Well, perhaps, not the whole manifesto. But consider the quote below:
'The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors”, and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation.'
Now think of tariff policies towards allies or his plan to provide weapons for Ukraine or his stated plans for Gaza. Or think about how Trump's Administration has attacked foreign aid and domestic social safety nets, and regulations that protect workers, customers, and the environment. What characteristics has Trump, who is certainly an example of today's bourgeoisie, exhibited? Don't we see the best descriptions of the connections between the U.S. and other nations as being 'naked self-interest,' 'callous cash payment,' and 'egotistical calculation.' We also see that latter characteristic in his self-worship statements.
Or think about Trump's remaking of the EPA, his attacks on scientific and medical research or his takeover of the Kennedy Center. Isn't that where he exhibits 'philistine sentimentalism.'
Noam Chomsky's Profits Over People talks about some of those characteristics as being a part of today's Neoliberal Capitalism. Note to those of us Baby Boomers, today's form. of Capitalism is not the form that we grew up under. But when his book came out, which was 1999, many of these traits were hidden in the shadows. Now despite that in the foreign front Trump is not neoliberal, on the domestic one he is. And the difference that exists between 1999 and now is that these traits are not just being exhibited in the open, they are being promoted as prized traits that benefits the common good.
It isn't that The Communist Manifesto is right about everything; it isn't. But its interpretation of the form of Capitalism of when and where it was written seems most appropriate to today's form of Capitalism as employed by the Trump Administration.
We should note that Trump is not the only problem here. In a commercial local to where I live, a congressperson is publicly thanked by certain taxpayers because they had their taxes cut. And the concluding statement is that this congressperson cares about these people because they cut their taxes. The logic employed by the commercial is overly simplistic and uses a form of all-or-nothing thinking which is part and parcel to accepting authoritarianism. For no matter what else that congressperson voted on, that they only had to cut taxes for particular groups of people to prove that that congress- person cared for them. Who cares if that congressperson also voted for legislation that allows businesses to pollute the environment or increase the emissions of greenhouse gases? Who cares if that congressperson also voted for legislation that allows businesses to exploit workers and/or cheat customers? Who cares if that congressperson also voted for legislation that will stop research on diseases and the environment? And who cares if that congressperson also voted for legislation that will cause the national debt to increase and perhaps reach a tipping point? All that congressperson had to do was to vote for tax cuts to show that they care.
Of course DOGE paved the way for those tax cuts. And I imitated DOGE's approach in my approach to life, it might look like the following. For example, if I wanted to lose weight, I could ask myself which limb I use the least and then have it amputated. I could refuse to pay my car insurance because I haven't had an accident in a while. What could go wrong with that philosophy?
Trump's 'America First' motto is calling on America to be a selfish nation. And this should be considered to be more than ironic because of Trump's support from the Evangelical community. But perhaps it should be expected since many in the Evangelical community uncritically embrace Capitalism, even today's Neoliberal form. That such an embrace of Capitalism exhibits traits such as 'naked self-interest' and 'egotistical calculation.' From their devotion to their information bubble, we know that many from the Evangelical community also show a 'philistine sentimentalism.' Perhaps we should ask ourselves if Capitalism has more of an influence on the Evangelical Community than our preaching of the Gospel has on Capitalism.
Capitalism revolves around making personal prosperity one's first pursuit. It derives its motivational energy from its promotion on maximizing profits. Perhaps, just as war corrupts all of its participants, something I have heard from both a war correspondent and people in the military, so too does Capitalism. For what drives a Capitalist nation is not just the desire to make profit seeking its number one priority, it is the consumer mentality. Consumerism makes Capitalist economies tick.
In a consumeristic economy, the strong tendency of its participants is for those people to measure their personal significance by what and how much they consume. Martin Luther King Jr. expressed this fear about America because of its Capitalist economic system when he wrote, in Stride Toward Freedom, that people would exclusively judge themselves by their income and possessions rather than by what they contributed to others and their relationships with people.
In his speech on the Vietnam War, he wrote the following, which has been cited on this blog a few times:
'I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin...we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered'
Note what King associates a thing-oriented society, which a consumer oriented society is: 'racism, extreme materialism, and militarism.' Do we see how the more consumer oriented we become, the fewer people can remain unscathed from how it corrupts. And that consumerism is driven by economic systems that lean heavily toward Capitalism--especially today's Neoliberal Capitalism.
It would be easy to point fingers at others at this point, but one can do so only when they are suffering from significant self-delusions. These points being brought up here for there for us to acknowledge where we have been corrupted first.
And so, no, we can't just point our fingers at Trump and others like him and be done with looking at how our nation should change. We also need to look at ourselves, and perhaps at ourselves first. If we have passionately embraced Capitalism because of how it has allowed us to become more prosperous consumers, how are we also confirming what was previously cited from The Communist Manifesto about Capitalism, especially Capitalism here and now. Just perhaps we can't change who our leaders are without first changing who we are.
