By Sasha Alex Lessin, Ph.D. (Anthropology, UCLA)
WHY THIS MATTERS
A man stared at his paycheck and said quietly to his partner, “I did everything right. Why does it still feel like I’m falling behind?”
Karl Marx began with that same human pain. He saw clearly that unregulated capitalism concentrates wealth upward and leaves workers disposable.
Where MARKS FAILED — catastrophically — was in believing that power, once centralized, would voluntarily disappear. History has rendered its verdict: No way.
Marx got this right: EXPLOITATION IS STRUCTURAL.
A factory worker wiped his hands and said to a friend, “My boss isn’t evil. The system makes him squeeze me — and makes me accept it.”
Marx’s enduring contribution was this insight: exploitation is built into systems, not personalities. Left unchecked, capital rewards ownership over labor, wealth pools upward, workers become replaceable costs, and monopolies crush both competition and democracy. This critique remains essential and valid.
WHERE MARX WENT WRONG: DICTATORSHIP NEVER ENDS
A revolutionary whispered, Give us power for a while. We’ll give it back once justice is secure. But they never do. Marx believed the “dictatorship of the proletariat” would be temporary — a bridge to a classless society where the state would wither away. It never has. What always happens instead: power centralizes, leaders entrench themselves, dissent becomes treason, and equality becomes rhetoric, not reality.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT BECOMES THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE DICTATOR; POWER NEVER VOLUNTARILY DISSOLVES
A woman listening to state radio muttered, They speak in my name — but they never ask me.
Centralized power does not dissolve because institutions exist to preserve themselves; fear replaces consent; leaders redefine criticism as sabotage; and ideology becomes sacred, whether the banner reads Communist, Fascist, Theocratic, or Corporate-nationalist. The problem is not sharing; it is domination.
THE DANISH WELFARE STATE THAT ACTUALLY WORKS
A Danish citizen shrugged and said, We argue about taxes — but no one here fears getting sick or old.
Denmark demonstrates something Marx missed: You can share wealth without seizing power, keep markets without worshiping them, and protect dignity without silencing anyone. The Danish system that works features strong unions, universal healthcare, free education, support for parents, elders, the disabled, and thriving small businesses. Socialism in Denmark is about care, not control.
FDR’S NEW DEAL: SHARING WITHOUT TYRANNY
A farmer during the Great Depression said, The government didn’t take my land. It helped me keep it.
Franklin D. Roosevelt understood what Marx did not: capitalism must be tamed — not replaced by force. Democracy must remain intact, and power must stay answerable to the people.
The New Deal created Social Security, protected workers, regulated banks, invested in public goods, and, crucially, preserved democracy.
THE REAL CHOICE: DOMINATION VS PARTNERSHIP
A nurse said to her patient, You don’t owe society for being sick. Society exists so you don’t suffer alone.
This is the fundamental divide; it’s not capitalism vs socialism; it’s domination vs partnership.
Welfare states succeed because they distribute care, decentralize power, protect minorities, women, immigrants, and the vulnerable. They refuse to sacralize either markets or the state. They are, in terms of their alignment with the two main, often competing Anunnaki ideologies, Ninmah-aligned systems that are cooperation, empathy, and shared survival, versus Marduk/Enlil-aligned systems that are based on hierarchy, competition, and domination. Both monopoly capitalism and socialist dictatorships belong to the Anunnaki dominator ethos.
CLOSING
A student asked me, So what do we build instead? I reply, Avoid revolutions that crown new rulers and prevent markets that devour their own people. Instead, build democratic sharing, regulated markets, and systems that serve life.
The great teacher, Howard Zinn, urged societies to adopt genuine partnership and democracy and “make sure every man, woman, and child has adequate food, decent housing, free medical care, a college education if they want it, a real war on pollution.” He says, “We need a real war on pollution to clean up the air, rivers, lakes, and beaches. There should be a guaranteed way for everyone who wants to work to work. Every kind of work, however unskilled–dishwashers, janitors, poets, painters, musicians, actors, and housewives should be paid the average wage of working people in the country. The government should pay the builders and subsidize rents, so we have no more homeless people or slum tenements.”
#KarlMarx, #SocialDemocracy, #WelfareState, #NewDeal, #AntiMonopoly, #PartnershipSociety, #EnkiSpeaks
