Is anyone else sick of seeing this stupid Laurie Penny quote that communists like to use?

I see a quote like this one everywhere on social media. I tire of seeing it. I don't like that it's used as a metaphor for the enmity between classes and that we're all like slaves on a slave ship who are destined to either die or drown. And it's used by communists to refer to the class struggle, not to refer to slavery. <br><br>Laurie Penny is an author. She's British, and her first book was published in 2010 but she was born in 1986. I'm not trying to shame her for that, but I think it helps to understand why she's so young and yet so well-established as an author. <br><br>She wrote a passage that is very often used. It goes like this: <br><br>"Capitalize the C: communists believe that capitalism and private property are inherently exploitative and oppressive, and that a better system is not only possible, but urgently necessary. The working class should organize in solidarity to overthrow the system and create a classless, stateless society in which resources are held in common and everyone is free to develop their full potential.<br><br>Capitalist societies are based on the principles of competition and profit for the elite. Communists believe that this creates a world in which the many are exploited by the few, and that it is our duty as members of the working class to resist this exploitation and its many cruelties.<br><br>We are in the majority. The billionaire class are in the minority. They need us to function. They need us to keep on working, keep on paying our taxes, keep on taking on debt, keep on buying things we don’t need. They need us to police ourselves, to obey the law, to vote for parties that will keep their interests safe.<br><br>But the ruling class are afraid of us. They know, deep down, that if we ever decide to collectively withhold our labor, stop paying our taxes, stop consuming their products, stop voting for parties that they have bought, they will be doomed. And so they will stop at nothing to keep us from realizing our collective power.<br><br>The ruling class do not believe that we are human beings who deserve to live in dignity. They are not concerned with our welfare, our health, or our happiness. They are only concerned with squeezing as much profit from our labor as they can, and with suppressing our dissent when it arises.<br><br>The ruling class do not believe that we are human beings who deserve to live in dignity. They are not concerned with our welfare, our health, or our happiness. They are only concerned with squeezing as much profit from our labor as they can, and with suppressing our dissent when it arises.<br><br>The state is a tool of class oppression. It exists to protect the interests of those who own the means of production – the ruling class. It is not a neutral mediator between the haves and the have-nots, but an instrument of coercion that is used to keep the many in line.<br><br>The state does this by creating and enforcing laws that exist only to maintain the power and privilege of the ruling class. It keeps us from taking what is rightfully ours. It keeps us from rising up and overthrowing the system. It limits our ability to organize and to resist. It polices our dissent.<br><br>One of the most powerful weapons that the ruling class have at their disposal is our own disunity.<br><br>They exploit our differences – race, gender, sexuality, nationality – to turn us against one another. They use propaganda to pit us against each other, to make us believe that the people around us are our enemies. They use outrage to distract us from the exploitation and oppression that we all face. They use fear to keep us from rising up and resisting.<br><br>Their most powerful tool though is ideological control. They try to win our hearts and minds. Their propaganda is designed to make us believe that capitalism is the only possibility, and that we should be grateful for the “freedom” that it provides us. They claim that people are naturally selfish and greedy, and that if we don’t have competition and profit motive to drive us, we will never be fulfilled. They claim that people are naturally lazy, and that if we don’t have a system that punishes us for our idleness, we will never contribute to society.<br><br>None of this is true. People are not naturally selfish and greedy. People are naturally social. We crave connection, love, and solidarity. We want to contribute to society. We want to help our fellow human beings. We want to be good people, and we want to be treated with dignity and respect.<br><br>The ruling class knows that we are human beings who are capable of great love, great beauty, great kindness, and great solidarity. They know that if we only realized what we are truly capable of, we would realize that we have the power to overthrow the system and to create a better world. So they do everything they can to keep us from realizing that solidarity is our greatest strength, and that their greatest weakness.<br><br>We need to resist. We need to recognize that we are members of the same class, and that our interests are the same – not only as workers, but as human beings. We need to resist the ruling class, their propaganda, their exploitation, and their oppression. We need to recognize that our dissent is what gives them nightmares. We need to recognize that our unity is what gives them fear. We need to realize that our collective action is what has the power to bring the system down.<br><br>And we need to act. We need to act with urgency. We need to act with determination. We need to act in solidarity. We must rise up. We must resist. We must overthrow the system. We must change the world. And we must do it now." <br><br>But if we're all just nameless slaves on a ship we don't have the power to overthrow the system. We're doomed from the very beginning. <br><br>Here's a passage from Laurie Penny’s book "Exhaustion: A History". From the book. <br><br>" ‘There is a famous story which may be apocryphal about a slave ship en route to the Americas that sank in a storm somewhere in the Caribbean or off the coast of South America. Most of the slaves died chained in the hold, unable to escape, drowned like cats in the darkness, and I imagine the screams echoing off the wooden hull as the ship went down, the sound of the sea rushing in as the ship’s timbers cracked, and the sound of the slaves screaming as they died, slowly and in the blackness, unable to get away.<br><br>This is the world that we live in, and this is how we live. The capitalist world is like the hold of the slave ship. It is a place in which you are nothing but an animal, a unit of labor that can be purchased and sold and used and discarded.<br><br>If we’re lucky we’re able to live on deck, but more and more people are being sent to live in the hold. The good news is that one day the ship will sink, and it will take the enslavers with it. The bad news is that we’re all going to drown. The ship is going to hit a storm someday soon, and it is going to go down, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re in the hold or on the deck, because we’re all going to die anyway. We’re all going to sink."<br><br>The passage is about how we’re all doomed to drown, either in the hold or on the deck. Rich and poor alike. If we’re lucky we’ll live on the deck, otherwise we’ll just be thrown in the hold. If we’re lucky we’ll be allowed to live, otherwise we’ll be killed. <br><br>So this is the communist argument, according to Laurie Penny, in a nutshell. We’re all slaves on a slave ship and we’re going to sink whether we’re in the hold or on the deck. We’re all doomed. Communism is our only hope, and the longer we wait the more of us will be “sent to live in the hold”. <br><br>I’m sorry, but I don’t think this take was very well thought out. It’s more like something a privileged child would come up with. <br><br>Communism can’t save us all. It can’t save everyone. We can’t overthrow the system. The system is so powerful, and we are so weak. If we don’t obey the law we’ll have the state breathing down our necks. And the ruling class will stop at nothing to keep us weak and docile, to keep us from rising up. <br><br>Sorry, but that’s a terrible attitude to have. I don’t think I would want to be part of a movement that has that attitude.