On Failure and its Possible Remedies

In this pamphlet, the author of the texts 'Gasping from out the Shallows: Reflections on Revolution in the Early Twenty-first Century', 'On Lice and Fleas: Observations Starting from the Conflict Between Iran and the USA' and 'Their Passed-away Builders: The "Credit Crunch"') reflects on the failure of those texts to have any impact whatsoever. He suggests that the reasons for that failure include the flight of the revolutionary left from a confrontation with the specifically affluent alienation of the majority of the working class advanced western economies and the influence that capitalism's diverse notions of consumable happiness continues to have over the proletariat. His proposed remedy, which he offers with no great sense of confidence, is to develop a nuanced critique of the particular notions of alienated happiness with which contemporary advanced capitalism perpetuates its rule. He also proposes the creation of a journal that would "seek to provide a concentrated critique of the alienated everyday life to be found in the advanced economies of the twenty-first century and to address such currents of radical dissatisfaction with the fundamental principles of that life as can be seen on or below the surface of social life". Along the way, he is highly dismissive of the social struggles that tend to excite Marxists and anarchists.