The Architecture of Autistic Order: WSR
World Socialist Radio
The Architecture of Autistic Order. The Contradictions of Capitalism and the Appeal of Socialism.
In this episode, written by Pablo Wilcox, it is argued that Autistic thinking seeks universal principles and coherent systems, contrasting sharply with the contradictions and unwritten social hierarchies of capitalist society. The author reflects on how, from a young age, he viewed political and social progress as a clear logical trajectory, only to find that many people communicated through ambiguity and shifting expectations. For him, what society labels as autistic “disorder” is actually a commitment to internal consistency and truth.
The essay connects this perspective to socialist theory, particularly dialectical materialism, which Wilcox says appealed to him because it offered a logical framework for understanding injustice through systems and material conditions rather than vague social norms. He argues that capitalism creates chaos through inconsistency, hypocrisy, and unequal application of rules, making it especially exhausting for autistic people who rely on stable logic and fairness. Rather than seeking mere accommodation for autistic individuals, Wilcox advocates for a society organized around transparent and universal principles, where systems function according to their stated values. In this way, he presents socialism not simply as a political ideology, but as a form of social architecture aligned with autistic modes of understanding.
Taken from a forthcoming issue of The Socialist Standard.
World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants.
https://rss.com/podcasts/world-socialist-radio/2866387
China
‘In the early hours of 4 June, (1989), soldiers of the Chinese army moved against the demonstrators who had been encamped since the end of April in Tiananmen Square in the centre of Peking. It had been widely expected that there would be a final confrontation between government forces and the students and others who had repulsed previous army attempts to uproot them. But few had anticipated that the army’s action would be so brutal, with tanks and flamethrowers being used on unarmed civilians. Onlookers were cut down indiscriminately with those who attempted to resist. Thousands perished; nobody will ever know how many, as charred and disfigured corpses were hurriedly disposed of and hospitals were overwhelmed by the injured and dying. In the annals of capitalist bloodletting, this day in Peking will hold a place of its own…’
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2009/06/from-july-1989-issue-of-socialist.html
If you were in your late teens or mid twenties thirty seven years ago you would now be only in your fifties or sixties. What do those who participated in the protests in China, in many places not just Beijing, from mid April to early June 1989 remember or feel on the 4th June when the Chinese state finally used the repressive powers at its disposal and squashed the dissent? The figures relating to the number of fatal casualties vary considerably. The goals of the protesters were: democratic and economic reforms; freedom of press, speech, association and ending of corruption in Communist party.
‘The very first line of the Chinese Communist Party’s constitution declares it is “the vanguard of the Chinese working class”. In reality, the last ruling Communist party of a major country has morphed into a conservative reactionary party bent on preserving the power of state capitalist elites and advancing a distinctly 19th century form of ethno-nationalist imperialism. None of this will be allowed to spoil the festivities as the CCP celebrates the centennial of its founding next month’ (ft.com, 16 June). Above from the Financial Times, quoted in Socialist Standard, August 2021
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2022/04/rear-view.html
Professor Richard D Wolff, an American economist educated at Harvard, Stanford and Yale, is a fan of the Chinese approach to capitalism. He demonstrates that an ‘elite education’ doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve learned anything. Any member of the SPGB could quickly properly educate Professor Wolff as to why China is neither communist nor socialist.
Extracted from an interview Wolff gave to Beijing Review: ‘Today, there is a sense of anxiety in the U.S. that the Chinese, over the last 30 years, have figured out a way to outcompete Western capitalism…In China, major private corporations and government sectors exist side by side, but all governed by the CPC. (Communist Party of China) The Party formulates plans with a set of goals that enable private and public resources to synergise. That’s what the West could never achieve…For example, real wages, as in “what an average worker gets adjusted for the prices that have to be paid,” in the U.S. have been stagnant and have not changed much over the last four decades. Yet in China, they have gone up more than four times. Subsequently, the average living standards of the Chinese working class, too, are on the rise…The above accomplishments have resulted in a sense of jealousy and anxiety in the U.S. that the Chinese may have unlocked the secret to the ultimate combination of private and public capital under the leadership of one powerful political party that can achieve socially attractive outcomes—which are not available in the U.S…China has achieved extraordinary growth, growing up from one of the poorest countries in the world to a global superpower second only to the U.S… It seems to me that among all the underlying forces at work, much of the credit for that has to go to the CPC. They made the final decisions about this mixture of private and state-owned enterprises, about how to coordinate them, about how to guarantee they complement one another rather than destroy the other. I don’t see any logic in denying this remarkable deed, or in granting it anything other than admiration…There have been various movements in practising socialism, yet the impact of the Chinese model will prove prominent in the future. The Soviet Union used to be the first successful example as they survived, surrounded by enemies. China is different. What China has achieved as an engine of economic growth is now being studied by every other socialist country trying to seek out the lessons that can be applied to their own national framework.’
https://socialistchina.org/2021/07/21/richard-wolff-on-chinas-rise-to-global-prominence/
Looking forward to retirement?
Workers toil not just to live, eat and raise a family, but also to prepare for retirement by building a pension pot. However, recent reports from the Pensions Commission have argued that fifteen million people in the UK are not saving nearly enough to have a secure retirement, even by the miserly standards of capitalism.
Nearly half of working-age adults are not saving into a pension at all, with just 4% of ‘self-employed’ workers doing so. Future retirees may well be worse off than today’s.
Not only does capitalism dominate people’s working lives, the pressures of daily life also make it much harder to get ready to live comfortably after their days of toil and exploitation are over.
New Socialist Standard OnLine
Water balls-up
Anyone looking to cool off this summer with a swim in England’s river bathing sites had better check it hasn’t rained recently, because the river could be full of E.coli from sewage overflows. Of the 14 inland river sites tested last year by the Environment Agency, 12 are still rated poor, with advice being not to swim.
People understandably get steamed up when water companies use profits to pay shareholders instead of repairing leaky infrastructure. Meanwhile we get filthy rivers and lakes, and hosepipe bans. Many would like to see water renationalised, but cash-strapped government doesn’t want the maintenance burden – they have jets and missiles to pay for.
Water falls out of the sky for free. Trust capitalism to ruin even that.
https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/
Starmer’s “on the side of working people”
… and he’s “fighting” for the millions of people on low pay and insecure jobs. “Millions of people who don’t get the dignity. The respect. The chance that they deserve, to go as far as their talent and effort should take them. Millions of people held back because the status quo in this country does not work for them.”
Yeah, but your figures and your scope are wrong, Starmer. Billions of people around the world are ensnared for life in wage labour, all being held back because capital must, and will, keep them permanently on the edge of destitution. How else could they be forced to provide the profits on which the capitalists depend?
https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/
Socialist Sonnet No. 235
Reformation
Maintaining ‘Socialism’ as watchword
Can seem unlikely, when realpolitik
Is succumbing to the three card trick
Of the slight of hand dealer in absurd
Demagogy, when the popular vote
Is placed on populist blandishments,
Falsified promises; reason relents
Its influence. Without considered thought
Reform, however tempting it appears,
Remains a mistaken gamble to make,
Especially with the future as the stake:
Gamblers regret can last for years and years.
There’s none as asleep as the mistaken,
Being so, so difficult to awaken.
D. A.
Let ’em eat cake
Less than twelve months ago SOYMB posted this:
‘When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don’t want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit ‘tasty’. There is always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you. Let’s have three pennorth of chips!’
George Orwell The Road to Wigan Pier
‘Fish and chips, a traditional British meal valued for its affordability, has seen a significant increase in price over the past five years, several UK media outlets reported citing data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
According to July figures, the cost of fish and chips has surged by around 52% to nearly £10 ($13) per serving from an average of £6.5 in July 2019. According to the ONS, the cost of the popular dish has seen the largest increase over the reporting period in comparison to pizza, kebabs, and Indian and Chinese food…Western sanctions and Russia’s countermeasures also affected energy supplies, which triggered a rise in energy costs for British businesses. As a result, the price of fish and chips spiked by 19% by March 2023… According to the latest Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs’ Agricultural Price Index (API), in the 12 months to May 2024, potato prices posted the largest increase among UK agricultural goods, surging 4.1%.Industry representatives warn that fish and chips is becoming less affordable, and may soon lose its status as an iconic British dish…“People think that fish and chips is a cheap meal and it just isn’t. People are prepared to pay £15-20 for a pizza but they’re not prepared to pay it for a portion of fish and chips,” Angela Cartwright, the owner of Kingfisher Fish Bar in Salford, said.’
https://soymb.com/2024/08/tell-capitalism-its-time-to-cod-off-sic.html
A new piece in The Sun notes that out of the nine thousand fish and chip shops in the Uk five hundred of them are now closing down yearly This number may increase due to the triple threat of spiralling costs of energy, cooking oil and fish. Red diesel fuel used by Trawlers has doubled. One fisherman quoted said that his fuel costs had gone from ten thousand pounds to over twenty thousand pounds for a week’s fishing. The average cost of fish and chips is now twelve pounds per portion.
The National Federation of Fish Fryers criticised Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s Net Zero drive for “lacking common sense”.
President Andrew Crook said Chancellor Rachel Reeves should cut fuel duty while the Strait of Hormuz closure is impacting on trawlers and distributors.
He said: “We’re in danger of throwing our economy away to try to meet the arbitrary Net Zero goal. Independent fish and chip shops are feeling the brunt. The price of cod has doubled and it’s very difficult to turn a profit.’
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/38936139/fish-and-chip-shops-face-closure-amid-soaring-costs/
A BBC investigation found that some North Western chip shops were selling a catfish species, known as pangasius or river cobbler which is £3.40 per kilogram wholesale, whereas cod and haddock typically go for £15 per kilogram without customers being fully aware of what they were buying.
‘Much like in the 2013 horsemeat scandal, eating cheaper fish does not present a health risk, but concerns have been raised about consumer deception.
“It probably does go on,” said Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Friers.
“It is fine to eat, ( pangasius) there’s nothing wrong with it, but when you go and get fish and chips most people expect a marine species, so cod, haddock or plaice.
“I think if you’ve got something that’s farmed, like pangasius, as long as it’s advertised as such that’s fine.
“It’s when it’s being sold at a cod price that’s a problem and shops need to be careful about doing that.”’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg0337n0y1o
Profit is the name of the game under capitalism so all sort of subterfuges are employed to acquire more and more.
Vote for World Socialism
Editorial from the April 2006 issue of the Socialist Standard
‘We live in a world of inequality where wealth is the real source of power, profits come first and billions are poor through no fault of their own.
All communities are blighted by inequality and deprivation.
In the local elections in 4 May, as in all elections, you have a choice.
You can vote for candidates who would work within this system and help keep it going. Or you can use your vote to overturn it and end these blights once and for all.
Real power today does not lie in elected bodies but in the hands of those who own the world’s wealth. Labour, Tories, Liberals and the others in this election are just arguing over how to use the scraps thrown from the billionaire’s table. A system based on private property has to be run in the interests of its owners. Their profits have to come first.
So long as inequality of wealth and power exist elections such as these are just about who is to run this system. The only rational choice is to reject the compromisers and reformists and use every resource available to end it.
You don’t need to vote for any particular party to get rubbish collected, schools built or amenities provided. Communities don’t need leaders to get those things for themselves. You know what you need better than any careerist councillor ever could and, if there was real democracy, could easily arrange this. Under the present system, though, you only get them, so long as those who own the world make the resources available. But they alwaysgive priority to making more profits, so these things are always under-resourced and never done properly.
You can instead send a clear signal to other people like yourselves upon whose hard work this system is built that you want to put an end to it, by refusing to vote for any of the capitalist parties and instead writing“World Socialism” across the ballot paper.
When enough of us join together determined to end inequality and deprivation we can transform elections into a means of doing away with a society of minority rule in favour of real democracy and equality.
Our common efforts could feed, clothe and house every man woman and child on Earth without exception but we are held back because the owners of the world demand their cut before they’ll let us use the world’s resources. The iron laws of No Profit, No Production and No Profit, No Employment are a cage for us.
If you agree with the idea of a society of common and democratic ownership where no-one is left behind and where things are produced because they are needed, and not to make profits for some capitalist corporation or to enrich some bloated millionaire, and are prepared to join with us to achieve this, then vote for World Socialism.’
(7 May, 2026, The Socialist Party is standing candidates in three wards in Lambeth.)
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2020/04/elections-what-for-2006.html