[p2p-research] communism is silly

[j.martin.pedersen]

On 12/07/10 13:41, Michel Bauwens wrote:

> the inventors in world history were all hayekians or schumpeterians? I would
> like to turn it around and make it personal as well: nothing you have today,
> your ability to study, etc .. would have been possible without the social
> struggles and sacrifices of the working men and women for social justice and
> a more equitable distribution of the social product, including in terms of
> education, anti-child labour laws, universal suffrage, etc... Non of these
> things would have been achieved without the 'socialist' workers movement in
> the 19th and 20th century. None of these achievements were 'given', or just
> a pure result of automatic prosperity. So, in your own privileged position
> of a Canadian studying at a prestigious university in the U.S., you are
> paradoxically a product of Marx, and without the inspirational force of him
> and many others who inspired social movements, you might still be working in
> the mines, or a foxconn equivalent, at a minimum wage, barely able to feed
> your family.

This is the crux of the matter and which all the individualists do not
want to understand: firstly, their position of freedom in this world,
unless they are aristocrats, has been won through socialistic struggles;
secondly, their continued existence relies upon exploitation of people
elsewhere. There is no US or UK university without a war in Iraq and
Afghanistan etc. for example.

Yet they talk of freedom and productivity vs. socialism and free-riding.
What ignorant nonsense.