Negativity as the Compass of Revolution: A Marxist Rejection of the No-Alternative Ethos

Abstract

While the famous Thatcherian slogan “There Is No Alternative” (TINA) has been widely internalized, Marxism remains capable of negating capitalism. The no-alternative ethos may be countered, from a Marxian philosophical perspective, by means of a negativity thesis framed around the following two intertwined arguments. First, capitalist hegemony is itself a reason for a revolutionary project that aims at a world in which alternatives are not thought to be impossible. Second, Marxism does not offer a prefigurative model for communism, and this is not a shortcoming but a merit: communism cannot be known positively under the limiting conditions of capitalism. Given that communism is historical, expecting an a priori model of the communist society amounts to committing an idealist fallacy.