“Love yourself, sneeze at everyone and success awaits you in life!” – this motto from a Soviet cartoon 1 used to seem like something nasty that they’ve been trying to instill since kindergarten: friendship, collectivism, mutual assistance… Now, it is rather a guide to action. This is what is cultivated in the media and from movie screens. Is it possible to become rich and successful in the capitalist world if you unselfishly help everyone, if you do not exploit wage workers? Is growth possible on the career ladder without intrigue and without hypocrisy within the team?
Many will rightly notice that petty bourgeois manifestations were also in the USSR. Of course it is. The Soviet state emerged from capitalism and preserved its remnants, which could have been destroyed only during time and as a result of constant struggle. But, unfortunately, this struggle was stopped, and the tendency for private interests to prevail over public ones, striving for enrichment at the expense of others, helped the enemies of the labor people to restore capitalism in the USSR.
It is profitable for the bourgeoisie to have a disorganized working class, which is unable to resist the daily capital attack on the rights of hired employees. An atmosphere of unhealthy competition among employees is created inside the enterprises, whistleblowing and obedience is encouraged. Criticizing the “totalitarian Soviet Union”, the current system itself is a very typical variant of the utopia of totalitarianism. Any remark about the violation by the employer of labor law can be perceived as disobedience. Workers are afraid to express their comments once again, fearing dismissal. And the proposal to form a union to protect themselves is being swung away, hoping to sit on the sidelines: “Let others fight!” After all, if it works out, then everyone will win, and if not, then it’s your own fault! And the boss, as a rule, the hired employee himself, serving the master, strengthens the exploitation of his subordinates, thus dreaming of receiving a bonus and promotion. Here is the paradox: wage earners conflict among themselves, and the owner of the means of production, rubbing his hands, increases his profit. Feasts on the bones.
It’s hard for people to come together for a common purpose, that are treated daily by propaganda or are so tired, that do not see a way out of this situation.Or for those for whom the apartment/car/shop – is the limit of desires that dictates capitalism. But if you want to be the master of your life, there is no other way than struggle. And to know what to fight for, you have to learn. And if our great-grandfathers, after a 12-hour working day, found the strength to study Marxism – the science of society, then I believe that it will not be difficult for a modern person.
