The class struggle as it is constituted today in America is like a large group of people who are slowly dying of dehydration trying to untangle a hose in a pitch dark dungeon. There is no escape. No one eats anything, just water, only the spigot and the hose.

        Everyone is extremely concerned about how little water they are getting out of the hose. The vast majority of people are concerned with the large number of knots on the hose.  The capitalist class are always happy to tie or untie as many knots as they want because none of it threatens their access to the spigot. All they must do is remember where the water in the hose comes from. All they need to do is stay near the spigot and protect the one backstop knot that is class. The knot closest to the spigot. This knot differs from all the others in that it also represents a place where the hose is broken, and water is collected by those who control the spigot. This is the point where most of the water everyone thirsts for is extracted and kept from their dry lips. The knot which represents the first and most crucial blockage of the flow of surplus value of labor.

        The hose itself represents the distribution of resources. The spigot is capital constituted as raw materials or the means of production. Because the capitalists control the spigot, and are aware that we see the knots as the primary issue with the distribution of “water”, they are happy to blame them for the inefficacy and inefficiency of the hose. None of that conflicts with their positioning to the spigot or the knot of class. Because the room is so dark that many of us have much less knowledge of the world around us than we would like to have. Many of us have only heard in passing of the big leaky knot near the spigot, unsure if such a thing even really exists.

        The darkness of the room represents the alienation of capitalism. All of us have started at the inadequate flow of water at the end of the hose and worked our way up the hose until we found the knot we think will help solve our problem to untie. The problem is the knot we select for is usually the one we think we can solve or help solve as a relatively small group of individuals in the dark.  Not the actual first knot in the hose in relation to the spigot. Very few of these individuals following the hose make it close to the spigot. And the ones that do in any way that is threatening to those near the spigot are, in fact, violently dispatched. Subconsciously encouraging everyone following the hose not to get too close to the horrible noises in the dark.  

        And so we find a knot that resonates with us an individual, a knot that is your knot, and you pull and you tug and you unravel as much as you can. But ultimately, knots are only ever undone at the ends. And for those who stay close to the opposite end from the spigot, that is often too little too late in terms of what actually comes out. Even worse, one groups tugging to unravel their knot may make it harder for the next person to unravel theirs. And soon we are fighting amongst each other in the dark, when ultimately, none of us tied the knots.  Most of the knots were tied before any of us were even born. In fact, it is fiddling and bickering about the knots that is the primary reason they remain tied in the first place.

        And new knots really do not need to be tied. Because the story goes that those who first thought to turn on the spigot and attach the hose were praised as genius. Pillars of society. And they are still thought of as this by and large. Even though both things were made by the labor of others. Even though all the water was brought from somewhere else through conquest, paid for in the blood of the third world and indigenous people in America. Even though they drank more thirstily than anyone else, hoarded water, and would dictate where the hose was directed thoughtlessly, leading to the initial knots. And as they continued this behavior, less and less water came out of the hose. Which was ok for a time, because technology and conquest allowed the spigot to be opened further. But the Spigot is ultimately connected to a quantity of water that, does replenish, but at a rate much slower than what is demanded by the capitalists.

        And what the children of those who stayed close to the spigot understand is that the knots are crucial to maintaining their positioning and the one knot they don’t want untied; class. No one planned it this way, but the ideology the whole time was that we turned on the spigot, so we deserve more water, so whatever the circumstances are that perpetuate this condition, are justified and virtuous. And not everyone near the spigot is even closely related to whoever originally turned on or controlled the spigot, few of them are. Many of them are simply the ones who approach in peace and deference, without any judgement to the senselessness of the behavior of those by the spigot. They approach explicitly as a non-threat.  And with a sort of perverse awe at the rugged import these controllers of the spigot have imbued their position with, at everyone else’s expense. And they will come from all over the hose to do this, because the material benefit they receive for this behavior will be all the justification necessary.

        Some of them will be there as they are valued for their physical or mental prowess and abilities. Many of these people will be great performers and artists. Dances, plays, songs, the arts will propagate near the spigot. Things that are worthwhile and beautiful and exist all along the hose, but are most spectacular closest to the spigot. Because the people at the spigot like a show too, and it's a useful spectacle to keep everyone focused on when they look away from the knots.

        And some of the least talented among them do one of the most important performances of all. That is to loudly proclaim to everyone in the room what the most important things are that are going on. This has historically been a very important role and has always been done generally very close to the spigot. This news criers job has ostensibly helped focus people on the untying of some very important knots. The true function of this performance is much less noble. Because what is being very deliberately overlooked is the very large and leaky knot of class they are standing right in front of. The knot that is hand waved away as the only knot that is too big to untie. Or maybe it's necessary and not so bad. “In fact”, they will say smugly “there’s just not enough water for all of us and those near the spigot are actually doing important heroic work by rationing out what they do ration out, because we couldn’t afford to give everyone as much water as they need”. And it’s actually “wrong” and “unserious” or even dangerous to suggest otherwise. They deserve it for procuring the water, regardless of how. Or maybe they’ll say that's just the most optimal structure of the hose and we are all destined to spend our days trying to unravel a hose in the darkness, in the pursuit of water. With tongues like sandpaper, wasting away more and more every day. The reasoning changes and doesn’t fundamentally matter that much. What defines all of them is the blindness, apathy and disinterest in the dehydration experienced by more and more people more and more intensely. The same attitude is held towards the violence perpetrated to maintain minority control of the spigot. Those polite individuals near the spigot either avert their eyes or are ready with some maudlin justification for the brutality.

        As time goes on, those in proximity to the spigot will increasingly be there simply by coincidence of birth. A system of patronage and fiefdoms of water access will develop, centered around different very large and well-known knots, likely increasing in political sway with proximity to the spigot and number of people at the knot. But with the underlying understanding held by any of those gifted a fiefdom that the only reason they are allowed this position is explicitly because they can be trusted to maintain order as it is currently constituted. Which means explicitly not untying any knots unless necessary to maintaining that order.  Not meaningful ones usually, definitely not the big one nearest the spigot. They will make sure not to address that. And besides, how would they untie these knots if unscrewing the hose, or even getting near the spigot, is out of the question? And these dukes and duchess will be framed as heroic for the water they are able to bring back from the spigot to the knots they represent. The end result, as always, is that some will have more than others, but it will never be remotely enough for everyone’s thirst to be quenched. 

        Because that's the point. The water is distributed as a means of alleviating the pressures that lead to revolt. Not as any kind of meaningful redistribution. They do not want everyone to drink their fill because then they would have less to hoard. The hoarding is the point more than anything else and the thing they truly derive power from.  And the problem is that the water they choose to allow to be distributed is based off of; 1. how much water is in the tank, and 2. how likely we seem to stop playing with our knots and all move towards the spigot at once. And as the years have gone on, they have become increasingly confident that we will not band together en mass and seize the spigot. And so they need to surrender an increasingly smaller share of what is a rapidly decreasing whole. And while that may mean there is little left to lose, that does not mean anything if we do not all realize that. The longer the slow dehydration is, the weaker everyone holding the knots becomes.

        And it is the task of the communist to remind everyone how a hose works. Confidently and with great moral clarity.