Ben Burgis
Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been tearing across the United States with their “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies. This framing pairs condemnation of the Trump administration with a broader critique of inequality — a potent mix. Yet it isn’t without its critics. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) has criticized the turn of phrase, warning that ordinary Americans don’t know what “oligarchy” means. Trump’s critics, Slotkin says, should stick to the slogan “No Kings.”
Progressives arguing over whether we should only be talking about democracy and “kings” or the oligarchic power of the super-rich — that’s a stark reminder that our century is growing to resemble the 19th: a world of hyper-exploitation and overweening tycoons; trade protectionism and blatant imperial land grabs; constitutional instability and simmering class conflict. There is no better guide to such a juncture than the 19th century’s greatest dissident thinker, Karl Marx.
Marx’s value as a Virgil-like guide to the darker depths of our condition is highlighted by a pair of recent books: Citizen Marx by Bruno Leipold, which explores the role of republicanism in shaping Marx’s thought, and Capital’s Grave by Jodi Dean, which seeks to update Marx for a world that Dean thinks is starting to look less like the classical industrial capitalism he wrote about than a kind of high-tech feudalism. Though varying wildly in both style and substance, both books remind us that 19th-century debates about economic inequality remain all too relevant to 2025.
Polls suggest that Slotkin is, in fact, wrong about the limits of the public’s vocabulary. But the issue in dispute between her and Sanders and AOC goes deeper than semantics. Slotkin evidently wants to stick to what 19th-century radicals called the “political question” of democracy and authoritarianism, rather than broaching the “social question” of economic power and hierarchy.
No comments:
Post a Comment