what does chaz want? (was anarchism/marxism)

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Sun Aug 22 14:38:59 PDT 1999


Angela:
>yoshie wrote:
>
>> Why should "planning" assume "a transparency"?
>
>because the ability to plan presupposes a knowledge of that which is to
>be planned, and in order for a plan to be effective, that knowledge must
>be complete. complete knowledge is transparency. if some marxist, as
>has chaz, posit the alternatives 'socialist planning' versus the
>'anarchy of capitalism', then implicit in this is a notion of planning
>for the satisfaction of desires and wants. my question, ongoing, is
>according to this schema, who/what is the vehicle or instrument of
>planning that is capable of knowledge or, granting transparency, that
>should be acquainted with such complete knowledge?

You are making two mistakes. (1) You assume that planning must equal infallibility (or god-like complete knowledge, which is of course neither possible nor desirable), or that a desire for planning must equal a desire for infallibility. (2) You assume that an argument against the authoritarian state must take the form of an argument against planning.

Neither assumption is true. There is no reason why a reasonably (i.e. humanly) effective planning depends upon "complete knowledge," unless one thinks that the only planning worth doing is an infallible (i.e. impossible) planning. So, you must not assume what you can't prove. More importantly, one may desire planning without desiring the authoritarian state, and this fact, I think, is the common ground between anarchism and communism. A desire for a free association and voluntary cooperation of producers/consumers (an expression of which is a desire for socialist planning, ensuring predictable fulfillment of most human needs) isn't an authoritarian desire.


>why does shitting always seem to be the final resort of a bedrock
>version of needs?

Because the needs to eat, drink, sleep, and excrete are most obviously common to all human beings (and predictably so, I may add), unless you imagine human freedom and desire to be metaphysical entities that can be disembodied from biological givens.


>carrol, presumably because of his own unexplored desires, goes on the
>same frolic. then again, if his desires are at all planned, i guess
>he's just back to being an asshole.

Don't underestimate an asshole. That's one of the most important & enchanting body parts.

Yoshie



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