Undercover Capitalists

[blueeyedboy]

If you don't understand the thread, then I apologise.

What I mean here is that are their lefists who deliberately enter capitalism to use the power this brings to try and abolish capitalism.

I think this is where capitalism succeeds as it seems to me in theory that if more people did this, then capitalism would disappear a lot more quickly. I would call it bringing the system down from the inside.

The only problem I would have is if these people had to exploit other people to actually stop exploitation in the long run.

What are people's opinions on this?

[Black Dagger]

How does one 'bring capitalism down from the inside'?

[Whitten]

Sounds a bit like Blanquism.

[blueeyedboy]

I mean someone being a capitalist and then using the power it brings to denounce capitalism. Basically, go back against the system that built them up. Surely someone has tried to do that in the past.

[Cult of Reason]

It would be against their own self interest, methinks. Why would they do that once they reached their position? Also, would it even be possible for them to do that in the first place?

[Black Dagger]

Originally posted by [email protected] 17 2006, 03:41 AM
I mean someone being a capitalist and then using the power it brings to denounce capitalism. Basically, go back against the system that built them up. Surely someone has tried to do that in the past.
Ok.

But i don't understand what you expect this would achieve?

A 'communist' becomes a capitalist, in the process directly and indirectly contributing to the exploitation of an innumerable amount of people, living off the toil of working people and then... they 'use the power' of capitalism to denounce capitalism as a system? With rhetoric?

They go on TV and say 'capitalism is horrible!'?

Quite a hollow statement given that in this example the person could very well be held up by pro-capitalists as the classic 'success story' of capitalism, someone who 'made it', 'look, capitalism sucks, i mean now i'm rich and powerful, but it's shit! Reallly!' I couldn't think of a less convincing anti-capitalist!

Regardless of the logical flaw here, how does a capitalist 'denouncing capitalism' lead to any sort of meaningful change?

Where did you get the idea that one needs to become a capitalist in order to 'denounce capitalism' effectively

The abolition of capitalism will not come when the ruling class has a change of heart, it will take organised, class struggle and agitation to counter ruling class hegemony, to build revolutionary consciousness, and to build a revolutionary movement.

I fail to see how assuming the positions of our class enemies to 'denounce' capitalism can aid in any of the above.

[The Bitter Hippy]

Perhaps our blue-eyed comrade could mean performing an act of "economic terrorism"? Large banks regularly deal in billons of dollars worth on ludicrously complex money markets that, through wierd functions of mathematics serve to give them vast sums of money.

Perhaps if a communist were to utterly wreck the US dollar, or somesuch act leading to the utter collapse of the global finance market, through deliberately sabotaging these systems?

However, that would hurt the proletarians more than it would the ruling class, unless one is to provoke revolution in the developed imperialist nations through the shock of sudden extreme poverty?

[Ricardo]

It might work if you could move up the ranks to a high position and then begin sabotaging your corporation and others, by spending all their money or making wrong moves which would cause the collapse of your business or something like that. But even if one person did that, I don't know how that would bring an end to capitalism. Unless you could get a huge collective of people to become CEO and other high ranking business men, or a bunch of people to run for office under the two major parties, and flood the system with communists, and then do something from there.

[Don't Change Your Name]

This is silly. Most people will see whoever tries to do this nonsense as a hypocrite. One person cannot bring down such an economic system, that's pure idealism (or terrorism).

[blueeyedboy]

Come to think of it, it would be very difficult for this chain of events to happen, but one can always hope. Personally, i don't think a revolution would happen for a very long time. I would like to hear other peoples opinions on this.

Also, most people are motivated by greed and thats why they are capitalists today. The point I'm trying to make is that how can you defeat something thats inate i.e. greed, because from what I've read the USSR fell into the greed trap, and that's why the whole system crashed. How can we possibly know that if a revolution happens and socialism takes over, then communism, hopefully, that greed won't become a factor in the dictatorship of the proletariat.

From what I've seen and read, personal greed and people wanting more than what they have, for example wanting to become a leader is the downfall of the whole left-wing. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I want to believe that this is not the case, really I do, but what can be done about this?