Karl Marx once wrote: Philosophers have hitherto interpreted the world; the point, however, is to change it. Most American teachers of philosophy are not attempting to change the world; they are committed to maintaining the status quo. They are academic entrepreneurs, apologists for the bourgeoisie. Their main interest is improving their status and income in academe. Obviously, they are not in the same class as Karl Marx.

America is a profoundly sick business civilization and our national philosophy—pragmatism—reflects that fact. Pragmatism’s chief philosophers are Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey. Bertrand Russell once asserted that John Dewey’s version of pragmatism known as instrumentalism is an expression of American commercialism. Russell’s assertion injuriated Dewey, but that does not dispel the fact that Russell asserted the truth about Dewey’s philosophy. In a word, most American teachers of philospohy do not threaten our ruling class and their capitalist system. This must change if America is ever to be transformed into a socialist society.

America is currently the world’s foremost superpower. It possesses a vast global empire, pursues an imperialist foreign policy, and has the world’s most lethal military machine. Our government spends over $500 billion per year on armaments. As part of our Pax Americana, we have military bases in over 50 countries and warships on every major ocean of the world. American militarism is a threat to world peace and antithetical to the UN Charter. However, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are about to alter this horrendous situation. Indeed, they are committed to maintaining and expanding our Pax Americana.

To eliminate this capitalist malaise, American socialists must convene a national convention, dispel their secatrian differences, get national media attention, and create a modern American democratic socialist party which appeals to the American people. This will not be very easy to do. That is because our ruling class is extremely class-conscious and controls all the instruments of propaganda—the schools, churches, and media. That is why the American people are miseducated and continually vote against their own interests.

However, the task of creating an American socialist party must not be neglected if American democracy is to endure. As Harold Laski argued in The American Democracy, the Amrican people must ultimately choose between finance capitalism and democracy. To see this reailty clearly, they need a democratic socialist party, supported by the American working class, to point this out and lead them in a humane and just direction; otherwise, the future of America will remain bleak and our standard of living and social order will continue to deteriorate. American socialists, the true patriots, must not allow this to happen and must encourage American to play a positive role in today’s troubled, interdependent world.

David Slive
Buffalo

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