[lbo-talk] Wenn Ich Sozialismus hoere ....

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Tue Nov 23 06:12:53 PST 2004


Jon Johanning:
>
> I don't see why socialists, if they have something distinctive and
> important to say on the questions that are on the public's mind,
> shouldn't be just as pushy. If socialists have something to say that
> distinguishes them from social democrats, or what is called
> "liberalism" in today's rather perverted political lexicon, it
> presumably lies in their particular vision of what society should be
> like -- social ownership of the means of production. So why be ashamed
> of the idea, or assume that it is "above the heads" of the populace, or
> something that should be discussed "later" or "only with those who are
> ready to hear about it," like some sort of esoteric mystical doctrine?
> I suspect that a large part of the reason why socialists don't come out
> and express their ideas clearly is that they have found by experience
> that they don't have very good answers to some of the questions that
> sincere skeptics raise.

The problem with socialism is that it belongs to the genre of economic determinism - a belief that property rights cum self interest will solve most if not all social problems, from racism and sexism to a good life. Milton Friedman's _Capitalism and Freedom_ is yet another variation on the same theme.

That trope is fundamentally false for two reasons: human agency and path dependence. Human agency is what ultimately defines not only the uses and gratifications of any particular good or asset but also the cognitive frames and rules under which these uses and gratifications are judged. Path dependence denotes the weight of past experiences, habits, sunk costs and vested interests that affects the process of judging not only the uses and gratifications but the forms and shapes of goods and commodities. It is thus an exercise in futility trying to determine the course of human interaction from the properties of objects used in that interaction.

Any claim that property relations known as "capitalism" are the root cause of all social ills we experience and that the changing these property relations to "socialism" will bring universal happiness has the same epistemological standing as religious beliefs in the healing power of prayer or magic properties of fetishes.

Wojtek



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