Statement On The January 6th Riots And What Is To Come
The events that took place on January 6th clearly signal a new era in American politics; an era in which uncertainty reigns supreme, where the American people have a renewed desire for a sense of ownership over their government, but remain divided on the issue of what that actually means. What all sides share is the recognition of a fundamental problem within the structures of government in place today; structures that are as archaic as the rhetoric found within the halls of the Capitol. Empty platitudes of democracy are shouted on every television station, while in practice the only real democracy is for those with the money to back it up. Those who wait in line for hours to vote have no real say whatsoever. . The only people that really have a say are the rich and powerful; the people so far detached from the American public that they think $600.00 is enough to invest and start a savings account, or a small business — meanwhile millions of Americans are facing and have already faced eviction.
It is abundantly obvious that those in power felt a bit uneasy on that day; for the first time in modern history Americans have clearly showcased their discontent with the American system. While some lay the blame solely at Trump’s doorstep, that would ignore the fact that the current state of civil unrest has been underway for a little under a decade, if not, even longer. Americans have increasingly seen their highest paying jobs shipped overseas, they’ve seen giant corporations post gigantic gains in the artificial ‘stock market’ while material conditions for the working class are just becoming worse and worse. Long gone are the days where a person could expect to come out of highschool and have a job that can buy them a house. Homeownership has become the exception, and not the rule. These are the kind of conditions that beg for a vocal and confident leader; something the democrats seem radically opposed to. Thusly, the republicans put up the only presidential candidate in recent history that has even mentioned substantial change in any kind of way. When presented with the idea that we must return to a sense of ‘normalcy’ ; a ‘normalcy’ that actively made people’s lives worse, one can see where the seeds of discontent could grow.
The fact that the left seeks to destroy any candidate that proposes any kind of substantial change is an abject failure of the Democratic party; an attitude you see here in Canada as well. It seems that those in power don’t take well to those who seek to change the system. This fact, amongst others, lends legitimacy to the idea that there’s corruption sewn into the fabric of “American Democracy”. As such, “Election rigging” seems not only possible, but essential. Perhaps it’s not directly changing who voted for who; sometimes it takes the shape of arbitrary district lines to get this or that party more votes — sometimes it’s as simple as taking people off the voting registry. Yet, this is the democracy held up to the entire world as a model system. This is the democracy that has the right to go into other countries and tell them how their democracy should be done — at the cost of the American taxpayer.
One thing that has become clear today is that this is not a problem that will end with a Biden presidency — it will only get worse. The American condition will not change in a way that can satisfy the masses, as the system is not built to satisfy the masses. The system is built to satisfy the needs of the rich, privileged few. That’s how the media can write off the protestors as “senseless anarchists”. They are not able to empathize with the conditions an average American faces. For them, life is a bed of roses. Trump’s president and they get paid thousands upon thousands of dollars to talk about it; Biden’s president, they get paid those same amounts not to talk about it. American life, and for a matter of fact, Canadian life as well, has become substantially worse since the 1980’s. While we may have more modern conveniences, ‘economic mobility’ seems less like a tangible concept, and more like a universal lottery in which some people aren’t even allowed to buy tickets. It has become a cultural norm to work two, or even three jobs. Due to the fact that we are so overwhelmed, stressed, and oversaturated in the world of mainstream media, we have successfully turned on one another. While the majority of our ‘misfortunes’ could be attributed to the wealthy few: we are too consumed with fighting one another over which political team we root for to actually wake up and do something about it.
That is how we end up at the events of January 6th; by ignoring the political divide that has been purposely tied into almost everything you see today in the west. We can get to a few universal truths here; we all want more, higher paying jobs. We go into mountains of debt trying to obtain that — we spend decades of our lives grueling away at some dangerous trade to achieve that; and we’re convinced that’s right. We’re convinced that it’s okay , there’s a couple thousand people that tried really really hard and were able to make giant companies, and amass giant amounts of fortune. Anybody who has ever started a business will tell you, a lot more goes into being successful in the modern age than ‘working hard’. A lot of it has to do with luck, timing — and don’t forget your fabled “connections”. The entire modern business world is based off — “Who you know.” If you don’t know the right people, or aren’t in the right place at the right time, your business degree lands you a manager job at Wendy’s. Turns out your cousin worked for a certain oil company? Looks like you got a 7 figure salary and a job title that most average people couldn’t even describe to you.
That’s great in case B, for the small, 10% who get there. But for the rest of us here in the western world: we’re stuck slaving away at near minimum wage jobs trying to slowly etch our way up the ‘corporate ladder’ — testing the bounds of our mortal souls in the marketplace of human morality. How much are you willing to give up to gain a larger string of imaginary digital numbers in your bank account? How much of your time are you willing to sacrifice to take on more debt, to buy things you’ll never really be able to enjoy because you’re spending the majority of your day making other people money? Sure you say, your boss knows your name, they care about you. But when it comes time to lay you off, they’re not going to offer you a shoulder to cry on nor a couch to sleep on. The entire system has turned us into mindless drones forced to detach ourselves from material reality, and worse, our fellow humans.
So when somebody comes along with vigour, and confidence, suggesting things that are radically different — those who are so desperate for change, will take it from any direction they can. This is one reason we need to stop putting our faith into specific people ; this is why we need to start listening to each other , ‘the people’. We’re the ones that make this system move. We’re the one’s breaking our backs hauling crates of groceries, running the mills and lathes, we’re the ones that have to go into dangerous situations to save each other’s lives, we’re the one’s selling their goods on the market. We are the backbone of this world, not a couple hundred arbitrarily selected people that clearly have nothing in common with the majority of westerners. People that eat their dinners with executives of oil companies, and receive gifts from princes in Saudi Arabia. People who think $200 is a cheap meal. These are the people that are deciding how the rest of us get to live. It’s no wonder they chose to help out giant corporations as much as possible while allowing small businesses to fail across the west. That’s why they help their friends, the big executives, while we’re left fighting for the scraps of work that are left.
It should be somewhat apparent that things have to change, in some way. What exactly that means will be determined by the people, and not by the wealthy few.
It has become simply impossible to deny the fact that much of the world, due to conditions such as the pandemic exposing the inherent contradictions of Capitalism, that we are within the end stage of Capitalism. Within Western Liberal Democracies, class antagonism has taken the form of a culture war between reaction and revolution. Indeed, the antagonism seems to be directly between two opposing victimhood cultures — on the left: the legitimate grievance of Black Lives Matter protesters who faced copius amounts of state violence during the summer. On the right: a victimhood culture based on the headlined fear of radical left activists. So why is it that the latter is the culture which has actually taken to what is commonly revolutionary action against the state?
It has been remarked that the police response to the insurrection was nothing compared to their response to Black Lives Matter and other organizations during the summer. People often cite white privilege as a result of this, but what seems to be much more observable is that yesterday’s insurrection did not effectively organize to challenge any existing hegemonic structure which the United States has been running on ever since its founding as a White Supremacist state. In a word, the insurrection did not challenge power in a way that actually threatened those who control this state and benefit from this hegemonic order. Black Lives Matter and other left-wing organizations, however — although also not successful in delivering concrete material change in the conditions of the down-trodden people of the United States — set its target on this hegemony. This is the reason for the inadequacy of the police to put a stop to this insurrection.
One can make a somewhat pessimistic point here: that humanity, particularly in the Western world, is approaching the end of Capitalism, while there is no real workers party to organize for concrete material change in the lives of working people. What happens as a result of this, given the incredibly idealist nature of Western politics, is that people look for an answer from whoever offers one. The right wing in America has offered an answer based on racial hatred, just as in the Weimar Republic in the 20’s and 30’s in the destruction of a perceived enemy among the populous, rather than the state itself.
This insurrection proved to be a major wake-up call to North America. It has taught us that these coming years will be of extreme importance in educating our fellow workers on how this aforementioned hegemony is to their detriment, not those who merely take opportunity in the immense political turmoil of the end-stage of Capitalism.
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