Daily Times

Adorno once said, “The almost insoluble task is to let neither the power of others, nor our own powerlessness, stupefy us.”

By contemptuously rejecting the game of musical chairs of shifting power between two equally anti-people parties, people of the US have left their ruling class stupefied. Their revenge has set forth the conscious choice of an oligarch as their president. For Freud, the psychiatric apparatus, id, has an innate tendency to embrace Thanatos, but one wonders why an omnipotent superego, the policeman of Eros, [the capitalist class in this case] genuflects to id by submitting lamely to the orgies of Dionysus. The triumphant Trump is such an orgy.

Leaving his phantasies, and sexual perversions aside, Trump seems to be the man of his words. From the very first day in the office, he found himself busy implementing his program in letter and spirit. Apart from the economy, where Goldman Sachs has a free rein he did not falter on other promises. The immigrants are cast side; the Obama-care is surgically excised; the accursed refugees have been denied the possibility of seeking accesses to ‘the land of opportunities’; the TPP is torn apart; the abortion right has blown to bits; Muslims have been declared pariahs and an imminent threat to erect a long Mexican wall is on the cards.

By his swift action or reaction, he left the majority of his voters bamboozled. They certainly mistook the seriousness of his claims. People living under capitalism are prone to deception. However, now they are so intimate to the farce that despite verbosity the integrity of their leaders in their eyes has besmirched beyond credibility. It is an open secret that the one in power is under the whip of a system, which defines his limits hence compromises his ability to transcend the boundaries of irrational- rationality prescribed by the real powers.

Can one attribute the electoral victory of Trump to a ‘chance’? For some, this may be the case but in the world of technology, every chance is a measured risk and to counter any upheaval the contingency plan is invariably in place. For the hegemonic class, ‘chance’ is a mere alibi to justify its dominant motives. To keep faith in its possibility is people’s tragedy, for those who have the means of production in their control it was a premeditated outcome. For instance out of the two candidates of the main parties, one had to win. If Clinton could not come out victorious, was not Trump an automatic alternative?

To Trumps’ credit, both his actions and words are unambiguous and unequivocal. A ‘malignant -narcissist’ as he is, his language needs no window dressing from any political beauty parlour. It is a language of intimidation but not of hypnosis; hence, it is hardly Orwellian, where opposites do not reconcile. He says what he means, though he knows nothing, and that is why he is inviting his nemesis. The direct conflict with CIA—known for its perniciousness of overturning foreign governments falling foul to the corporations—, and his hostility to the media, along with the power of twisting reality into fiction and vice-versa, speak volumes of his ignorance about the might of the ‘established –reality’.

With a leader like this, the fate of the US could be a bit worse or more of the same, but most certainly, its president is working for his own nemesis. More than his divisive policies based on the hatred of humanity, his sexual inclinations, scopophilia, and Incubus-like characteristics would be enough to scribble his epitaphs when the final moment will toll. Who can forget the examples of JFK, or the ignominious exit of Nixon?

“Militarism in the US” Howard Zinn states “is tied up with the economic system that is built in American history”. Trump, a representative of the Wall Street, is fully aware of this fact. He will never take a chance with military –industrial- complex, latter’s domination remains beyond question. His unconditional support for Zionism will initially prove helpful, yet in politics, someone as reckless as he is, cannot be trusted to rule for long.

What were the conditions, which had paved the way for his upsurge? The answer to this nagging question rests in history. The US embraced capitalism far more quickly than Europe, though passage was not smooth. Until final victory, North remained embattled with the South. The journey from the era of serfdom to the realm of wage-slavery proved equally long and protracted. The Republicans and Democrats both emerged as representative parties of the white American elite. The class composition of the US remained cleaved into a small upper elite and large Middle class. The blacks and the ‘unworthy’ natives were left to their own.

During the 1960s, class-consciousness as well as the struggle to win rights for blacks and women finally matured into class movements. Whereas McCarthyism committed atrocious crimes against humanity, the American elite had to concede certain rights to the people for the fear of USSR. In this process, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the Panthers Party and many others lost their lives in unlit pathways. The anti-Vietnam movement added fire to the fuel. During the Vietnam War, Nixon decided to give up the gold standard, to the US war barely cost anything albeit the dollar lost its value. Inflation struck in. The rate of profit began to fall. Before the crisis could take the toll, USSR collapsed. After its demise, the fight between labour and capital went into hibernation. Both parties pursued aggressive liberalism, based on the plunder of workers.

The inherent flaws of capitalism—- over-production and loss of profit —-continue to haunt this exploitative economy. “No medicinal herb can grow under the dirt of capitalist society which can help cure capitalist anarchy” (Rosa-Luxemburg). In 2008, the crisis reached its acme and struck forcefully. Since then America has yet to make headway. The cat, which according to Stieglitz “has climbed the tree, refuses to come down”. The bailing out of corporations brought the class-war head on. The ‘Occupy- movements’ were the mere tip of the iceberg. To bluff the people, the Wall Street had launched Obama with a record-breaking investment. It turned out to be another farce. The irrevocable destiny of an impotent system, incapable of developing the productive forces, was bound to unfold in shape of an open class-conflict.

This rise of Trump is a logical consequence of a class-conflict when ‘ the war of manoeuvre’ is still not possible. Yet it is an indication that the eternal fight between labour and capital has intensified. Ever since technology has taken over, the necessity of human labour, cheap or otherwise is declining. However, the technological development refuses to utilise its capacities when it comes to defeating hunger. Through wasting resources and human faculties, capitalism has intensified the production of means of destruction. The spectre of liberation has become its real enemy. This is Marxian truth unveiling even to the blinds. Technology does not mean joblessness, it means saving the human being from alienated objectified labour. Work for enjoyment and not as neurotic necessity is the goal for which humanity should be striving. For this, the means of production have to be owned by the workers. The bells are tolling, socialism or barbarism/fascism. For the workers, the choice is evident.

The writer is based in Australia and has authored books on socialism and history. He can be reached at saulatnagi@hotmail.com