i always took the various “socialism or barbarism” quotes as hinting at the various fascist resurgences. that no longer seems like a satisfying answer to me. after all, how can there be a reactionary fighting force of capital without any capital? i recently read the following:

Sometimes, as in the Roman Empire, the inability of new forms of production to develop meant that eventually there was no longer enough wealth being produced to maintain society on its old basis. Civilisation collapsed, the cities were destroyed and people reverted to a crude, agricultural form of society.

- Chris Harman, How Marxism Works, Chapter 3

what would this look like after capital? what if the proletariat, for whatever reason, never takes power on a global scale? in short, what is barbarism?

i hope this is a coherent and answerable post. it’s very late for me so maybe there’s an obvious hole in my logic that i’m just not seeing that deflates the whole thing.