Right I've coped flak in the past for refering to the importance of entertainment under any future that excludes the coercive and compulsion that is incorporated in Capitalism and I'd like to set some things straight because I dont want any comrades thinking bad of me.OK, now me personally I understand that traditionally Socialists have had a real artistic or ecological tinge and have thought, hey, if I didn't have to spend all of my life working here (and home working etc. by the internet and new technology promises to only increase the amount of time that is spent working for others interests and not your own) I'd be out wandering, travelling, painting, drawing, rambling, hiking etc. this is all well and good, I'd be on for that but one of the undeniable appealing factors in capitalism, love it or loath it (this factor I mean not capitalism as a whole), is the way in which commodities that are entertaining get produced.
Now I know that commodifying entertainment isnt exactly smart, it leads to charging people for the right to roam etc. but, to use a fairly easily confused example and risk not being a 'purist' of some variety, will socialism produce playstations or the like? I think it should.
I'll be honest I enjoy going to see films, I enjoy going to play amusements or arcade machines and I like to play playstation and I cant see socialism that is so anti-hedonistic (anti-hedonism is fine because in a lot of instances hedonism can be very anti-social, like alcoholism or drug abuse) that people are expected to celebrate a drab uniform 'work is leisure' existence lasting for very long.
Hope my position is clear on that and I dont keep getting accused of being a capitalist as a result.
None.
