INDIVIDUALISM & SLAVERY

When the establishment of capitalism was firmly rooted by the beginning of the nineteenth century, individualism began the ascent to its apotheosis today. This did not mean that the individual was inherently any more important. It meant the concept was useful to the relatively newly dominant economic system and nothing else. There were individual inventors, individual composers, individual explorers. And there were individual industrialists. The individual industrialist was solely responsible for the creation of capital and deserved remuneration accordingly. Likewise, individual workers owed nothing to the body of workers surrounding them as their individual contracts were with the company and its individual owner. This was convenient to the owner, but not always so convenient for the worker. Obviously there was a huge disparity of power between boss and single worker, and there were differing interests. The boss was concerned to increase the worker’s productivity and decrease his wages – thereby enhancing his own wealth – while the single worker had no power to influence either his wages or work rate.

So. Individualism was a very convenient notion. And it became the most dangerous reef in the sea for progressive social ideas. Individualism has an exceedingly fine emotional spin because it makes you feel special, even as the shackles are snapped shut on your wrists. You are “free” to change jobs, if you like, provided you can find one and have the necessary references. You are “free” to think whatever thoughts you want to think, provided the words you speak are carefully filtered with an eye on time and place. But no one without abundant inherited wealth will ever be free of the pressure of having to work, often under conditions which are usually displeasing, for the course of their entire productive lives.

Or at least, that is the presentation facing each youth unlucky enough to be born of parents who were not wise enough to have accumulated great wealth. But is it really true? And is it possible also to revolt individually?

Well, it doesn’t seem to be imaginable, because individuals can easily be picked off by squads of police, tax agents, bailiffs, lawyers, judges and ranks of fish-eyed civil servants. It appears that the only way to make an effective impact on those who manipulate our lives is to join a union or political party – in other words to unite in order to gain individually, or influence or overthrow the ruling interests. However, at the end of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st the Left was in complete disarray. Unions collaborate in their own emasculation, and those that don’t are ruthlessly emasculated. National political parties betray radicals and activists at the first whiff of power and would anyway be impotent against the conspiracy of transnational capital and the global markets. Is it therefore hopeless?

No. It’s not. Global capital gets drunk on its own success, but when the bubbles burst the reverberations are often awesome and awful. In the meanwhile, is there anything we can do? Individually? Can individualism, one of the sharpest weapons of capital, be turned against it?

Perhaps it can.

Previously the strength of the poor, the workers or the disinherited masses was in joining together. After all, no force on earth can resist the swarming ranks of workers united. We know that. So do they. That is why so much energy and wealth is spent on keeping countries, parties, unions, neighbours and even families divided. The main flow of messages from newsprint, books, movies, television and radio is focused on undermining unity and community. The hymn of individual choice is as relentless as monsoon rain on a tin roof. Everyone can choose. Everyone is free…to buy any car, mowing machine, washing powder, ice cream, condom, house or plot of land. Provided he has the money, of course. To get the money you must be a good boy or girl and do as you’re told. You have to work 40-plus hours per week, wear a uniform of coat and tie or smart dress or a demeaning fluorescent waistcoat and demonstrate submissive behaviour to managers or bosses who are often your intellectual or moral inferiors. Is that a good bargain? Is it freedom? If you are good, you are given credit and granted overdrafts and mortgages. These ensure that you will become an indentured slave for the rest of your useful life. Your freedom drains away quicker than shit off a shovel. In other words, you have made a deal in which you trade your freedom for a usually limited range of commodities. A place to live, furniture, household appliances, one or more motor cars for travel and status, along with a never ending stream of disposable junk. Constantly in debt with credit, mortgages and overdrafts, you are unable to leave your job if you want to, call the boss a horse’s ass and strike out for distant horizons. Shackled with such debts, you are probably unwilling to do much to rock the boat ‒ like strike for higher wages or more amenable working conditions. Along with the hedgehog, you’ll drift to the middle of the road, not wanting to support any policy which might be too radical. In fact, the hedgehog probably gets the best hand in an unfair deal. Stress will accumulate in your bones like radiation as you reach for the unattainable carrot while your backside is savagely beaten by your masters. Faster. More effort, more speed, more productivity, more passivity, more pliability, more short-term contracts, more hours, less rest, less money, fewer complaints, fewer holidays, fewer moments to yourself, keep your mouth shut and vote conservative, you toe-rag.