Not viable. It’s a vulgar materialist misunderstanding of Marxism. Class consciousness and material conditions tend to develop in concert, i.e. dialectically, but class consciousness doesn’t automatically develop in response to changing material conditions. Otherwise we could sit back and let the revolution plan itself. I think socialists should lead struggles, tailored to the current material conditions, for things that will help the working class in the short-term while also making the possibility of a better, socialist, world feel more realistic in order to build class consciousness. If we’re leading efforts to make things worse for working people, why the hell would working people become socialists?
Besides, it’s not clear that the left has the power to “do” accelerationism anyway. Vote for trump? What would it matter, there’s probably a thousand active socialists tops in each major city.
Not viable. It’s a vulgar materialist misunderstanding of Marxism. Class consciousness and material conditions tend to develop in concert, i.e. dialectically, but class consciousness doesn’t automatically develop in response to changing material conditions. Otherwise we could sit back and let the revolution plan itself. I think socialists should lead struggles, tailored to the current material conditions, for things that will help the working class in the short-term while also making the possibility of a better, socialist, world feel more realistic in order to build class consciousness. If we’re leading efforts to make things worse for working people, why the hell would working people become socialists?
Besides, it’s not clear that the left has the power to “do” accelerationism anyway. Vote for trump? What would it matter, there’s probably a thousand active socialists tops in each major city.