As I have been reflecting on the shift toward more progressive politics emerging after the midterm elections, two images have stuck with me. The first is from 2010 at the US Social Forum in Detroit and the conversation between Immanuel Wallerstein and Grace Lee Boggs. Wallerstein, who is best known for his work on world systems theory, emphasized that the capitalist world system had reached a structural crisis. He argued that economic chaos, wars, and environmental devastation were the hallmarks of a system that was dying.
Wallerstein explained that during earlier stages of capitalism, economic instability or political fluctuations were eventually pulled back to a stable center. That center no longer holds. The structural contradictions are too great. As a result, he said, we should expect to see rapid, extreme shifts in political and economic life.
He and Grace agreed that we were headed toward a time when we would clearly face two possibilities, one that was dominated by even more hierarchical, exploitative, and authoritarian rule, or one based on new systems of shared decision-making, respect for people and the planet. The main question we face is: will the future be better, or worse, than the present?
The second image is that of one of my young white male students during the 2016 election. The young man had joined “Bernie’s boys” and was an avid campaigner. One day, as we were talking about his experiences, he said casually, “If the democrats nominate Hillary, I’m voting for Trump.” He followed through on that promise.
I was astonished at the ability of the young man to move from one ideological perspective to its opposite without considering any contradiction at all. I’ve thought about this in conjunction with what Wallerstein understood. In periods of such instability, ideologies matter little. My student was looking for someone who offered direction and had the courage to “talk straight” and confront the “establishment.”
These two images tell us something about the path ahead. Many people recognize we have a lot of work to do if we are going to move away from the chaos of a dying system toward a more human future. This work certainly means we need more organization. But organization for what seems to me to be a key question. We cannot only organize to ask people to vote against republicans and for democrats or DSA or the Working Families Party.
We must do this. But it is not sufficient to get us to a more compassionate and responsible future.
Many people are advancing new ideas about reconstructing how we live. We should welcome and encourage these. Ideas about creating new legal systems, new forms of direct democracy and decision-making, and new forms of cooperative economics are all essential now.
But we also need to be conscious of the capacity of the capitalist system to endure, and the violence people are willing to use to protect the power and privileges it has given them. In a very fine article proposing a series of concrete actions, Stephen Lerner observes:
We should prepare ourselves for the reality that the forces that we have been fighting will not simply throw in the towel. We should not assume that the lawless ways of the Trump presidency will suddenly cease or that its billionaire backers will retreat to the comfort of their gated communities and private jets and cease their efforts to commandeer our future. Far from it. We must expect that they will use every bit of the considerable power they still hold to thwart real change.
Silicon Valley AI billionaires have made clear that they aren’t content with just becoming billionaires and trillionaires. Their goal is far more expansive and scary. They want to eliminate democracy altogether and replace it with a CEO autocracy. Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel is worth $37 billion and publicly says, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
The White Christian Nationalists have already put out a call for a massive gathering in Washington, D.C. on the day the new Congress is to be sworn in. And Pete Heseth remains in command of lethal forces.
At the end of their conversation, Wallerstein and Boggs reminded us that periods of instability also mean that what each of us chooses to do matters. Acting for justice, peace, and a life-affirming world can have enormous, unforeseen effects. That is the only way a new future will be born.