Against Prefiguration

Many people understandably believe that we must start living the future we want to see now if we are ever going to bring about a better world. We must “prefigure” our politics. Many of the ideas that go along with prefiguration, though, are elitist and anti-democratic. Much of the world’s population cannot live prefiguratively. For those who can, prefiguration often means a retreat from social movements, seeking refuge in alternative communities that cannot possibly confront, let alone replace, capitalism globally. For others, it means looking for change through consumerism and markets. These ideas are not new, but have a long lineage, going back to Marx and Engels’ critique of “utopian socialism.”