing the ruling class to further sink their teeth into the flesh of our labor to suck us dry of any value we offer, which is steadily decreasing as technology improves and human labor can be automated.
We, and you, must take matters in our own hands.
Easier said than done, frustratingly. But where can we start?
Educating one another, and those outside of our circle. Mao Zedong had the peasants teach each other how to read and their literacy skyrocketed. We must take this example and do the same for our people.
It is our duty, as leftists and as Marxist-Leninists, to educate our peers of the working class. People are taught from birth a false consciousness, an idea that places the blame of any suffering on a microcosm of a greater machine; for example, blaming immigrants for the lack of jobs or social safety nets, rather than the intentionally oppressive system in place. Not everyone has the same notion, the same supposed villain. But it is ensured by the ruling class that the lower classes remain divided; if they were not, the numbers of laborers would trample the bourgeois in their homes and offices.
The first step is to break someone’s false consciousness. Conservatives may blame marginalized demographics because they believe their party or state is on the right path, yet they fail to see how capitalism oppresses them - like through debt, low wages, poverty, lack of reliable infrastructure, lack of affordable healthcare. They believe the minorities are hoarding all the resources somehow, despite them being in a much more precarious position socially (and legally and systemically), because their news sources lie to them and twist the truth in order to sow disarray among the population.
Conservatives have a good sense of community among themselves, generally, because they agree to get along based on othering someone else. But you’ll find that these working class folk are more susceptible to socialist ideas than you might expect; I believe they simply need to reframe how they view community and family. But the inherent competition of capitalism keeps people from extending their resources too far because they may lose them forever.
Liberals may blame billionaires and the GOP for the state of things in the US, without recognizing how they themselves enable and enforce it. They will claim that the Scandinavian countries figured out “moral capitalism” (an oxymoron if ever I’ve heard one); those nations provide basic necessities and living wages and have solid healthcare systems. Yet, they still buy goods and services from nations with cheap, unregulated labor. Successful capitalist countries rely on the gears of imperialism to keep on turning, on powerful nations to keep suppressing the weaker ones, even if the government is kinder to its own citizens.
In truth, I feel like it’s the perfect cover. Social Democrats fall into this category, where they believe that capitalism can be run in a fair and just way, but it is inherently exploitative of others through imperialist conquest. Controlling smaller states is fundamental to the functions of capitalism because it requires a subjugated workforce - cheap labor and lots of it. It is feudalism, but our lords are the executives of corporations.
It serves individualism by making everyone a potential financial threat to you - either by charging too much for their work, or applying to the same job or apartment, or any other way that could be seen as an obstacle to monetary gain and therefore, personal safety and security. A distrusting society is a thoroughly unhappy and intensely stifled one.
Collectivism seeks to eschew any notion of capital. The motive for production will be the progress of society and humanity because the modes of production - the machines, software, tools used to make a product - will be in the control of the workers, the producers of the products. You will get to decide the path of your life in a way that is more aligned with your interests and the way you function best, not constrained to taking jobs you don’t want to do and hurting yourself through the labor required of you simply to survive.
We must learn to trust one another, albeit with skepticism. Not everyone will be capable of being educated because the malice of capitalism has burrowed too far into their minds.
But those who listen should be taught. No more “Google it” or “go to the library.” It is your duty, your obligation as a leftist to educate your peers. People learn best through connection and through hands-on experience. You must take the time to have discussions and you must have the patience to answer good-faith questions. Provide sources for reading materials and suggest other ways to learn, but first and foremost is the connection you build with them.
Most people have some internal understanding of materialism, that the conditions they live in dictate their lives to some degree. Most people have some understanding that the system is fundamentally broken in some way, but they cannot identify it.
We are the teachers to herald in the next epoch of society.