G.I. Joe has a message:

Remember kids, knowing Marxism is half the battle.
The other half of the Battle is slaughtering the bourgeoisie in the most gruesome way imaginable.

  • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    1 year ago

    The power of the rich (or bourgeoisie I imagine given the terms are used similarly) is primarily in their money, and sense people have of those specific people having political legitimacy (or in their connections to the people that have that legitimacy). As such, if they were stripped of their money and political, military, or corporate leadership positions, and the positions of their friends and relatives stripped the same, as would presumably happen if some kind of revolution against them were successfully carried out, then they would be largely powerless, and therefore a scenario where they are just left in the street to cry about it, one where they are imprisoned but not killed, and one where they are executed in the most brutal way imaginable, are all functionally the same, in terms of the ability of the deposed rich to overthrow whatever new system exists. As such, specifically aiming for that last option is simply needlessly cruel. If one is a revolutionary, one’s goal should be to enact change, not indulge in one’s darker desires to commit brutality or revenge.

    Further, if one hypothetically was part of a successful revolution, and in a position to decide these things, then one should consider that enacting a reign of terror or equivalent, like this appears to imply, sets the precedent in the mind of the people that in your new system, might makes right, and that those in power will enact violence against those they personally dislike/disagree with. This precedent does not make a good basis for a free, fair, or pleasant society, and makes it highly likely that your new system will end up functionally the same as the old one, merely with different people at the top.

    • conneru64@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Well, it’s frequently easier to kill powerful people than to remove them by other means, so the question becomes: how much benefit must it provide to justify killing someone, including how that compares to other options?

    • Entropywins@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      I feel ya and think there is definitely merit to your argument. At the same time when self preservation of wealth and power directly leads to death and destruction like we see all around us, I tend to lean towards my darker side…