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PARTISAN REVIEW
in historical processes. Unfortunately the idea of the inevitability of
socialism
fits
in with the idea of progress-of which it is, of course,
a special variation-and thus it happens that many men of good will
accept the dogma almost as readily as the Stalinists themselves. They
believe, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, that the whole world
is progressing toward socialism-not merely socialism
in
the sense of
the government ownership of the means of production, but socialism
in the sense of the just, equal, peaceful, fruitful, good society.
If
nearly thirty years of socialized production has not achieved
the ultimate ends of socialism in Russia, and if, as many of us have
been forced to conclude, the movement of Russian society is away
from justice, equality, freedom, and peace, not toward them, then
certainly the case for the inevitability of socialism ought to be re–
examined. And
if
we decide that Marx was wrong, we should also
re-examine our goals and the means by which we propose to reach
them.
II
This is not the place in which to discuss Marxist economics, and
for our purposes it does not matter much whether or not the theory
of surplus value is fallacious. There are, however, three main Marxist
contentions to be scrutinized: that capitalism is bound sooner or later
to collapse; that the proletariat is the inevitable heir of capitalism;
that the proletariat will establish a classless society.
So far as the collapse of capitalism is concerned, we may as well
dodge the question of its inevitability and content ourselves with asking
what has happened in the years since Marx's prophecies were made.
It seems clear enough that capitalism, certainly the capitalism of the
classical economists, is dying. In every country of the world larger and
larger areas of the economic life have been taken away from private
enterprise. Revolution in the Marxist sense has taken place only in
Russia, but socialization,
in
varying degrees, has taken place every–
where. From the strict Marxist point of view, this socialization is
merely a capitalist dodge, but it seems more accurate to say that it is
forced upon the capitalists, who like it only as anyone likes the pro–
verbial half-loaf. Monopoly has increased, as Marx predicted it would,
but the victims, instead of banding together to destroy capitalism
in
toto,
have supported measures of control supposed to alleviate the evil.
In the same way, severe depressions have occurred in accordance with
Marxist theory, but they have been met by large-scale government
