On Thu, 31 Mar 2005, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Mike Ballard wrote:
>
>> A classless society would not have a State, but would have all the
>> self-governing structure it needed--perhaps an 'administration of
>> things' by an 'association of producers'.
>
> Having just watched the aut-op-sy list (autonomists, libertarian communists,
> etc.) just fall apart because of weenie-wagging and flaming, I'm more
> skeptical than ever that this would work. If a small group of people who fall
> under the same political taxonomy can't keep a listserv going, they're going
> to organize society? Sure.
>
> Doug
But they've grown up in a capitalist society that systematically facilitates weenie-wagging and flaming, so this is a predictable outcome. (Again, the obstacle is not human nature, it's the constellation of social relations we're in now.)
I guess the question is--and perhaps this is Doug's and Justin's point-- given where we are now, can we realistically get to the "withering of the state"? How do you take a society where people are trained to value independence and individuality and get to a socialist/communal society based on mutual interdependence?
Frankly, I'm not sure. However, it's useful to keep in mind that stranger and more dramatic changes in human history have occurred over the past 20,000 years than the one that Doug and Justin are skeptical about.
Miles