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All who are not lunatics are agreed about
certain things. That it is better to be
alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free
than a slave. Many people desire those things only for themselves and their
friends; they are quite content that their enemies should suffer. These
people can be refuted by science: Humankind has become so much one family
that we cannot insure our own prosperity except by insuring that of everyone
else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.
- Bertrand Russell
The Science to Save
Us From Science
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The Big Lie
Explaining the Orwellian semantics of the
Heilbronian understanding of the twentieth century, Noam Chomsky tells us in
Language and Politics (Black Rose
Books) that since the Bolshevik revolution, "both of the major world propaganda systems have
described this destruction of socialist elements as a victory of socialism. For western capitalism, the
purpose is to defame socialism by associating it with Moscow's tyranny; for
the Bolsheviks, the purpose was to gain legitimacy by appealing to the goals
of authentic socialism." In line with our own analysis, Chomsky also
notes that "particularly since 1917, Marxism - or more accurately,
Marxism - Leninism has become, as Bakunin predicted, the ideology of a 'new
class' of revolutionary intelligentsia who exploit popular revolutionary
struggles to seize state power. They proceed to impose a harsh and
authoritarian rule to destroy socialist institutions, as Lenin and Trotsky
destroyed the factory councils and soviets. They will also do what they can
to undermine and destroy moves toward authentic socialism elsewhere, if only
because of the ideological threat." Moreover, he adds, "this two -
pronged ideological assault, combined with other devices available to those
with real power, has dealt a severe blow to libertarian socialist currents
that once had considerable vitality, though the popular commitments to such
ideals constantly reveal themselves in many ways."
But to rebut the "two - pronged
assault," in the same volume Chomsky tells an interviewer that "My
own hopes and intuitions are that self - fulfilling and creative work is a
fundamental human need, and that the pleasures of a challenge met, work well
done, the exercise of skill and craftsmanship, are real and significant, and
are an essential part of a full and meaningful life. The same is true of the
opportunity to understand and enjoy the achievements of others, which often
go beyond what we ourselves can do, and to work constructively in cooperation
with others.... The task for a modern industrial society is to achieve what
is now technically realizable, namely a society which is really based on free
voluntary participation of people who produce and create, live their lives
freely within institutions they control, and with limited hierarchical structures, possibly none at all."
And that is our
purpose in this book. Not merely to help people understand the U.S. economy.
Not to change it to a different form of class rule. But to help make it
classless by reorganizing production, consumption, and allocation to elevate
social solidarity, collective self - management, and productive diversity to
the highest priority, reducing hierarchical structures until there are
"possibly none at all."
To consign egalitarian and participatory
sentiments to the ashcan of history on the grounds that the coordinator
economies of the East have crumbled under the dead weight of their own
authoritianism, inequity, and hypocrisy is a convenient nonsequitor for champions
of capitalism. In the East people are currently seeking liberty. We should
hope they are not sidetracked by Twinkies, Toyotas, and the manipulations of
their leaders, eager to enjoy the even greater advantages that capitalism
offers them. While the economic
vision put forward in this book is motivated by activism in the United
States, we think it is equally relevant and perhaps more timely for
dissidents to the East, and, for that matter, to the South.
-
Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel
December 1990
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