- 17 Sep 2023 08:41
#15287176
The usual answer coming from the Left is well-known: Marx has showed that the ideas of the ruling class are the ruling ideas in society. So we need not be surprised that the left parties are unable to institute by election a government that fundamentally alters the balance of power between classes.
It is a bit short and easy. Is it realistic to think that this mechanism remains efficient for more than a century and in the whole world? Are the people so stupid that for so long they cannot understand?
According to me, the answer is wholly different. The people will mandate the Left to reform society when they think that it is more credible than the Right. That has never yet happened. Because the credibility of the Left has never been enough convincing. Both social-democrats and radicals are powerless in front of the difficulty to establish justice.
It is much more difficult to govern society at the advantage of the poor than of the rich. To succeed reforms that increase social justice (equality), you must be very very very wise. So wise has a left party never been. The people feel it and logically vote mostly for the Centre or the Right. I think it is wisdom.
You could object: Mitterrand had won the elections of 1981 in France. True. But the Mitterrand story is the one of a fiasco. The victory was only apparent. France was not less capitalist after 14 years of Mitterrand presidency than at the beginning.
Must we conclude that it is impossible to reform fundamentally society towards justice? No, it is not. But the Left must change its behaviour, its program, its strategy and its ideology. It is the price for becoming credible. Particularly, it must give up on Marxism. Do you think that voters of this century will give the power to people who are wondering “what is the meaning of the dictatorship of the proletariat?
It is a bit short and easy. Is it realistic to think that this mechanism remains efficient for more than a century and in the whole world? Are the people so stupid that for so long they cannot understand?
According to me, the answer is wholly different. The people will mandate the Left to reform society when they think that it is more credible than the Right. That has never yet happened. Because the credibility of the Left has never been enough convincing. Both social-democrats and radicals are powerless in front of the difficulty to establish justice.
It is much more difficult to govern society at the advantage of the poor than of the rich. To succeed reforms that increase social justice (equality), you must be very very very wise. So wise has a left party never been. The people feel it and logically vote mostly for the Centre or the Right. I think it is wisdom.
You could object: Mitterrand had won the elections of 1981 in France. True. But the Mitterrand story is the one of a fiasco. The victory was only apparent. France was not less capitalist after 14 years of Mitterrand presidency than at the beginning.
Must we conclude that it is impossible to reform fundamentally society towards justice? No, it is not. But the Left must change its behaviour, its program, its strategy and its ideology. It is the price for becoming credible. Particularly, it must give up on Marxism. Do you think that voters of this century will give the power to people who are wondering “what is the meaning of the dictatorship of the proletariat?
Paul Jael