There's a lazy optimism to this that I don't like. Educated, non-technical people, 30 and younger are struggling to find meaningful, well paid employment. That is a recipe for massive social change occurring rapidly. I'm 40 and a programmer, but I have a lot of non-technical friends in their 20s and 30s. Most of the smart ones are, at this point - intellectually - communists. Contrary to the general view, most of these people are not flaky. They're able. I honestly think the distraction of the internet is the only thing preventing them from lining me up against a wall.
What the heck does “intellectually communist” mean?
Are you somebody who defines any amount of redistribution as intrinsically communist? If so, I suspect what your term maps to in my lexicon is “a social democrat”.
If you mean “intellectually believes that by any means necessary we must transfer 100% of capital into the hands of the proletariat” then, OK, wow, I agree that’s communism.
The latter option seems unlikely to me, given that I lived for many many years on an actual commune with hundreds of extremely left leaning visitors per year, and I have literally never met anyone who believes in transferring all capital into the hands of the proletariat.
Well by "intellectually" I meant to indicate that they were not actually practising Communism :). By Communist I was covering a lot of different things I've observed:
1. Perfectly intelligent and reasonable people wearing Lenin badges
2. People talking without irony about "dismantling the Capitalist system"
3. People who actively engage with Marxist ideas and view Marx as a thinker with ideas that are readily applicable in the current political climate.
There's certainly Hyperbole in what I said. I would view even much lesser things as a bit "Commie" but I'm coming from a very different background. They would view me as a neo-liberal or a Centrist depending - I don't really know if I am...but sure you get what you get and you don't get upset...
well said. it isn't being talked about much, perhaps because the truth of your statement is terrifying for most who are lucky enough to sit at desks and collect a tech paycheck, but what you speak to is real, and not just among the younger folk. GenX has been ignored here, but they were the first wave of those affected by the changes - many of these educated people are without options after performing the theater he describes in the article while actually working hard at whatever arbitrary "meritocratic" hoop they had to bootstrap to just to get into the game at all, and were caught in the next wave. many didn't have a way to get out to that small town he spoke of either. Being in this category during the occupy wall street time gave one a front row seat to hear about, experience, and see all of this. To describe Bernie sympathizers in the way he does isn't fully honest. There are more than just younger folks in this group and it started a lot earlier than people realize because GenX was comparatively smaller and without a voice at scale (minus the social media and internet tools at first). Then there are older folks bankrupted by healthcare costs having to work until death, leaving no new space for younger folks. The anger on the ground in NYC is thick and multi-aged.
Well, the internet is key to this social movement(?). Like the internet created a space for cannibal wannabees to get together, it's created a space for much larger groups to get together and hone a story about how things are not set up in their interests. It's very seductive - I have a Gen X brother who kinda pretends to be an honorary Millenial because things haven't gone great with his employment/finances (he never saved, got a pension, quit fairly lucrative work to live at home).
Personally I think it's a mistake to view young people as acting in bad faith or having inherent group characteristics (lazy, entitled etc)...I think they do have group characteristics that stem from a fairly rational response to their downward social mobility.
I can't comment on your brother's situation except to say that if things didn't work out well for him, it's natural for him to align with a group that he feels are in the same case. You say it's "seductive" which implies that basically he's taking an easy route out of hard work. That may be true for him, but it is unlikely to be more true of a cross section of any generational group.
As for the Internet being key, I don't know. It has enormous powers of dissipation, despite appearing to be a perfect system for bringing things together.
