And, yes,
"Bad deeds are terrible."
[a courtesy to Alec]
>See, I believe words mean things, and that they are not endlessly
>elastic, to be shaped to their users' wishes as individual need
>dictates. Engels' essay posits there is nothing wrong with what he
>calls "authroritarianism" if it is in the right hands. My position
>is that if what he calls "authoritarianism" means the working class
>ending wage slavery, then this is not an "authoritarian" act at
>all.. It is the use of force, to be sure - but a use of force as
>self-defense. Corporations certainly believe that to defend oneself
>from them is to act "authoritarian." It isn't. Words have
>definitions. And Authoritarianism is an important phenomenon that
>should be understood well.
Terms such as "authoritarianism" and "totalitarianism," in my opinion, have no clearly defined meaning and hence of little utility in political analysis and explanation. Maybe useful in propaganda, though.
>The danger in Engels' piece, which was quoted only in part, is that
>it paves the way for people to openly, and in fact proudly, act with
>a heavy hand over others. For ex, Lenin in "The Immediate Tasks of
>the Soviet Government," stating, ""Today, however, the same
>revolution demands - precisely in the interests of its development
>and consolidation, precisely in the interests of socialism - that
>the people unquestioningly obey the single will of the leaders of
>labour."
Words may indeed have a corrupting influence on hearts and minds, but it is beautiful words for which we had better watch out. -- Yoshie
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