During the last six months I have read numerous articles aimed at convincing people to engage with the problems of pollution, climate change, ecological loss and poverty and most of them have suggested implementing certain reforms of the existing capitalist mode of production. Only a few articles have suggested that these negative symptoms originate from the mode of production itself. Even among those who have accepted that Karl Marx had usefully contributed to understanding the problems facing humanity,  most have failed to fully understand the revolutionary-humanist perspective Marx did so much to promote.

Some have noticed that in many of his writings, Marx mentions the absolute dependence of humanity upon ‘nature’, (ie. life on earth in general) as, of course, it is the multifarious inorganic materials and millions of species of life on earth, which supply the material conditions for all forms of organic existence. Every organic life form, large or small, is nourished by absorbing some inorganic material and some organic material obtained from another life form. But he also drew attention to the social form of this human dependence on nature and correctly concluded that at any stage of human social development considered, there is a material result which includes;

“.a sum of productive forces, a historically created relation to nature, and of individuals to one another, which is handed down to each generation from its predecessor;” (‘German Ideology’ . Section 7 ‘Summary of the materialist conception of history’.)

These two primary relationships, (to nature and each other) are the fundamental basis of, and are the ‘essence’ of the human species. However, Marx noted that in hierarchical mass societies, individuals were not only alienated from each other but also from nature. He concluded that this was the result of a) the division of labour (ibid section 4)  and b) the division into classes. The generation Marx belonged to had inherited from its predecessors a hierarchical mass society based upon the domination by the owners of capital, in the areas of commerce, industry, and finance. In each of these domains of capital, its owners, related to nature and people, as sources of raw materials to be exploited as efficiently as possible.

The capitalist mode of production had also inherited from its predecessors human relationships which were based upon three classes of individuals. A ruling class of the most powerful and wealthy individuals, who owned and controlled the main means of production; a working class, that produced everything needed for society in the form of food, water, clothing and housing; and a middle class, that administered and managed the system of governance along with the further cultural aspects of production which had  arisen upon this economic foundation. Yet in  focussing upon the most recent ‘capitalist’ iteration of the hierarchical mass society forms, Marx did not ignore the fact  that the problem of alienation was implicit in the actual form of hierarchical mass societies – not simply in the latest capitalist version of them.

However, this comprehensive level of understanding of ‘alienation’ has frequently failed to enter or in some cases to remain in the general consciousness of all three social classes and has also eluded many of those who have accepted that Marx had made important contributions to understanding the human condition. Consequently, many self-proclaimed ‘Marxists’ have assumed that it is the capitalist form of hierarchical mass society which is the problem for humanity and ‘nature’, and not the hierarchical form itself. Thus, suggestions most ‘marxists’ have made, both past and present, have sought to deal only with the capitalistic element of modern hierarchical mass societies. Thus a recent example of such partial understanding asserts the following;

“Any society “extracts its natural-material use values” from nature, but “in a capitalist commodity economy, this realm of second nature takes on an alienated form, dominated by exchange value rather than use value, leading to a rift in the universal metabolism.” This contradiction arises out of the particular way in which capitalism goes about transforming the natural world through collective labor. This leads to a “rupture by capitalist production of the “eternal natural conditions,” constituting the “robbery” of the earth itself.”

The first phrase is essentially correct, however, after the word “but” the rest assumes that capitalism is the cause of the “rupture” of the “eternal natural conditions” and “robbery of the earth itself”. This reveals an incomplete understanding which then concludes that  it is capitalism which is the obstacle and that overturning the capitalist form of hierarchical mass society will solve the current problems for humanity and nature. The continuing logic of such a half grasped understanding of the problem therefore goes on to suggests  solutions which are not actually solutions but a continuance of hierarchical mass society forms under a different type of hierarchy. Thus:

”This (overturn) will mean “a vast redirection of society’s social surplus to genuine human requirements and ecological sustainability as opposed to the giant treadmill of production generated by the profit system.” Such a transformation can only occur in “a society directed to use value rather than exchange value.” (emphasis added RR)

A redirection of the existing vast social surpluses assumes this vastness will continue and I suggest presumes some socio-political force will do the redirecting, which in hierarchical mass society formations will be sections of the existing or an alternative hierarchy. Furthermore directing production toward use value, rather than exchange value – within a hierarchical mass society – will not reduce alienation or over-production, nor pollution, nor the abuse of other life forms.  The consequential unbalancing of the fundamental evolutionary  (N-M-G-R + A-D) processes of life on earth will continue. The evidence for suggesting this lies in the historical record.

Use value production in ancient hierarchical mass society formations did not eliminate overproduction, over consumption, species loss, human created ecological destruction and periodic  warfare between rival hierarchical systems over resources. Whatever social system  is to replace the hierarchical mass society form in the future will therefore, need to avoid a) strict divisions of labour and b) divisions of influence and control based upon any elite determined criteria. This may also mean a sub-division of mass societies into more manageable numbers. The key orientation points for all  life on earth is to ensure that Nourishment, Metabolism, Growth, Reproduction plus Ageing and Dying (N-M-G-R + A-D) are adequate for, but not detrimental to, all forms of life on earth. Moreover, the collective wisdom and not the elite selected wisdom of human communities,  would need to be directly engaged with decisions affecting life on earth as a whole.

For it is neither collective labour in the abstract nor production for exchange values which causes human alienation and a rift in the relationship between humanity and nature. That rupture exists in all forms of hierarchical mass society formations.  Capitalism is merely the most recent and extreme iteration of this hierarchical form, but with such technological advances that make this form qualitatively and quantitatively  different than previous hierarchical mass society forms. However, it should not be forgotten that the alienation of humans from humans and humans from the rest of life on earth began from the earliest forms of hierarchical mass societies. In other words from ancient Sumer, Babylon, Egypt and beyond. The dualistic divisions of labour between rulers and ruled, between productive and unproductive labour, between male and female, also existed during the later Persian, Greek, Roman and Islamic Empires. These dualistic divisions are both the cause and consequence of the alienation embedded in modes of production based upon the hierarchical mass society form.

This is why alienation and the rupture within humanity and between humanity and nature, existed not only under ancient modes of production and continued within societies dominated by capital. It is also why these two fundamental disorders continued in those  hierarchical state-capitalist mass societies, hiding under the linguistic disguises of ‘fascism, ‘socialism’ and ‘communism’.  Class divisions, wage-labour, exploitation, of people and nature continued and even intensified under these different descriptive labels which were applied to the same old hierarchical mass society form.

Roy Ratcliffe (June 2023)