From a Prisoner
On BA’s Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy
January 13, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
The following is a recent letter from a Texas prisoner.
Revolutionary Communist Party:
Greetings and Respects! You sent me a book awhile back entitled Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy. I initially began reading it, but it didn’t really ‘grip’ me, so I shot it to a neighbor to check out while I continued my other studies. Recently I got back into it and after about the 12th page literally could not put it down. I would try and set it aside so as to focus on other things, but noticed my thoughts and mind were absorbed on the topics addressed which compelled me to constantly re-open the book to continue reading and thinking deeply on what was said.
I enjoy the fact that it addresses and enlightens us to the actual, logical motives of the forces in power. The world is not as chaotic and illogical as it, at times, appears to be. I’m beginning to understand, through the aid of your educational materials, that there is a rational explanation for almost everything that happens and that people are driven and moved by certain ideals and objectives.
This being the case, I see it is also possible for other people, such as we communists, to be driven and moved by other, higher ideals and objectives. Ideals that transcend the acquisition of a never-ending supply of shiny beads and material wealth. Ideals that end not in the exaltation of one people over another as a means of establishing personal worth. I also see that if we can be moved by such ideals, how it becomes possible for masses driven by such principles to impact the world at large in the same manner as, if not more so, [than] the current masses are moved into fulfilling the will of the bourgeoisie.
Too many of us have been like the jack-ass on the cartoons. Never seeing beyond the carrot on the stick that the bourgeois dangles before our eyes. Taught and conditioned to idolize and strive for the very things that the current powers have a monopoly of control over. And, in effect, being made to move and march in any direction they may choose to influence us to move. (The example about the inner city youth who are irrationally obsessed with expensive rims was a perfect illustration of the way “wants and needs are fundamentally shaped by the prevailing production and social relations and by the superstructure that…serves… [them]” p.69).
We are literally shackled and enslaved by the very desires that we submitted ourselves to when they offered them for us to adopt as our own. I can see how it is possible to reject everything they have to offer, and how, in the end, they have absolutely nothing to shape and control us with. Nothing, that is, except brute force. If there ever comes a time where masses of us begin to openly disdain the wealth, and material things that move them, and to a lesser extent, move us, I’m sure the mask will finally be ripped off this beast for what it is. And the world will see it and know; the myth of their legitimacy will forever be shattered.
Anyways—thanks for the eye-opening literature and a new, more comprehensive and ever expanding way in which I can view the world in which I live. And also thanks for the viable, logical alternative that actually makes some sort of sense in this senseless world. “Money may make the world spin—for now—but it doesn’t have to continue being the force that makes it spin.”
Revolutionary Regards,
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