- Capitalism and Alternatives -

Barry vs. Nikhil

Posted by: Barry Stoller on November 09, 1999 at 17:11:42:

In Reply to: Barry vs. Marx posted by Nikhil Jaikumar on November 09, 1999 at 10:42:44:

: Barry, I haven't read much Marx, but from the little I have read, you seem to go, 1) further than Marx, and 2) further than the leading Marxist party today, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

No, I'd say (unlike so many fair-weather socialists) I do take seriously this idea...

: Marx said that his ideal was a society where a man can work a few hours at the factory in the morning, then go fishing, hunt a few ducks, read Plato in the evening, etcetera.

All I'm doing is taking that idea SERIOUSLY.

The idea is job rotation.

If there were 'some professions' exempt, then hierarchy, privilege, and abuse of power would occur afresh. If someone ONLY does the science, then it follows that somebody else must take up the slack in dish-washing, sewer-work, farming, etc. I don't plan to be that person in YOUR socialistt utopia, Nikhil...

BTW, the (original) Bolsheviks took job rotation seriously, too. See Bukharin & Preobrahensky's A B C of Communism (Party Program of 1919) which Lenin ENDORSED at the 8th All-Russia Congress of Soviets (1921), speech published in Selected Works volume 3, International 1975, pp. 437-63.

Such an egalitarian idea was why Stalin had all the (original) Bolsheviks SHOT!

You have stated that you're a student of the 'hard' sciences AND that you'd like to write a book.

Funny how YOUR socialist utopia has certain exemptions for those TWO 'occupations.' Am I to believe that if you were studying, say, LAW, your socialist utopia would NOT have certain exemptions for LAWYERS? (Thomas More wouldn't like that---on the other hand, HIS utopia had SLAVES!)

What I see is that you envision a socialist utopia in which ALL the advantages the BOURGEOIS WORLD grants you NOW will be TRANSFERED.

Other points at a later time.


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