Compliance as a wage slave

[Durka]

I've always been suprised by how easily everyone accepts the current system. I live in the UK and in my experience the overwhelming majority don't seem to question the fact that they are facing a life of work, just to pay off a house that they may get to own fully before they die. It seems most workers are content with life as it is and enjoy it (at least the young).

Why is this? Do they not see the chains that bind them? Can they not imagine anything different? Am I missing something?

[radiocaroline]

Good point...

Baffles me sometimes too but it could be a few reasons.

1. As in many western countries, the belief of a "meritocratic" society based on merit and achievement in order to achieve society's top positions helps to lure people into being passive "wage slaves" in the hope of status, wealth and power.

2. The lack of a collective party which people actually relate to. The Labour Party is a shadow of its former self in its early years and its support for the working class members of society who face these real problems has withered over time. With the rest of the UK leftist parties being fragmented and sharing tiny sections of the electorate and a lack of media coverage, support for them is extremely low - too low for any electoral presence

3. Education. We are all educated to hold middle class materialist values which help to keep us passive and concentrated in low-paid jobs in order to strive for consumer power. This links in with the western ideal of meritocracy.

Hope this helps you to understand a pretty strange and frustrating concept. Unfortunately, the realisation and "politicisation" of the working class to overcome hardship and hit back at the bourgois ruling class is a struggle in the UK but is developing through anti-Austerity movements which can hopefully urge more workers experiencing these day-to-day problems to stand up and be heard.

[exeexe]

Its because they are powerless. When you don't have power its easy to think like those with power wants them to think.

Power is liberating, also for the mind.

Luckily not everyone is like that and can liberate their mind without having power, but its hard and requires a dedicated brain.

[BIXX]

There is one thing we have to understand about how our lives work... We assume our point of view (understanding workers as exploited, oppressed, etc...) is natural, especially when we start getting interested in revolutionary thought. But really, we are the massive exception because we got hit by circumstances that forced us to see there was a problem. Whether it was because we were attacked by police, we were hit by devastating poverty, whatever, we often have a kick that forces us away from trust in the current state of affairs.

[Comrade #138672]

Indeed. Many do not see it. Many others see it, but do not want to see it and/or do not know what to do about it. This is part of what is called "false consciousness".

False consciousness can only be transcended [on a large scale] by a combination of the following things:

(1) The working class engaging in necessary struggle against capitalism and thereby getting to know its true strength.
(2) The propaganda and agitation by a revolutionary Vanguard, in addition to its leading role in the working-class struggle.
(3) A revolutionary situation.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I've always been suprised by how easily everyone accepts the current system. I live in the UK and in my experience the overwhelming majority don't seem to question the fact that they are facing a life of work, just to pay off a house that they may get to own fully before they die. It seems most workers are content with life as it is and enjoy it (at least the young).

Why is this? Do they not see the chains that bind them? Can they not imagine anything different? Am I missing something?
If aliens, human-like enough to observe our world, came to earth, I don't think content would be the way they would describe us. Even capitalists are alienated in capitalism. People struggle, get pissed at everything (often seemingly for no good reason), fight, compete, degrade eachother. If people were content, I think there'd be a lot less religion, a lot less cynicism, a lot less random violence, less joining in with the oppression of "those below" others.

This general frustration and disatisfaction doesn't mean that people automatically pinpoint their anger or discomfort at one (or any) particular source, let alone something as pervasive and invisible as the whole organization of the reproduction of this sort of life, capitalism.

First of all, no matter what people think of the hand they are delt in capitalism, they are forced by necessity to deal with it and navigate it. This causes some to find the least awful niche that they can, when possible. Others just get beat down which is why the mantra of neoliberalism, "there is no alternative" is so effective.

Second, most people don't think of the world as a blank slate in which they imagine the best way things could be. Kids, maybe, but then we have a whole education system to knock that childish shit right out their heads;). Instead, I think people see the world as it is, take that for granted (which is also encouraged by ideological tropes like "human nature") and then justify the world in reverse. If the king has so much power, he must have been picked by God!

Dissatisfaction is pervasive in most class societies, rebellions (attempts at reform usually or initially) are often common in most eras (but go up and down), real revolutions are more historically rare because a real alternative way of life needs to be possible and seen by many as the only real option.