Radical economic world view

There are two basic defining qualities of a radical. The first is a commitment to the wretched of the earth, and with it a recognition of their humanity, their dignity, their rights. Sometimes the commitment is acquired abstractly by reading and thinking and in discussion. But of this attitudes formed in this way have little real force until they are grounded in experience, until in some social sense one has become a part large and still growing community of the dispossessed. But, of course, the great majority of those possessing a commitment to the wretched of the earth acquired it by the simple act of being born into membership.

That commitment can make a social worker or even a priest as well as a radical. To become a radical, a second quality is also necessary. This is a firm belief that the wretchedness of much of humanity is un necessary and that it cannot be eliminated within the framework of existing society. This notion can be acquired intuitively by almost any observant person living in capitalist society. There are those constant contrasts between extremes of deprivation and wealth, and that peculiar phenomenon of scarcity in the midst of plenty, of idle hands together with shortages.

But unless this insight into the basic insanity of capitalist insti tutions is buttressed by a firm grounding in radical thought, it may not survive. Radicals who do not possess such knowledge are subject to rather violent swings in orientation in the face of changing times, and particularly of adversity. For there are too many comfortable theories around explaining why things have to be as they are, and there are times when it is very convenient to accept one of them. Theoretical grounding is an essential defense against this. But, of course, abstract understanding plays a more substantive role too. It is out of a radical understanding as to how the world works that one acquires a successful strategy for changing the world. Radical thought is not an object of esthetic beauty, but it is a fundamental tool in the service of these two aims.