This is Richard Wolff responding to another Ask Prof Wolff question from our Patreon community
and this one comes from someone who wants to be known as “Let's
Eat Cake.” He or she asks a very interesting, and in the end, very important question too.
This person explains that they are part of a couple and that the couple together are
good earners -- make a good living, businesses that are flourishing -- but that ideologically,
they're critical of capitalism. They understand its failures and flaws. They are sympathetic
to social change beyond the capitalist system. And they're wondering, in terms of their children and
in terms of their role in society, how to manage -- if you like -- this difference between the
position they occupy within a capitalist system and their ideological or philosophical position
critical of and interested in going beyond that situation in which they earn their living.
Well first, let me assure you that there have been many, many, many people over the last centuries
that capitalism has existed who have felt exactly the same way and occupied pretty much the same
position. And I think my own experience teaches me that it is far more important what you believe
and what you convey to others with the sincerity of your beliefs
than the position you actually occupy in this society. Everyone knows
that we live in a capitalist system and that we accommodate in a thousand ways,
conscious and unconsciously, to that system because that's what life in any system requires.
Yes, we believe in all kinds of philosophical propositions, but we don't act on them. I won't
remind you -- those of you that are Christians and hear that Jesus wanted you to give your
wealth away, to share your last crust of bread, to turn the other cheek when offended,
that in the world you live in you have long ago stopped doing that -- if you ever began.
It's not that you don't believe those things. It's not that you don't want to be reminded of them.
It's not that you don't teach them to your children but you also live in a world in which
that is -- if not impossible -- very difficult to do. So, it's not as though we are newly
confronting a contradiction. Indeed, if I could give any advice, it would be to talk about the
contradiction to make it explicitly clear that you understand and recognize
the accommodations you've made to the system you live in and the reasons why you did so;
but, that you retain -- and you are committed to retain -- a belief in a different system,
a better system, a better way to live, and that you devote a good bit of your time, your energy,
your thoughts, your wealth, to helping to move society in that direction. Because you care. I
think children and friends and relatives hearing and seeing you make those statements clear will
be able to understand both the accommodations you've made and the commitments you believe in.
There is a word in philosophy: “utopia.” It's the dream all people have always had:
that life could be better. That we can imagine -- a different and better way to be, to live,
to relate. It's important for your mental health that you have and recognize a utopia, even as you
also recognize the distance between the life you live and the utopia you dream of and seek.
The tension between the lived life and the life you could lead can bring that life you
could lead closer. It's part of what makes the world get better and change. Although, of course,
there are dystopias -- horrible images of what could be that also drive some people. In short,
don't let the accommodations you've made to the capitalism in which we live serve in any way
as a barrier or obstacle to expressing, to developing, and to committing
to a better world, a better system, then you would be defeated if you let that happen
and the movement towards a better world would be weaker by your having been blocked. This is a
personal feeling, of course, and reflects my own life. But if I could say something to you all:
part of what I do -- answering these questions that you send me, producing videos
like this, and all the other work we do -- is part of an effort to partner with you
in that movement towards the utopia, towards moving to a better society. Criticism of
capitalism is not nihilism. It's not the blank rejection of what is. It's always accompanied
by the dream, the movement, the gesture, the hope, the belief, it could be better. It has
gotten better in the past and we can do that too. And it's in that spirit that I also ask you to
partner with us. One of the ways you can realize your utopian longings beyond being proud of them
is to help us reach more and more people with the work we have been doing. It has been successful
beyond our dreams and that fuels the very utopia you share with us. Thank you for your attention.