Daily Times

Elvis Presley, after receiving that parting kick from his partner, reminded us of the desperation and loneliness that follows the loss of one’s possessions. “There goes my everything” is a symphony of sorrow, which echoes the bitter cry of one suffering in despair. Does Theresa May, incumbent Prime Minister of United Kingdom, feel the same way after her dismal failure in recent elections, or perhaps, some politicians are immune to such sentiments?

Being quite familiar to electoral gimmickry, Herbert Marcuse had stated, “A comfortable, smooth, reasonable, democratic un-freedom prevails in advanced civilisations”… “Free election of masters”, he added, “does not abolish master-slave relations,” rather it conforms to the control of the established reality. The reality elaborating the un-freedom is vividly evident. Even after Tories’ debacle, the very condemned face continues to cling to power with an amazing arrogance.

In Britain, implementation of a socialist economy was never quite in sight. No one expected Jeremy Corbyn to set the Thames on fire by nationalising means of production or by replacing the old bourgeois system of production in a single stroke, but the man has fully exploited objective conditions to people’s advantage and defanged brute market forces at least for now. Corbyn is no Guevara and elections can never substitute for a revolution. Above all, the democratic domination of a minority is designed such that “escape and elopement are predesigned to lead back to the starting point” (Adorno).

Nevertheless, the bourgeoisie is completely exposed on two fronts in the UK. Not only has its demand for unconditional subservience of workers and pretense of ‘security’ been completely routed by the people, but it also has to ditch ‘ideals’ once vehemently advocated by the capitalistic morality to stay in power. May has had to embrace a former terrorist organisation (DUP) — which even today is extremely homophobic and anti-abortion — without an iota of shame. What a bedfellow! Those who sleep with dogs wake up with lice; those who sleep with terrorists, wake up, if at all, completely messed up or pissed off!

Though, embracing terrorists is nothing new for the capitalist world. From Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam to Contras in Nicaragua and from Bin Laden in Afghanistan to Jabhat al-Nusrah in Syria, capitalist states have remained frontrunners in this hideous and grisly business of non-state terrorism. Why should they not be in such a business when these states can afford to spend $460 billion on means of human destruction bought from the ‘civilised’ world’?

Jeremy Corbyn has fully exploited objective conditions to people’s advantage and defanged brute market forces, at least for now

It is the exchange value, and not the truth value, which brings money home. Every other rationality needs to be bent to serve this purpose.

But the positive and delightful aspect of the British general election and the United States presidential election before it is the resurgence of hope — that has forced its way to the forefront despite the success of rogue and reactionary figures. Prior to these elections, a sense of general malaise had dominated the horizon of humanity. A shimmer of any possibility of change in the destiny of humankind especially in the near future seemed a mirage.

Incidentally, the worst fears of humanity have proved false. The very thought that people are too indoctrinated, hypnotised and alienated from the reality bringing the systemic demise of reason has proved wrong, at least for the time being. Progress is not a neutral term and it appears as if the masses seem to have understood that any progress which does not alleviate their misery is no progress at all or is a progress meant for ‘the very few indeed’, in Disraeli’s words.

The twin terror attacks that had shook Britain ahead of the polling day also denied any relief to the reactionary forces that tried to exploit the situation to their advantage by inducing fear in voters’ minds. Security, a buzzword, invariably used as an opportunity to snatch people’s liberties, could not subdue people’s spirit on this occasion. They dismissed the “cunning of reason” contemptuously and lunged forward to concentrate upon the solution of their real problems. If consciousness of servitude is the first prerequisite of liberation, then people have felt their fetters.

Another notable lesson offered by this election is the assertion of authority by the people. They proved that they can lead to become the architects of their own dialectical process. They turned out to be that rock, as Rosa Luxemburg reminds us, “on which final victory of revolution will be built”. Corbyn was confident about the firmness of this rock. He stood his ground and despite facing serious revolts from the right-wing of his own party did not lose his faith in the resilience of the masses. He was never a charismatic demagogue yet a charisma infused by social necessity turned him into the man of the moment.

For some, there may not be enough to read into this wave of optimism. Yet the outcome of the British elections proves that people have come a long way from the sullen and sordid moments of 1990, when the demise of Soviet Union dimmed the prospects of any early revival of the Marxist doctrine. The theoretical question has yet again been addressed, that is, the historical project of human liberation need not assume a form of concrete reality on every occasion to prove its truthfulness. Its failure to assume that form does not mean that the project is an unrealistic proposition. The failure can have more to do with the strength of the opposing forces. One can imagine the strength of institutions that exacerbate ordinary people’s struggle for existence, instead of pacifying it. If they can spin the survival instinct of Palestinians to make it appear as aggression, while portraying aggression by the Israeli state as self-defence, can they not portray the struggle of human emancipation as a utopian proposition?

The writer has authored books on socialism and history. He blogs at saulatnagi.wordpress.com and can be reached atsaulatnagi@hotmail.com