From: Alexander Sheppard (alexandersheppard@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Oct 28 2002 - 16:00:19 MST
Well, I say that the USSR was not socialistic, or the PRC, or Cuba, or North
Korea, or North Vietnam, or any of these places. Why? You say I am trying to
define away the evils of socialism. But are these countries socialistic?
What does socialistic mean? Well, I think there is good evidence, a long
tradition of ideas, that stretch back hundreds of years which will support
the idea that socialism was, apart from some fringe elements, always about
workers control. The state entered in, true, in some ideas of socialism, but
in this case the state was only to be a vessel for workers control. It was,
supposedly, to have no power for itself. Now, I think that is ridiculous and
unrealistic to expect-- if you give the state a lot of power, you're going
to get tyranny. But the state was never fundamental to socialism, as far as
I can tell--workers control was much more central.
Did the workers control the factories in the USSR? Did workers get to
formulate uncoerced, democratic-type methods for organizing factories,
schools, and other organizations? Well, the answer is a total and utter no.
It was all controlled from above, a complete tyranny. This is why I say that
socialism and the state are incompatible.
But look at the United States. We are not so much better, in fact. True, we
have basic rights which prevent massacre by the gun, and, thanks to the
welfare state, also rights which prevent death by forced starvation, but
essentially industry remains in the hands of private tyrannies. There is no
democratic structure to be had in industry. By democratic, by the way, I do
not mean the tyranny of democracy idea, I mean a loose sort of framework
which respects individual rights and lends power where it is justifiable,
not arbitrarily. Even the unions, supposedly the representatives of the
common worker, have grown bureaucratic and corrupt in many ways, largely
because people have not fought to keep them focused. The electoral system is
to a large degree a sham, a mockery of democracy constructed by a system
which has its roots in the private tyrannies I mentioned earlier. It's a sad
state of affairs, and the only way it is going to get better is for the
population to end its passivity and strike back.
_________________________________________________________________
Unlimited Internet access -- and 2 months free! Try MSN.
http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/2monthsfree.asp
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:17:50 MST