Wickramabahu re-thinks Marxism

I, Wickramabahu Karunaratne, sorry Dr. Wickramabahu Karunaratne, better known in certain quarters as Bahu Sahodaraya or Comrade Bahu, hereby offer an addendum to the entire Marxist canon. 

Capitalism is socialism.  Capitalists are workers.  Left is right and right is left.  It is not about the dictatorship of the proletariat, the overturning of capitalism, social revolution and the struggle to build a social order where the human being reaches full potential.  It’s about power.  It is about political relevance or some kind, any kind, even if it is of minute significance. 

I am talking about my latest political fascination: sustaining political relevance.  I am talking about the joys of walking shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of Ranil Wickremesinghe, Mangala Samaraweera, Ravi Karunanayake and other spokespersons for capitalism, other approvers of exploiting workers, and other people who strategized and/or approved the decimation of trade union movements.   I am talking about how pretty my ‘red’ looks as after-thought tag to large green banners. 

I am a theoretician or so I like people to think.  I can’t say that I am frill.  I can’t say I am peripheral.  So I have not.  But today, I will say it all. That is exactly what I am.  This is why I turn things upside down (no, not like how Marx re-fixed Hegel, who he thought was standing on his head and needed to be ‘righted’).  So I said, I freely admit, that capitalists have turned around and come to accept my way of thinking. 

Well, they didn’t.  But when I stand with them, it looks as though they are standing with me.  That’s something my Marxist friends failed to understand.  No, it doesn’t mean they subscribe to my agenda,  but who really cares about such petty things?  We are talking political relevance here.  If I didn’t tag alone, I can’t say ‘they tagged along’.  Indeed, if I didn’t tag along, my picture would never make it to newspapers. 

Did I hear someone say that this is not the way to do revolution?  Forget it comrade!  The true revolution as far as I am concerned, is to remain relevant, politically that is.