I wish to summarize the points on which Marx long ago (but declared refuted by the success of capitalism) identified with the myth of liberal democracy that is vindicated by developments that no one can now deny.
The refutations range from Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (1943) to Fukuyama's 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man. According to Fukuyama's book:
"What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War , or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government."
Fukuyama's position contradicts that of Karl Marx, who predicted that communism would displace capitalism . What I wish to explore is not the vision of communism, which has been betrayed by various forms of Stalinism, which can be called more accurately as state capitalism (i.e. the state owns all the capitalism, a shortcut to the accumulation of all wealth by a small elite), but Marx's insight into the trajectory of capitalism.
The vision of communism cannot be discussed except as a theory or proposal because nowhere, under the rubric of communism, has it been tried. Communism is, according to Marx, the condition of society when the workers have taken control of the means of production, when democratic self-government is universal, and the class structure of society has been eliminated by universal equality. This can be summed up by this quote from Marx:
"Democracy is the road to socialism."
Wherever this path has been begun, the forces of capitalism, whether the Deep State or military aggression, have made sure that socialism never succeeds, for there is no more dangerous example than a socialism which does succeed. Thus, nations like Cuba and Venezuela have been sanctioned, sabotaged, and their efforts to create equality attacked. It is like kicking a man to the gutter and then claiming he is unable to stand on his own.
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