Re: The Education Function

Michael Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Thu, 10 Dec 1998 11:05:56 -0500

Samael wrote:

> I'm forwarding this to a fiew friends as well for opinions.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Terry Donaghe <tdonaghe@yahoo.com>
> >Amen! I would love to see a rational defense of socialism by some of
> >our collectivist associates. I posit that it can't be done
> >(rationally).
> >
> >Any takers?
>
> Any defense of socialism I would mount would have to take into account three
> basic assumptions:

And this is where socialism is so wrong:

> 1) Human nature is such that all people try to benifit themselves (and to a
> lesser extent their friends/relatives) as much as possible.

True.

>
> 2) 'Property' does not actually exist and is merely a way of saying 'I deny
> you access to this'.

Not true. Property exists as a means of defining a resource base required to fulfill one's needs, and to define a reserve of stored refined resources as a result of work that one performs. Socialism wrongly assumes that all individuals have equal needs, so anything beyond the average is considered to be stolen from others. As Marx said, "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." Communism and socialism ignore or forget that those with greater abilities generally have greater needs.

>
> 3) Sufficient social/monetary inequality leads to social disruption.

Also not true. Sufficient lack of social/monetary opportunity leads to social disruption. Social disruption occurs when a society becomes stratified and calcifies that way (i.e. the Welfare State). A dynamic stratification, where individuals can move up or down as a result of their own efforts always leads to very high levels of social satisfaction. Witness the US today: the economy is great, unemployment is at its lowest level in 30 years, and even though economic stratification is also at an extremely high level, and we are so fat and happy that we aren't willing to impeach a known purjurer and witness tamperer from the office of the Presidency, because we are worried that it will upset our own apple carts.

A communist state is the ultimate in social and economic calcification in a stratified state (i.e. only party members get positions of power, prestige, and wealth), which is why public satisfaction is so low in such states.

Mike Lorrey