The sheep,and their shepherds.

As some may recall, in a recent post, I talked about the various liberal/social democratic left that were the front line in criticism of Hugo Chavez for ridiculous allegations of patriarchy.

In another post, "Ignorance is bliss", I talked about the ignorance that is being promoted among the masses by the mainstream media.

I think that these two initiatives are symptoms of a larger problem.

As a Marxist-Leninist, I believe in the power of the masses. I believe in the masses as the first line of defense against the bourgeoisie and reactionary forces. However, from my experiences in
Canada, especially with the Peace Region Leftist Coalition, I have learned that in countries under the influence of bourgeoisie ideological hegemony, it is the masses who are the first line of defense for reaction and bourgeoisie oppression.

Take, for example, an incident that happened in my high school years ago. The teachers at my school shut down the internet, used commonly by all students. We felt that this was fascist, as the school was stamping out the communication tool of the students, under the guise of students using the internet inappropriately, without pursuing any kind of alternatives. Because of this, the PRLC, of course, lead the protests against these measures. We put posters all over the school, and we tried talking to people. We, of course, were all disciplined by the school for daring to exercise all those democratic rights that capitalism boasts about having, and all of our posters were torn down.

What really made me sick though, was that most of our posters were not torn down by the teachers; they were torn down by our fellow students. When the leaders of the PRLC demo were hauled to the principals office, the students crowded the windows to mock us for daring to participate in politics.

As Lenin said, "Imperialist ideology also penetrates the working class. No Chinese wall separates it from the other classes".

Always, it is the masses who are mobilized to stamp out anything even remotely progressive/democratic. It is the overwhelming power of the masses, who are under the sway
of capitalist ideological hegemony, who force conformity of ideas among all of their peers.
To these masses, it is perfectly fine to be "democratic" during an election period; You go, you vote, you don't talk about politics for the rest of the year. I get scowls from people for being a communist, but I also get scowls from people just for talking about politics in general. Being as this country is so "democratic", why does every one sigh when anything even remotely political comes up in the conversation.

This is the genius of capitalism; the concept of a self-enforced dictatorship.
The education institutions, the media and the society in general propagate intense individual centrism, in every way possible. Citizens who are financially well off become totally self-obsessed by coveting currency, and products that the media tells them that they need;
The lower classes of bourgeois society are forced into individual centrism by way of harsh dog-eat-dog economics and the false hope offered by drugs, alcohol and intoxicants.
In this way, the masses are encouraged to not worry their pretty little heads with yucky stuff like politics. The masses are taught from a very early age to either consume themselves with their own pleasure and hedonism, or to completely consume themselves with the harsh realities of their social-economic situation; either way, they are actively discouraged from anything but the most superficial demonstrations of political participation.

This individual-centric obsession, when coupled with general ignorance of the world situation, as well as the lies and propaganda sown by the media/education institutes, produces an apathetic population of subjects, who will not only stay out of politics completely, but will attack any person who tries to participate in them. Diabolical.


The trick to capitalist politics, is to learn how to manipulate the masses. Keep them ignorant,
marginalize them from the political process, and convince them that the system that they live under is the best. Media scape-goating turns the population into informants for the state, ratting out any enemies of the capitalist class, and blind patriotism makes the masses support any initiative put forward by the ruling class.

If a capitalist regime has done it's job right, the system is basically self regulating.

Of course, this system isn't fool proof. Some citizens simply won't sit down, and shut up.
To counter these individuals, there is the mechanism of the of the state political parties:
the "left wing" and the "right wing", two hands of the same monster. Those that refuse to be sheep are swept up by the bourgeois political parties, who confuse them with diversions
and prevent them from doing any damage to the status quo. Those that form/join political parties that are not under the sway of the state, are severely marginalized and defamed at best,
penalized and executed at worst.

If nothing else, the capitalists have become smarter from their many battles with the forces of revolution.

Of course, capitalism is only buying itself time. Ideological hegemony is one thing, but capitalism can not deny material conditions. Capitalism can not deny the inherent contradictions and crisis
within the system. They can only buy themselves time.

At this time, there are signs of cracks in the wall of capitalist hegemony. New resources of information are making it easier for the progressive forces to spread information, for the masses to counter propaganda and educate themselves. As I have stated earlier when referring to the many blunders of the present American capitalist class, the masses are waking up from this system. Apathy is being disintegrated by the conditions of an occupation of attrition in the middle east, the economic crisis in most of the capitalist world and the growing fascism of the system itself. It will take nothing less than the full blown creation of a police state in the United States and elsewhere to jar the masses into finally abandoning this state of passive compliance with capitalist "democracy".

This is a waiting game. The capitalists can only push the envelope so far, and the masses will only tolerate so much. How much longer is it going to last? How much more punishment can the planet earth take to satisfy the material whims of capitalist over-production? How much more abuse are the exploited workers of the world going to take? What is it going to take for people to start asking questions, to resent the elite thinking for them, and to become genuinely furious
with the status quo?

The capitalist class is a man in a sinking row boat, trying to bail it out with a bucket; The masses are the ocean that once held the boat up, but are now sinking it. The bailing of the boat may buy the man time, but in the end he can not win. It will take more than media propaganda, state police and ideological hegemony to stop this boat from sinking.