- Capitalism and Alternatives -

can a socialist pre-empt?

Posted by: Marcos ( Scientific socialism ) on November 24, 1999 at 00:47:51:

In Reply to: Response to Marcos posted by Stoller on November 17, 1999 at 20:55:11:

: Yes---and as I understand the word gain---I agree.

Indeed comrade.

: Public ownership of the means of production---not to mention job rotation---should preclude the problem of materially and socially gaining more than others automatically.

It should - but is there something we have missed?

: Nowhere, to my knowledge, does Engels or Marx---or Lenin---suggest the abolition of the nuclear family as an emotional unit. Only as an economic unit do they suggest the abolition of marriage. As I demonstrated here, Engels was clear about defending monogamy.

Yes, and I accept the point. My concern in the point is a personal development rather than what i have directly learned from Marx or Lenin - it is my own concern that the fabric of society is at odds with personal favoring.

: But would you deny them the primary care of their biological parents?

Perhaps I should have been cleaer and stated a reasonable age for socialisation to progress to society as a whole.

: You anticipate the possibility that some children may emotionally gain more than others---perhaps by having more attentive, patient, etc. parents---?

My fear is that groups of elitists will manage to take more than is there proper due under socialism.

: That problem, I believe, is outside the scope of the Marxian project---and I would be very careful about treading in such deep waters...

Accepted, but my concern is genuine

: To put the means of production and the spectrum of social tasks equally into the hands of all citizens, I believe, will be all the 'check' required for an egalitarian society.

: Until concretely and conclusively proven otherwise...

What if the evidence was provided in the breakdown of a socialist experiment? Can a socialist pre-empt?


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