Capitalism Needs Irrational Thought

By David Sole

Many people are wondering why right-wing politics has gone off the deep end into utterly bizarre directions. Theories are proclaimed by political figures and echoed by millions. Social media surges with one conspiracy after another. Children being murdered by the Democrats in pizza parlor basements, Jewish space lasers and every election defeat being stolen are just a few. Sometimes a deranged individual attacks a political opponent (or their spouse as in the case of Paul Pelosi). On January 6, 2021 a full scale fascist uprising was launched against the U.S. Capitol.

It would seem pretty easy to craft a program that can address most of the real problems of the vast majority of the people in the United States. Why is rational thinking in such short supply?

Identifying the problems is easy. Everyone needs decent and affordable housing. Health care should be free. No one should go hungry. A job ought to be available at decent wages for those able to work. People with disabilities should have their needs met. Education should be a priority and the burden of student debt should be canceled. Racism, discrimination and bigotry could be vigorously prosecuted and police terror could be stamped out. Women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights could be secured and voting should be made more, not less, accessible.

The price tag for this program should be no problem for the “richest country in the world.” Trillions of dollars put into military spending and imperialist war could be redirected to peoples’ needs. Making the wealthiest banks and corporations pay their “fair share” and slashing taxes on poor and working people also makes a lot of sense.

But therein lay the problem. A simple and reasonable program easily financed with no burden on the vast majority is, in the eyes of the capitalist ruling class, the greatest danger to their continuing exploitation of the people. They will not willingly hand over a penny of their unearned wealth nor favor giving a chance for voters to unite in this “democracy” to pass laws that challenge the billionaire class’s virtual dictatorship of the political and economic system.

In fact, the problems of the capitalist economy are great, and growing, driving ever more people into poverty and despair. Rational people will have no problem seeing how easy it would be to change the game and put peoples’ needs before corporate/banking profits.

But the solution for the ruling class is to make rational thought impossible. It is the only way they can hold onto power as living conditions for their many victims become intolerable.

The ultra-right wing mania gripping so many today has been created and promoted with the unlimited resources of much of the ruling class. At its core is white supremacy with anti-women, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-Arab, anti-immigrant hysteria thrown in. It is imperative that a large part of the working and middle classes be so irrational and misdirected. It is the only way the ruling class, a fraction of a percent of the total population, can hope to hold onto power.

Unfortunately the Democratic Party is also, at its top echelons, a servant of the ruling capitalist class. That is why they are unable to put forward the simple, rational program to win people away from the lunacy gripping the Republicans. Only a working class movement, independent of the capitalist class can organize and fight for a rational socialist society.