Fighting
against the current is always preferable to being swept away by it.
------Michael Parenti, The
Terrorism Trap - September 11 and Beyond
With the death of Michael Parenti, we
have lost one of the greatest dissident voices in American history.
Parenti earned a Ph.D. in political
science from Yale University in 1962, and taught at a number of colleges and
universities, never attaining a tenured position because he was “red-baited out
of my college-teaching profession and left to survive on my writing and public
speaking,” as he put it in his wonderful book Contrary Notions - The Michael Parenti Reader.
Unfortunately, this is rather common establishment treatment for those who
not only write about politics and injustice, but stand up for the victims, which
Parenti routinely did, and at considerable personal cost. In addition to being
run out of his profession,* he was arrested and beaten bloody for participating
in an anti-war rally in the Vietnam years, then taken to jail instead of a
hospital.
Booted out of academia, Parenti was
forced to earn a living by writing and speaking, an extremely arduous path
under the best of circumstances, and virtually impossible as a socialist
working from the heart of capitalist empire. But Parenti somehow managed it.
A prolific author, he published over 20
books and hundreds of articles on a wide range of historical and political
themes, commentary so insightful and elegantly expressed that it was translated
into many languages and spread around the world. To this day, his speeches,
interviews, and articles are eagerly sought out on the Internet by a large,
appreciative audience seeking a way out of never-ending capitalist horror. In
the end, Parenti may well have reached a larger audience working independently
and producing his enormous array of anti-capitalist analyses than he ever could
have as a tenured professor in a university.
Though reflexively labeled an
“extremist” by capitalist apologists, Parenti never aspired to anything worthy
of that label. As he himself put it in his book, Dirty Truths: “Those
of us designated as ‘extreme leftists’ actually want rather moderate and civil
things: a clean environment, a fair tax structure, use of social production for
social needs, expansion of public sector production, serious cuts in a bloated
military budget, affordable housing, decently paying jobs, equal justice for
all, and the like." Such desires can be construed as 'extreme,' he explained,
"only in the sense of being extremely at odds with the dominant interests
of the status quo. In the face of such gross injustice and class privilege,
considerations of social justice and betterment take on the appearance of
‘extreme’ measures.”
His bread-and-butter publication was Democracy For The Few, a much recommended
university textbook that went through nine editions. Offering a wonderfully
thorough critique of American capitalism as a unified social system (not merely
an economic model), the book brilliantly dissected the contradiction between
elitist and democratic values, relentlessly exposing the realities of class
power and powerlessness. Declining to merely denounce what he disliked, Parenti
carefully considered arguments underpinning capitalist legitimacy and
repeatedly demonstrated their utter lack of rational substance.
Taking the novel approach of actually
covering capitalist realities instead of covering them up, Parenti
delivered a masterful treatment of all the major themes of systemic
exploitation: the grotesquely lopsided distribution of wealth; corporate
propaganda masquerading as objective journalism; self-serving mythology about
the U.S. "Founding Fathers"; the subjugation and pitiless
exploitation of labor, the amelioration of capitalist abuses with social
democratic advances (the New Deal), and the constant threat to reverse them;
the socialization of risk and the privatization of profit; counterrevolution
abroad and the maintenance of a global system of power; ecological catastrophe
and the attack on social programs; institutionalized injustice pretending to be
law; political repression and police state tactics; the international dimension
of class struggle; elections as public relations extravaganzas; the buying of
Congress; the president as Commander in Chief of world empire; the partisan
courts, and suggestions on how to overcome capitalism with real
democracy.
A devastating blow to capitalist
ideology, the book encouraged a crisis of conscience in Parenti's readers that
must have torpedoed the shallow careerist notions of many a university student.
No honest reader of Democracy For The Few
could ever hope to take life quite so unseriously again.
Possessed of a biting sense of humor,
Parenti mocked as preposterous the notion that private vices yield public
benefits, the classic formulation supposedly justifying capitalism. “We have
been asked to believe," he wrote in Profit
Pathology, "that in the paradise of
laissez-faire capitalism, the most avaricious individuals, in pursuit of the
most irresponsible self-serving ends, can ride bronco across a wide open free
market, unbridled and unrestrained, while miraculously producing optimal
outcomes beneficial for all of society.”
Even as a fairy tale this would seem overly-fantastic, yet it is readily
believed by many of those at the alleged pinnacle of intellectual achievement,
polishing their sterling credentials.
Parenti's ironic barbs were the
frosting on the cake of a comprehensive analysis that exposed establishment
thinkers as the charlatans they were. In fact, his relentlessly probing mind
sometimes put him ahead of even the best of his fellow dissident thinkers. Two
years before Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky came out with Manufacturing Consent, for example, Parenti published his own
critique of the mass media, Inventing
Reality, a superbly lucid skewering of capitalist dogmas that is sadly
still relevant forty years after publication.
Noting the knee-jerk rejection of any
criticism of capitalism at all, Parenti called out the mass media's sheer
defensiveness for its complete lack of substantive engagement. “ . . . it can
be observed that people who never complain about the one-sidedness of their
mainstream political education are the first to complain of the one-sidedness
of any challenge to it," he wrote. "Far from seeking a diversity of
views, they defend themselves from the first exposure to such diversity,
preferring to leave their conventional political opinions unchallenged.”
The reason, of course, is that disciplined not-thinking when thinking is called
for paves the way for capitalist career success.
Eagerly zeroing in on the ideological
slant to political commentary under American capitalism, Parenti objected to
its Alice-In-Wonderland-like insistence on reverse causation. “In the news
media, slums are caused by people who live in them and not by real estate
speculators, fast-buck developers, tax-evading investors, and rent-gouging
landlords." Somehow, what stands in need of reform is not the system, but
the people victimized by it. As Parenti explained the capitalist logic:
"Poverty is a problem of the poor, who need to be taught better values and
a more middle-class lifestyle.”
A similarly perverse logic was applied
in describing Third World nations as "undeveloped" and
"poor," as though the condition were incidental to being embedded in
a capitalist economy, rather than a logical consequence of that fact. In
reality, argued Parenti, such nations "are overexploited and the source of
great wealth, their resources and cheap labor serving to enrich investors. Only
their people remain poor."
Inventing
Reality also called out tricks of labeling attempting to manipulate
our perceptions of which governments should be considered good and which evil,
without offering a rational analysis of their respective achievements. Salvador
Allende’s democratically elected socialist government, for example, was
referred to in the U.S. media as the “Allende regime,” while Pinochet’s blood-drenched dictatorship was the
“Chilean government” in the years
following the 1973 U.S.-instigated coup.
In what Parenti called "an
inversion of reality equal to any Orwellian doublethink," the unprovoked
U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983 was described as a liberation of the island.
“U.S. marines and the 82ndAirborne Division were portrayed (in the
press) as rescuers and helpers, while Cuban teachers, doctors, and construction
workers (on the island in solidarity with the Grenadian people) were seen as
agents of terrorism," he wrote.
Parenti was especially effective in
criticizing the mass media's wildly inaccurate references to Marxism. Though
not a declared Marxist himself, he felt obligated to at least try to offer a
fair appraisal of Marxism's intentions and performance, rather than parrot
absurd capitalist stereotypes and vulgar smears just to get ahead. “The
revolutionary and Marxist left," he said, "is committed to using a
country’s resources and labor for the purpose of eliminating poverty and
illiteracy and serving the social needs of the populace rather than the profit
needs of rich investors," ideals the Left was not content to leave
confined to academic seminars: "These are not only the theoretical goals
of socialism but the actual accomplishments of revolutionaries in power.”
Parenti argued that the establishment's
inability to engage with socialist critique was based on the prior assumption
that capitalism is the only "natural" and therefore valid economic
system, making argument apparently superfluous. “The press views any attempt to
alter the capitalist economy as an attempt to dismantle all economic
arrangements," Parenti wrote. What might be harmful to capitalist class
interests is treated as harmful to all of society itself. Likewise, any attempt
to transform the capitalist social
order is portrayed as an attack on all social
order and an invitation to chaos.”
The "there is no alternative"
axiom conveniently prevents reflection on capitalism's glaring flaws. “The
press’s systemic class function is to purge popular consciousness of any
awareness of the disturbingly inequitable, exploitative, repressive, and
violent consequences of capitalist rule at home and abroad,” Parenti observed.
This is accomplished with generous doses of distortion and fabrication, which
dull the mind and stifle curiosity. “Political orthodoxy, like custom itself,
is a mental sedative," Parenti observed, "while political deviancy,
is an irritant. Devoid of the supportive background assumptions of the dominant
belief system, the deviant view sounds just too improbable and too
controversial to be treated as news, while the orthodox view appears as an
objective representation of reality itself.”
A key feature of orthodoxy's
upside-down perspective is the belief that capital creates, rather than is
created (by workers), a notion that emerged from a prolonged process of capital
accumulation. In Land of Idols,
Parenti points out that the word "manufacturer" used to refer to the
worker, the person who made things by hand. Today, the term refers to the
owner, who expropriates both the labor that makes products and the name
referring to those who have labored. Thus, industrial corporations are called
"producers" and agricultural firms "growers," though in
reality they produce and grow nothing.
"The real producers are those who apply their brains, brawn, and talents
to the creation of goods and services," explained Parenti. Corporations
produce profits, and should be known
as "organizational devices for the expropriation of labor and for the
accumulation of capital," a bullseye description of their parasitic actual
function.
This expropriation - on a massive scale
- is the cause of mass poverty. "When large surpluses are accumulated by
the few, then want and deprivation will be endured by the many who have created
the surplus," wrote Parenti in Dirty
Truths. Historical evidence of the process abounds: "Slaveholders lived
in luxury and opulence because slaves toiled from dawn to dusk creating the
slaveholder’s wealth while consuming but a meager portion for subsistence.
Lords and ladies lived in great castles amidst splendid finery with tables
laden with food because there were servants and serfs laboring endless hours to
sustain them in the style to which they were accustomed."
Since the process is not all that
different today, Parenti asked, "Do the big shareholders, who spend their
time boating, traveling, partying, attending charity balls, or running for
public office create the fortunes that accumulate from their investments? In reality,
class systems of accumulation are zero-sum.”
Capitalism's insatiable drive to
accumulate for the few displaces production to satisfy community needs: “The
ultimate purpose of the free market is to create not use value but exchange
value, not useful things but profitable ones. The goal is not to produce goods
and services for human needs per se but to make money for the investor. Money
harnesses labor in order to convert itself into goods and services that will
bring in still more money. Capital annexes living labor in order to create more
capital.”
A large part of that capital is then
dedicated to inducing mass conformity to a system very much not in the interest
of those whose needs are being displaced. Parenti emphasized that advertising,
for example, directs our critical faculties away from the capitalist system and
its commodities and towards ourselves: “Many commercials characterize people as
loudmouthed imbeciles whose problems are solved when they encounter the right
medication, cosmetic, cleanser, or gadget. In this way industry confines the
social imagination and cultural experience of millions, teaching people to
define their needs and lifestyles according to the dictates of the commodity
market.”
Presented with consumption norms
depicted in ads, Parenti observed, people discover “that they are not doing
right for baby’s needs or hubby or wifey’s desires; that they are failing in
their careers because of poor appearance, sloppy dress, or bad breath; that
they are not treating their complexion, hair, or nails properly; that they
suffer unnecessary cold misery and headache pains; that they don’t know how to
make the tastiest coffee, pie, pudding, or chicken dinner; nor, if left to
their own devices, would they be able to clean their floors, sinks, and toilets
correctly or tend to their lawns, gardens, appliances, and
automobiles."
In short, they learn that they are not
citizens of a democracy but defective consumers. What is to be done? "In
order to live well and live properly consumers need corporate producers to
guide them," Parenti explained. "Consumers are taught personal
incompetence and dependence on mass market producers.”
Hallelujah. What follows from the fact
that incompetence and dependence are now social necessities? Parenti drew attention
to the advertisers' end game: an "individual" shorn of all organic
ties to others, pathetically trying to compensate for this staggering loss by
obeying the dictates of limitless consumption: “Just as the mass market
replaced family and community as provider of goods and services, so now
corporations replace parents, grandparents, midwives, neighbors, craftspeople,
and oneself in knowing what is best. Big business enhances its legitimacy and
social hegemony by portraying itself as society’s Grand Provider.”
At the time Parenti wrote Inventing Reality, the U.S. mass media
portrayed such degradation as an enviable monopoly of the West, while also
insisting that the U.S.'s chief ideological rival at the time (the USSR) was a
dungeon state run by "demonic henchmen of a satanic ideology," to
quote the late Alan Watts.
Parenti was always a good antidote to
slam-dunking on the highly caricatured Communist state. For example, in
response to the widely touted claim that U.S. workers were far better off than their
Soviet counterparts, Parenti pointed out that that depended on an initial and
quite inaccurate assumption that Soviet workers were slaves entitled to
nothing. “Far from lacking in benefits and rights," he corrected,
"Soviet workers have a guaranteed right to a job; relatively generous
disability, maternity, retirement, and vacation benefits; an earlier retirement
age than American workers (60 for men, 55 for women); free medical care; free
education and job training; and subsidized housing and education.”
Though staunchly anti-capitalist
himself, Parenti was open-minded enough to concede that which group was
"better off" depended on one's values: “If measured by the
availability of durable-use consumer good such as cars, telephones, lawnmowers,
and dishwashers, the Soviet worker’s standard of living is lower than the
American coworker’s. If measured by the benefits and guarantees mentioned
above, Soviet workers enjoy more humane and secure working and living
conditions than their American counterparts.”
A fair evaluation, and for that very
reason one that was absolutely unavailable to mass audiences in the United
States, who were relentlessly propagandized to believe that the Soviet Union
was a "shithole" country, to use more recent billionaire vocabulary.
Completely out of the picture, not just
in the mass media but across the political spectrum, was even a brief reference
to the actual challenges and achievements of the USSR, a clarifying context
that Parenti, but few others, provided:
"Sorely lacking within the U.S.
Left is any rational evaluation of the Soviet Union, a nation that endured a
protracted civil war and a multinational foreign invasion in the very first
years of its existence, and that two decades later threw back and destroyed the
Nazi beast at enormous cost to itself. In the three decades after the Bolshevik
revolution, the Soviets made industrial advances equal to what capitalism took
a century to accomplish - while feeding and schooling their children rather
than working them fourteen hours a day as capitalist industrialists did and still
do in many parts of the world. And the Soviet Union, along with Bulgaria, the
German Democratic Republic, and Cuba, provided vital assistance to national
liberation movements in countries around the world, including Nelson Mandela's
African National Congress in South Africa."
After the collapse of the USSR, Parenti
strongly dissented from the chorus proclaiming Marxism dead. While he conceded
that Marx's predictions about the historical role of the proletariat and
revolution were wrong, and had his own thorough critique of Soviet society on
offer, he proclaimed Marx's analysis of capitalism more relevant than ever.
"Marx predicted that an expanding capitalism would bring greater wealth
for for the few and growing misery and economic purgatory for the many. That is
exactly what is happening - on a global scale," he wrote. Or as he noted
in The Terrorism Trap shortly after
911, "The number of people living in utter destitution without hope of
relief is growing at a faster rate than the world's population. So poverty
spreads as wealth accumulates."
Decades of anti-labor policy later we
can see that Parenti was right to view the capitalist-orchestrated demise of
the USSR with foreboding: "The goal of U.S. global policy is the Third
Worldization of the entire world including Europe and North America, a world in
which capital rules supreme with no labor unions to speak of; no prosperous,
literate, well-organized working class with rising expectations; no pension
funds or medical plans or environmental, consumer, and occupational
protections, or any of the other insufferable things that cut into
profits."
Though he went to great lengths to
criticize all that was wrong with capitalism, Parenti was not guilty of failing
to state clearly what he wanted to replace it. In Profit Pathology, he said: "Our goal
should be an egalitarian, communitarian, environmentally conscious socialism,
with a variety of productive forms, offering economic security, political
democracy, and vital protection for the ecological system that sustains
us."
And he identified the kind of popular response that would be
necessary to bring it about: "What is needed . . . . is widespread
organizing not only around particular issues but for a movement that can
project the great necessity for democratic change, a movement ready to embrace
new alternatives, including public ownership of major corporations and worker
control of production. With time and struggle, we might hope that people will
become increasingly intolerant of the growing injustices of the reactionary and
inequitable free market system and will move toward a profoundly democratic
solution. Perhaps then the day will come, as it came in social orders of the past,
when those who seem invincible will be shaken from their pinnacles."
Few have pointed the way forward with more clarity than Michael Parenti. We will miss him.
*Parenti did teach at various universities for limited periods, but was denied a tenure track position, in spite of his voluminous, excellent scholarship.
