"Brave New World" or "the Soul of Man under Socialism"? (was Re: Desire & Scarcity)

Eric Beck rayrena at accesshub.net
Sun Jan 30 09:55:17 PST 2000


Yoshie,


>Why do you imagine a world of "emotional barrenness" when you hear someone
>say that communism might make possible "the beginning of pleasant surprises
>& lasting friendships"?

Communist societies of the past certainly did not lead to this, and many in fact were more oppressive and regressive than their predecessors. That's not to say it isn't possible, but in your voluminous posts over the last year or so I've seen nothing in your vision--if hubris and random speculation can be called "vision"--that differs from them.

Obviously I am not as deterministic as you. I believe that some human relationships are not completely dominated by the material, and that a simple change in economics will not erase oppression, domination, etc. History agrees with me, even if you don't.

Per usual, your other posts have tangled, distorted, and misrepresented my original, quite limited comments. It would be impossible to unravel it all, so I won't try. I'll just adapt one your phrases: Your disagreement is not with what I said, but with yourself.

Eric



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