The problem at this stage of capitalism is not scarcity but super-abundance. Yet for hundreds of millions around the world, life has not progressed much beyond the stone age because of the monopolization of wealth. What remains now is to free production from private property and organize it on a truly rational and human basis. The bourgeoisie can indulge in a little pessimism in their after-dinner discussions as they sip on the finest liqueurs and wines. The proletarian cannot emulate the bourgeois in this kind of self-indulgence.
Pessimism comes from the ancient as well as the modern ruling classes.
It is no part of working-class ideology. And while the bourgeoisie imposes its own pessimism on society as a whole, let's not take a momentary condition of the workers as their permanent status. The workers show their best qualities in struggle, the bourgeoisie their worst. Permission to reprint granted if source is cited.