Reconciling the self

Becoming a Capitalist consumer .... do we have to be reformed Marxists?

I recently got pointed to a British sitcom from the late 1970's called Citizen Smith. In it a young Marxist and self styled 'urban guerilla' tries to start his own political revolution in Tooting, London (No, I didn't make it up). What I found particularly engaging about it was that he was forced to reconcile his revolutionary ideals, with the desire for the comforts of a middle class life with his bourgeois girlfriend.

I was aware of the idea that Universities were the breeding ground of Marxism and socialism, I had always put this down to the possibility that you are rarely more enabled to be ideological than when you feel most enlightened, whilst having little in the way of worldly possessions. Nothing makes you identify with Che Guevara more than eating 5p Instant Noodles straight from the pan.

So what is it that quells the new socialist sentiments? Capitalism, consumerism, and an allocated place within society? The great struggle between the 'have's' and the 'have-not's' loses impotus when you enter the job market. You can now buy all the things you had ever wanted, and you have yet to take on stronger financial obligations that prevent you from doing so.

This also fulfills the consumerism portion; that you buy things and, you become happy. I mean, now you can put the heating on all day, and afford it! (I am pretty sure that the further to the Left a house is, the colder it is). But perhaps often overlooked is not that you suddenly forget your Marixist leanings, but you are very aware of them, and now you have tasted Capitalism, it makes for better digestion. You grow up a consumer, you learn to be a socialist, and evolve into a capitalist. What prevents most of us from achieving our full Capitalist potential is the limited nature of its hierarchy .... but that is for another time.

So where does this leave us? Do we still ever think of starting a revolution in our own Tooting? Do we lay back and become pacified consumers and turn off to politics. Maybe it is a little of both, maybe we are all just waiting for an answer to come along?