T he poll questions still fall w ay short of w hat w orking people in
eastern Massachusetts (and elsew here) w ere asking for about 150
years ago. T hey w eren’t saying: Be a little more benevolent. Give
us few scraps. T hey w ere saying: You have no right to rule. We
should own the factories. The people who work in the mills ought
to own them.
Many people today just w ant business to be a bit nicer, for there
to be a little less corporate w elfare and a little more w elfare
capitalism. But others w ould like to see more radical changes; w e
don’t know how many, because the polls don’t ask about radical
alternatives, and they aren’t readily available for people to think
about.
People are tremendously cynical about institutions. A lot of this
cynicism takes very antisocial and irrational forms, and the amount
of propaganda and manipulation is so enormous that most people
don’t see alternatives, but the attitudes that might lead to
acceptance—even enthusiastic acceptance—of alternatives are just
below the surface.
You can see it in their actions—both destructive, like selling
drugs in the streets, and constructive, like the strikes in South
Korea. W hat South Korean w orkers consider totally intolerable is
the idea that private pow er should have the right to replace strikers
w ith permanent replacement w orkers. And they’re right—that’s
against international labor standards.
T he r e is a country that’s been censured by the International
Labor Organization for carrying out those practices—the U S. T hat
tells us something about w ho’s civilized and w ho isn’t.
People concerned about corporate pow er and its excesses are
urged to invest in “socially responsible businesses.” W hat do you
think of that?
I have no criticism of that idea, but people shouldn’t have any
illusions about it. It’s like preferring benevolent autocrats to
murderous ones. Sometimes you get a benevolent ruler, but he can
alw ays stop being benevolent w henever he feels like it. Sure, I’d
rather have an autocrat w ho doesn’t go around torturing children,
but it’s the autocracy itself that needs to be eliminated.