Non-aligned far left, with big dashes of liberal and green
Why?
Because I don’t believe that capitalism can go on forever. Marx was right to say that capitalism creates its own gravediggers, although whether the people wielding the shovels are exactly who he thought they were is another matter…
Because no viable alternative to capitalism currently exists. Stalinist state-socialism has proved itself an effective model for rapid development of backward economies, but it is apparently incompatible with political and personal freedom, and even less sensitive to environmental destruction than market capitalism. It is entirely supply-side driven. What other alternatives are there? None at present, but that does not mean we should not continue looking for them.
Because I do not believe that capitalism and democracy are synonymous, or that there is a causal relationship between the two. If you take an honest look at governance during the development of governance during the development of capitalist economies over the last two centuries, there is little evidence that there should be such a relationship. A market economy can exist as well under a dictatorship as under a liberal democracy.
Because market capitalism has often been, and in many parts of the world is now being, established more by force of arms than by the majority actually choosing it.
Because man is as much an altruistic being as he is a selfish one. Classical economics depends on a vision of human nature as unrealistic as most of those that it criticises.
Because although many will accuse the left, often rightly, of being overly ideological, there is IME no-one so dogmatic as a free-market fundamentalist, and no-one so keen to ignore the fact that markets always exist within a milieu established and maintained by government, and that trade is always constrained with a legal and political framework. The relationship between economy and polity (insofar as they can be separated) is always – and always will be – dialectical. There is not, never has been and never will be such a thing as free trade: it is an ideology, like any other, and usually one enforced by the strong against the weak.
Because I like liberalism’s emphasis on the liberty of the individual, whilst rejecting its faith in the free market. The language of Victorian liberalism is beguiling but, in retrospect, naïve.
Because the ‘third way’ thinking of the last decade is just shit. It attempts to marry up the free market with greater equality and social inclusion. These two objectives are mutually exclusive. The ‘third way’ has everywhere ended up as a sort of ‘Thatcherism with a human face,’ combining the worst elements of a market and mixed economy.
Because the dogma that the private sector can always deliver a better and cheaper service than the public sector is just that – dogma. It’s not borne out by reality at all.
Because large-scale corporate capitalism just doesn’t deliver what it promises. Choice, competition, innovation – they just don’t happen. A world dominated by a few giant brands of clothes, music, and especially food, is a profoundly unattractive vision of the future, but one we’re confronted with here and now.
Because far too many are stuck in this stupid ‘all or nothing’ mentality: either we revolutionise the world tomorrow, or we leave it as it is – which is usually an excuse for spouting revolutionary rhetoric whilst doing absolutely nothing to change anything. Far too many would rather wrap themselves in the ideological flag and talk of great victories than win small battles in the here and now.
Because, although Keynes may have got many things wrong, he remains a more interesting and penetrating thinker than those who claim to have rebutted him. The same is even more true of Marx.
Because belief in any supernatural being – any God – is usually irrational and unhelpful.
Because every single thing we (yes - us, mankind, with no supernatural help whatsoever) have created has brought its benefits and its problems. They’ve got bigger over the centuries, and will continue to do so. We can travel across the world in hours where once it took months, but at the cost of much greater damage to the planet that sustains us. The human race has immense creativity, but an equally great capacity for self-destruction. Until we learn to accept this and use our creativity for the benefit of those who live now, and not to appease some imaginary deity or other, then we are doomed.
