The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

1972 ARE WE MARXIANS NOW? 455the first time in American history,political and social conditions areripe for open rebellion and revolution.But our explanation differsfundamentally from theirs. Theteachings of conflict and socialism,which for a long time were limitedto white pressure groups, havefinally reached millions of Negroes.In their incredible blindnessour political leaders eagerlysow dissatisfaction and make recklesspromises of redistributionwhile condemning the privateproperty order - openly encouragingNegro protests against thatorder. It is collectivism, not capitalism,which breeds insurrectionand revolution.Sexual ConflictIn the United States the conflictdoctrine finally was extendedto cover sexual relations. Therecan be little doubt that women'sliberation has become a major andmilitant movement.In some of its aspects the movementis hardly new. More than50 years ago it led to the 19thConstitutional Amendment thatgave American women the rightto vote. But in recent years, especiallysince the appearance ofSimone de Beauvoir's The Sec'ondSex and Betty Friedan's The FeminineMystique, it acquired thefamiliar symptoms of conflict andconfrontation. Some of its radicalspokesmen sound like the otherconflict champions although theysubstitute sex for race, class, orgeneration. Their charges are almostidentical: the capitalisticsystem breeds exploitation andslavery and therefore should beabolished. Economic freedommeans freedom for men only, butexploitation and dependence forwomen. Therefore, it must giveway to the political process, tolegislation and regulation, inshort, to a new order.Concentrations and MonopoliesAlthough most Americans woulddisclaim any sympathy for KarlMarx and his teachings, they seemto be in full agreement with himnot only on his doctrine of conflictof interest and class strugglebut also on his theory of industrialconcentration and monopoly.In Das Kapital Karl Marx proclaimedthe inevitable coming ofsocialism on grounds that capitalismcauses a gradual pauperizationof the working classes. Theexploitation profits, which businessmenpocket by means of theemployment contract, are investedin an ever-growing apparatus ofproduction, today called automation,which in turn creates a growing.army of unemployed and underemployedpaupers.In the decades that followed thepublication of Das Kapital, it