Albert Einstein on capitalism and democracy

“Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition amongst the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labour encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of the smaller ones.

The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by democratically organised political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not, in fact, sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.”

- Albert Einstein, “Why Socialism?” Monthly Review, May 1949

And here we all are, over sixty years later, and it’s more so now than then. If we accept that we do not live in a functioning democracy, and that the capitalist system working within a pseudo-democratic framework inherently prevents a genuine reformist mass movement to tackle climate change, toxification, mass extinctions and social justice (for starters), then how does that affect our tactics and strategy? What, in that context, moves from being unacceptable, to necessary?