Not at all. I think the first contradiction of capitalism inevitably damns it, but capitalism itself is a bourgeois rebellion against hereditary power. When the contradictions rupture it can just as easily regress into neo-feudalism and the concentration of power/resources is in those hands. Communism requires a huge amount of public education and intersectional organising, then a flashpoint moment where the bourgeoisie can't adequately act.
Definitely no. Relevant passage from the beginning of the manifesto:
an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.
Capitalism eventually failing is inevitable, whether in 50 years or 500, but what comes after is an open question.
Do you think fascism is capable of replacing capitalism?
Fascism is not an economic project, it has nothing to 'replace' capitalism with. It merely takes the social unrest that builds up under capitalism and directs it away from the owning class -- toward whatever scapegoat is most convenient to hand; minorities, immigrants, LGBT, women. The relationship of people to the production of goods remains identical.
No, fascism is a way to organize society under capitalism, it can't really exist outside of it. Theoretically, capitalism could evolve into another more reactionary system, but looking at historical precedents that seems less likely than either complete societal collapse or progressing (ie. socialism).
fascism is capitalism in berserk mode. I think we might see more dirigisme type of economy return to center stage at least for now.
No.
It's communism or extinction, and the chance all humanity is wiped out ticks up by the day
Hmmm did Marx ever consider that communism gets implemented but not by humans?
Option A: Communism
Option B: The common ruin of the contending classes.
I don't. I think faith in the inevitability of communism was a feature of 20th century left doctrine that died with the Soviet Union. There is no long arc of the universe. The entire human species could easily annihilate itself before liberation is achieved. That's why we can't give up.
No, it isn't. The collapse of capitalism is the inevitability. This idea that communism is inevitable is kinda counterproductive as it makes it really easy to infer that you don't have to do anything in order for communism to win.
Not that we should stop saying it, of course. I just think we should be more mindful of our context. We should be saying it as comfort and encouragement to those who are losing hope, not to rally others to our cause or to intimidate our adversaries.
I believe that if revolutions keep happening, then some of those revolutions will be communist - and as long as capitalism remains incapable of resolving its own contradictions, revolutions will keep happening. It seems like this isn't the case because we are corrently in a lull period where no revolutions are happening, but the so-called "Pax Americana" cannot last forever.
Think of it this way: Liberalism took hundreds of years to replace monarchism. The first French Republic was a failure, and was replaced with a monarchy. In the same way, the Soviet Union was a failure, and was replaced with a collection of capitalist regimes. But America lived on, and maybe someday just as America is one of the worst liberal systems to live under as a result of being one of the oldest, perhaps in the 23rd century China will be one of the worst socialist systems to live under for the same reason.
Now, the big question that everybody else is posing is whether or not the planet will survive long enough for this process to play out, and I think it will. I think things will get progressively worse, many places will have world-historic humanitarian crises, but the system will adapt to new conditions, find new energy sources, find new exploitable populations, etc.
Ironically I think that climate catastrophes might give capitalist regimes a shot in the arm in the same way that war can - give the state a good reason to put the money of the wealthy to work, and generate a ton of economic movement but this time you're building sea walls instead of bombs. I dunno seems plausible on the surface to me at least.
find new exploitable populations
where? nobody on earth escapes capitalism at this point
I think it's inevitable, assuming there are still people present in the time it takes. I think of a room full of switch boards. One end is 'communism', the other is 'not communism.' Each of the switches represents a different topic or issue that can be solved and they turn on and off depending on society and factors like education, public opinion, and material conditions in general.
I think somewhere down the line, communism, or a political model like that could come about and nearly all the switches would be turned to 'communism' and assuming it's as good as we believe, there'll be little to no reason to go back to another political system.
I don't know how long it'll take to get there, but on an infinite timeline, I think it would be inevitable to reach a system where humans get their shit together. Now if only we could have a habitable planet until that point.
Tangential to your question, but I think it's important not to assign too much mental or emotional or philosophical weight to a globe-spanning narrative, whether that involve climate change or capitalism or whatever. We interact with the world as individuals first, or more accurately we interact with our individual/local world before we interact with the world at large. The "world" that we've grown to understand through corporate-mediated technology is often removed from the local world we actually interact with. It's part of why being terminally online is so harmful/useless.
It's not to say we shouldn't learn about the larger world, that we shouldn't try to participate in movements larger than ourselves, that we can't use a global perspective to influence our local actions. But it's easy to lose sight of the here and now when we allow (particularly online or social media influenced) narratives to take too much weight compared to actual real-life experience.
I guess the problem is if you're limiting your potential or reinforcing inaction. If you feel yourself sitting back because communism is inevitable, you've limited yourself with a narrative. If you fall back into hedonism or nihilism because climate change is unavoidable, you've limited yourself with a narrative. If you don't interact with working people in your area because they fail various Twitter purity tests, you're limiting yourself with a narrative (although some people obviously aren't worth the effort or risk to self).
idk if communism is inevitable or climate change is survivable or what exactly will happen in geopolitical currents, but I do know my life and the lives of people I know have been improved through activism and organization.
