Marx, Brenner, Technology (Was Re: [lbo-talk] preferences)

[Luke Weiger]

> Why is it so hard to believe that people will want to do things
> for the common good, especially when they see the positive
> results in their own lives?  Is our conception of human
> nature so stunted by the capitalist ideology of self-interested
> individuals that leftists can't imagine how people would
> be happy and willing to work for the benefit of one another?
>
> Miles

People are naturally inclined (in the same sense that many species of
monkeys are naturally inclined to swing through trees) to compete against,
cooperate with, and come to (without any expectation of future
reciprocation) the aid of one another in various social contexts.  The
challenge for those to the left of social democrats like me is to conceive
of a social order that would provide for people better than Western European
social democracy but would do so by relying solely on altruism and (probably
predominantly) equally advantageous (or very nearly equally advantageous)
cooperation.  Such a conception, if it is to be actualized (I'm not sure it
could be), would have to take human nature into account, and not merely hope
that a new sort of man would be produced by altering relations of
production.

-- Luke