More on the New World

By Olavo de Carvalho, from “O Globo”, June 4th. 2005 (Trans: Lins and Ray).  Original here.

From reading my previous article, one must not imagine that the strategy for global cultural change is simply a sordid trick invented by a group of conspirators to achieve socialism indirectly and smoothly. It is quite the opposite. The focus of the socialist worldview has been moved from the economic axis to the cultural, or more exactly, to the civilizational axis.

Since the 40s, the recurrent impossibility of creating a working socialism has caused repeated concessions to the market economy and weakened the ambition for a radical elimination of private property amongst the activist intelligentsia.

Among the best brains on the left,  substituting for orthodox socialism an effort to “save” the socialist “ideals” from the debris of a state economy dates far before the fall of the USSR. The early members of the Frankfurt school already had great contempt for the Soviet experience. They turned their backs on economics and struggled to create a new general civilizational concept. The “New Left” of the 60s rarely talked about economic planning.  They only wanted to deal in racial hustling, sexual liberation, anti-Americanism, feminist revolt, etc.  Meanwhile, in the UN, the crackpot Robert Mueller conceived new paramenters for education, inspired by the American seer Alice Bailey who in her turn was guided by infallible extraterrestrial gurus. His ideas have been adopted worldwide today in order to better conform the new generation to the planetary socialism of his dreams.

The socialization of the economy, by becoming the fruit instead of the root of the “new man”, ceases to be a priority. That is why Mr. Luis Inacio da Silva (Brazil’s President) can naively declare that neither he nor his comrades know what kind of socialism they intend to achieve. This imprecision of socio-economic objectives contrasts considerably with the the practical organization of the world Left, with its uniformity of the “moral” and cultural values that guide it.  So da Silva’s statement can be considered a Freudian slip, revealing the underlying intention – possibly almost unconscious – to postpone to an undefinite future the socialization of the economy, prioritizing in chronology the militant organization for the conditioning of the popular masses into the criteria and values of the “new civilization”.

Socialist power affirms itself in psychology and morality, education and law, leaving the formula for the reformed economy as the variable in the equation—to be shaped little by little as the process of the global transfiguration of mentalities advances.

The radicals who get impatient, longing for an old-fashioned brutal interventionism do not understand the subtlety of the new strategy. This does not mean, though, that they are of no help, since they play the part of stirring up the process, knowing or not that the energy they use has been previously measured and channeled by international strategies far more intelligent than a billion Ze Rainhas.  Agitating for “socialism” cannot eliminate the contradictions of a socialist economy, but it helps to keep the masses in the proper mood.  When the load of reality gets too heavy for the donkey’s back, it is necessary to cheer the pet up by showing the carrot of utopia.

Postponing a socialist economy has also the great advantage of gaining support for its construction from many capitalists. Under the comforting claim that “socialism is over”, conceited rich people sponsor the installation of a socialist culture, betting that, in the short term, it will not bring them any substantial harm. On the way, capitalism is not eliminated, but virtually criminalized while at the same time it prospers materially. In schools, books, and on TV, capitalists are exposed to public contempt and ridicule, but because they are tolerated and supported by the same governing leadership that mocks them, they still hope to survive by flattery and adulation. Thus, it is not certain that one day a state-run economy will be achieved, but it is certain that until then, capitalism, or whatever remains of it, will come to be seen as an ocean of iniquities.

(An improved translation of the earlier Olavo de Carvalho article can be found here

Posted by jonjayray on Monday, June 13, 2005 at 12:56 AM in Marxism & Culture War
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