Accelerationism
Accelerationism is an umbrella term for philosophies supporting the acceleration of certain trends towards the future, even if these trends are harmful short term.
In Marxism
Marx believed in accelerating the productive forces, since they are the base in the materialist dialectic, indispensably and inevitably driving history forward towards common prosperity (communism). This is the definition of progress in Marxism, relative to which classes, thinkers, and ideologies are either progressive or reactionary.
An example of Marx's accelerationism was his support for free trade. This wipes out the uncompetitive businesses. Note that this was conditional on free trade accelerating the productive forces. Marx had not yet seen imperialism, i.e. advanced monopoly capitalism, which uses free trade to retard the productive forces. Hence, Dengist China has had to use protectionism to develop its own industries. On the other hand, Marx would support free trade in the USA, where protectionism only serves the profits of unproductive American monopolies.
Another alleged example is his support for the British Empire conquering India and American Manifest Destiny wiping out the natives. These are examples of the primitive accumulation of capital, which wiped out traditional socialism (see Sikhi, the Mughals, the Iroquois Confederacy[1]). The primitive accumulation hurt the American working class in the long term by proletarianizing the natives, though by the short term spoils and relative position it appeared to benefit them. Marx's argument is just that this primitive accumulation could not be stopped, and that after capital has accumulated, it ultimately negates itself by socializing the means of production on a scale never seen before, leading to a worldwide communist mode of production without any possibility of primitive inter-tribal conflict.
Marx or left-wing accelerationism is sometimes presented as supporting the "impoverishment of the working class" as it will lead to a revolution. This is not true. The acceleration of the productive forces first tends to increase their standard of living[2]; but eventually it causes a falling rate of profit, to which the bourgeois respond by impoverishing the working class. It is at this point that the working class resists and there is communist revolution. You can see that historically the American standard of living has increased, and only now, in the twilight of capitalism, the American working class faces its impoverishment (as Marx predicted).
On the contrary, concessions won by the working class accelerate revolution. They hurt the bourgeois's rate of profit, giving them less money to spend on propaganda and military, and they do the opposite for the proletariat.
Dengism
- Main article: Deng Xiaoping
Deng is a great example of a Marxist accelerationist. In fact, he proletarianized the Chinese people in order to pay for the IP rents of advanced Western technology. This was the only way that China could develop its own academia necessary to surpass Western technology, therefore surpassing capitalism. (Socialism is superior to capitalism, but the West's greater size and established military gave it an advantage over socialist states, as seen with the Soviet Union and its collapse.) Once socialism surpasses capitalism, the US can no longer mislead Chinese people into supporting capitalism; the Communist Party dictatorship is internally solidified, and the opportunity begins to incorporate the entire working class, including the uneducated, into the state; socialist exports ruin the capitalist monopolies' rate of profit, leading to unrest in capitalist countries; foreign working classes also see the advantages of socialism and revolt; and you get global communism.
Nick Land
See Nick Land