Pope, Revolution and AI: Part 2
Our Time is Now!
Worries about losing jobs to artificial intelligence (AI) are so common that even the Pope must address the issue. In his encyclical issued on May 25 the Pontiff stated that corporations use AI in “the pursuit of greater profits that cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs.“1
Indeed, AI is transforming work today right before our eyes, replacing “white collar” jobs, including knowledge workers, far more rapidly than the replacement of “blue collar” workers by robots.
Capitalists laying off workers can’t be stopped by Papal decree.
The capitalist class owns AI, not the Vatican. If capitalist “A” has an AI agent that lowers production costs, and capitalist “B” doesn’t, B goes out of business or is bought out by A. This is a law of competitive capitalism that the capitalists must obey or else perish.
AI in the hands of the Capitalists Class is creating revolution by destroying jobs, the economy, and the way of life under capitalism.
Revolutions work by first destroying the existing base of society, the manner that people use to make their food, clothing, and shelter, their necessities. Revolutions happen when there are new and superior means of producing those necessities. After the old and less productive base is demolished, a new way of life can be built, one that includes a new base and a new “superstructure,” the political, economic, educational, etc. institutions that support and protect the base.
The First Revolution came about from the discovery of agriculture, the ability of people to domesticate and propagate plants and animals. This base of farming displaced and destroyed many of the small bands of hunters and foragers that formed during the previous way of life, which was based on cooperative foraging and hunting.2
Over time, agricultural wealth became the private property of a ruling class that enslaved many in the direct producing classes. The ruling class erected a state to administer violence when called upon to protect their wealth. The agricultural base was protected by a superstructure that included a state, where previously foragers had lived cooperatively and had no use for a state.
The Second Revolution is the industrial revolution that was led by a commercially orientated ruling class that developed within the midst of an agricultural society. The new ruling class enriched itself through global commerce and industry, including the commercialization of agriculture. This was accomplished by denying peasants access to their land, forcing peasants to become workers and to sell themselves on the labor market.
The Third Revolution is just beginning in the construction of a base where digital technology (including AI) is used to control and update social production. This base is destroying the old industrial base that employed a mass working class. Technofascists such as Elon Musk and Peter Theil have plans to build a fascist superstructure controlled by the 1 percent class of capitalists. They have united with fascists in the Trump administration to make this happen.
It’s up to the 99 %, the working class majority who work for a living, to defeat fascism and work towards a vision of a new society that supports a base comprised of Share-and-Share-Alike Socialism.
This is who we really are: we care for each other, we come to the aid of the poor, the sick, and victims of natural disasters. We work for a better life for our children. We stand up to defend our neighbors attacked by ICE, and fight to end the death, destruction, starvation, and pain inflicted by our government.
Share-and-Share-Alike Socialism.
This is what people are built for and what we need to live a full, peaceful, and happy life. As Pope Leo writes, “Human dignity does not depend on a person’s abilities, wealth, or position in life, nor on the right or wrong choices made.”1
This is our time! There is no going back; there are no reforms. The only choice we have is to move forward and end the rule of private property.
AI gives us the power to create a new way of life based on cooperation, the way ancient people lived before the establishment of private property, except that we will have advanced technology to support a way of life in balance with nature.
The destruction of the old capitalist base is freeing us to build a new and better world! We must do this!
Footnotes
- https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html#The_res_novae_of_our_time
- Burkhart, JD, Cerrito, P., Natalucci, G., van Schaik, CP. 2025. Cooperative breeding as a likely early catalyst of human evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News and Reviews, 2025: e70016.
