A Window of Opportunity

One of the most fundamental ideas in the socialist tradition, beginning with the utopian socialists who preceded Marx, is this: Because capitalism is so dynamic, constantly expanding and revolutionizing the means of production in the quest for competitive advantages, it makes a new kind of society possible. Capitalism produces an unprecedented abundance of food, clothing, shelter, and the other fundamental requirements of life. For the first time in human history, it becomes materially possible to eradicate hunger, homelessness, and poverty. And in a world of plenty, for the first time, it becomes possible to build a truly democratic society. What stands in the way is property, the concentration of abundant social wealth in the hands of a tiny class of owners whose main goal is profit, not human happiness.

The global environmental crisis, created by capitalism's fundamental need to constantly expand production, has now added a new wrinkle to this basic socialist idea. We may have a relatively brief window of historical oppportunity in which to transform capitalism into socialism. Now that is has created the material conditions for a new kind of society, capitalism may destroy them again. It may even destroy the basic material conditions of human life itself.