Socialism To The Rescue

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You don’t have to be a Marxist to see that it has finally happened: technology, driven by greed and the growing concentration of wealth, is creating conditions that will force society to build stronger social support systems simply to avoid major unrest and collapse in the age of AI.

More and more jobs will disappear as automation and artificial intelligence continue to perform work once done by human beings. This will affect not only the economy, but also how people see themselves and their place in society.

Since the beginning of civilization, work has given people purpose, dignity, and a sense of belonging.  If millions of people are displaced, not because society no longer needs them as consumers, but because profit and efficiency are prioritized over human well-being, the consequences will be emotional and social as well as environmental.

The strange part is the contradiction at the center of all this. The same capitalist system that spent decades criticizing socialism, weakening labor unions, and reducing public protections has now created a situation in which stronger public support systems will become necessary. Ideas like universal basic income, guaranteed healthcare, shorter workweeks, and stronger social programs may stop being political issues that divide us and instead become requirements for society to function at all.

The pendulum is swinging in a direction that those who created and are financially benefiting from AI never intended, but perhaps it is inevitable.

At the same time, some of the richest people benefiting from this technology openly discuss protecting themselves from its consequences. They buy private islands, build gated compounds, and even dream about leaving Earth someday, while ordinary people are expected to absorb the disruption. It can feel almost dystopian: billionaires planning escapes while society around them struggles to hold together.

The real question may not be whether society changes, but whether those changes happen peacefully and fairly, or only after anger, instability, and crisis force them to happen. History shows that when technology changes society faster than politics or morality can adapt, unrest often follows.

In times like these, conscientious objection and nonviolent civil disobedience may once again become important tools for ordinary people. When systems stop serving human beings and instead demand that people quietly accept exploitation and displacement, some may feel morally called to resist. Throughout history, nonviolent resistance has often emerged when large numbers of people believed that the economic and political system no longer valued human dignity.

The great paradox of the AI age may be this: capitalism, by pushing automation as far as possible, could end up creating the need for the very forms of socialism and collective support it spent generations fighting against. A society that removes human beings from meaningful work without replacing their sense of value may eventually discover that progress without wisdom is just another form of destruction.

The irony of Al is that it may not only mean “artificial intelligence,” but also “artificial ignorance” on a societal scale.

Lewis M. Randa is the Executive Director of The Peace Abbey Foundation.

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