I'm bourgeoisie. Now what?

[MaerF0x0]

a

[Elysian]

I've been rapidly learning about communism over the past few days (thanks for all who've tolerated me). In all this learning Ive come to the conclusion that I'm bourgeoisie ... I am a software developer and make good money, I own a fairly large portfolio of stocks (greater than 1 years salary of accumulated capital)... The question is now what? I would support a revolution if it were to come, but Im not sure what to do in the mean time. It seems that my marginal best choice is to keep my "privileged" position in society, cause the revolution may never come (in my lifetime).

What can be done in the meantime? For sure there are educational things, but what about more direct actions and support for workers?

Here are some ideas:
I could acquire some means of production and make them available for the workers and we all can share the output?
I could seek to only buy directly from self-employed people (people who havent been exploited by a "boss") etc? Things like CSAs and local artisans.
I could help provide capital for various worker based initiatives and seek no profit in return (hence no exploitation).

I'm looking for any suggestion other than "Revolt, Educate others about communism" because those are a given.

Direct a movie.:)

[eric922]

Well do you actually own and employ people? If so, and you really want to help out, I'd say one of the best things you could do turn your business into a workers co-op. It isn't ideal of course, but it is probably best way to run a business in a capitalist society. As an aside I think it's good to say some bourgeois accepting communism, after all Engels himself was a capitalist.

[piet11111]

In all this learning Ive come to the conclusion that I'm bourgeoisie ... I am a software developer and make good money, I own a fairly large portfolio of stocks (greater than 1 years salary of accumulated capital)


Making good money and having savings in the form of stocks does not make you bourgeois.


Petty-bourgeois
1) The class of small proprietors (for example, owners of small stores), and general handicrafts people of various types.
This group has been disappearing since the industrial revolution, as large factories or retail outlets can produce and distribute commodities faster, better, and for a cheaper price than the small proprietors. While this class is most abundant in the least industrialized regions of the world, only dwindling remnants remain in more industrialized areas.
These people are the foundation of the capitalist dream (aka “the American dream”): to start a small business and expand it into an empire. Much of capitalist growth and development comes from these people, while at the same time capitalism stamps out these people more and more with bigger and better industries that no small proprietor can compete against. Thus for the past few decades in the U.S., petty-bourgeois are given an enormous variety of incentives, tax breaks, grants, loans, and ways to escape unscathed from a failed business.
2) Also refers to the growing group of workers whose function is management of the bourgeois apparatus. These workers do not produce commodities, but instead manage the production, distribution, and/or exchange of commodities and/or services owned by their bourgeois employers.
While these workers are a part of the working class (http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/p/r.htm#proletariat) because they receive a wage and their livelihood is dependent on that wage, they are separated from working class consciousness because they have day-to-day control, but not ownership, over the means of production, distribution, and exchange.

[Tim Cornelis]

You are bourgeois, not bourgeoisie. Most Marxists would reply to you by saying "communism is not an ethical code of living under capitalism ... Engels was an industrialist too".

[RedGrunt]

The latter refers to the class as a whole, while bourgeois is specific of a person of that class.

[Yuppie Grinder]

It's a conjugation. You are petitie bourgeois.

[graymouser]

Could you please differentiate the two terms for me? (bourgeois vs bourgeousie) .or is it just conjugation of the term?
Bourgeois is used as an adjective or (more rarely) to refer to a single member of the class; bourgeoisie is used as a collective noun for the entire class. So you could be a bourgeois, part of bourgeois society, who is a member of the bourgeoisie (the whole class).

Technically the term comes from the French term used for the old feudal middle class, who are the forebears of the modern ruling class. There were two parts that came out of this - the haute bourgeoisie (haute=high), the industrial owners of capital and the big bankers, who today we refer to as simply "the bourgeoisie." The other, the petite bourgeoisie (petite=small), are the free-standing professionals and artisans, people who generally work for themselves and are relatively independent in class society. If you are using the French terminology the adjective and singular noun are petit bourgeois, and the collective noun is petite bourgeoisie. However in English discourse we also see the terms "petty bourgeois" and "petty bourgeoisie."

As for your class position - if you make your living primarily from other people's work, you're a member of the bourgeoisie. If you make it primarily from your own work, and are relatively independent, you may be in the petty bourgeoisie, or you may be one of the higher-up strata of workers. There's a constant flow between the working class and the petty bourgeoisie, who as described in the Communist Manifesto are constantly being pushed down into the proletariat* (the working class).

* As long as we're talking terminology, the proletariat is the class of workers while a single worker is a proletarian. The adjective, likewise, is proletarian.

[Rafiq]

Engels, Sartre, Guevara, Lenin, Dzerzhinsky, Hoxha (lol) and Trotsky were all Bourgeois/came from bourgrois backgrounds

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Re: OP
The first and third ideas in your original post were pretty good.
I mean, really, do your best to put your capital at the service of destroying capital, and, if comes down to it, be ready to give up your standard of living and privilege in favour of new forms of collective life.

[Искра]

Marx also.

[Zealot]

Buy thousands of Manifestos, hire a helicopter and drop them all around the country because that would be epic.

Or give it to me so I can write a new volume of Das Kapital :lol:

Honestly, I would think about investing further while supporting revolutionary causes with your money. Helping workers with it by making co-ops or whatever is a good thing but I don't think they have ever really brought about revolution. Unless of course you have that much money to do both effectively.

[MotherCossack]

[QUOTE=Exoprism;2321569]Buy thousands of Manifestos, hire a helicopter and drop them all around the country because that would be epic.
:laugh::laugh:
brilliant idea.
epic.... and served with a pinch of humour.... if only.
gawd... will some rich fucker ever start the ball rolling??!

[The Dark Side of the Moon]

Do it. Make it a front page story

[Decommissioner]

Like others have said, form a co-op. You have the chance to directly affect the lives of workers and give them the opportunity to make a decent wage while directing the goings on of the business.

Although I doubt you have the money for this, use your money and status to influence media. If there were more big bourgeois that happened to agree with socialist politics, they could use advertisement and media to support socialist parties or even just perpetuate socialist ideals both overtly and subjectively. They could adapt socialist themed novels into blockbuster movies, start left wing talk radio shows, put a left wing channel on cable. Those are the things I think would matter most if members of the bourgeoisie wanted to do something to help the cause of communism.

[Hiero]

How do you guys go about bringing revolution on a day to day basis? Do shop, dress, talk, act, think, speak, educate, produce goods, etc etc in a specific way that supports your dreams for a better world? Most don't. Very few have actually given much thought to how conflict is actually played out. Conflict is usually sporadic, unorganised, temporal and usually misrecgonised. Becoming involved is positional, being there at the right time.

[Belleraphone]

Since you don't employ people and you don't distribute wages, you aren't really ruling class. I don't know much about economics so I don't know if participating in the stock market is exploitation, but do you develop software that is primarily used by other companies? If so, then you really aren't exploiting anyone except large corporations and companies that in themselves take part in exploitation, so I'd say you don't have to worry about being a hypocrite.

I've never heard of a member of the bourgeoisie recognizing the inherent corruption in cap and stopping it. Capitalism is best at destroying the humanity of the bourgeois, not the proletariat.

[citizen of industry]

Revolution involves the masses. The proletariat seizes power, and in doing so destroys class. It is not uncommon for people of other classes to see the writing on the wall and throw their lot in with the proletariat during a revolutionary period. In fact, mass participation is crucial to any successful revolution. Marxism is scientific, it is an economical analysis, not a club to which people belong. Don't be ashamed if you don't happen to be a worker in a manufacturing plant making bare substinence wages. We are part of a great cause that has the entire liberation of humanity in mind, and that benefits everyone.

Why not join a party, contribute to its coffers and offer your time? There is a danger, that in times of great stress or economic prosperity you might become reformist and abandon the working class to parliamentary shenanigans, but assuming the party you join is democratic to some extent and people with working class backgrounds make up a majority of members, that can be prevented.

You don't have to rip up all your money, sell your house and live in a commune. Just study up on theory, join a party and offer your time. That's what I'd do. And just be careful when you make judgments that it is the working class that benefits and not petty-bourgeois.

If you are a business owner, listen to your workers and don't union-bust. Let some democracy into your business relationship with your employees and make sure they make a decent wage and have decent benefits.