[lbo-talk] The state

[amadeus amadeus]

Amen to the thing about change, Miles. Marx wrote
somewhere that, in times where revolution does not
seem imminent, the left divides itself and becomes
sectarian in order to protect itself. (I'd love it if
someone had this reference on hand.) And in the
context of capitalism this makes a lot of sense:
various groups break into lots of small competitive
pseudo-entities, each arguing that their product is
better than Brand B. Things change when capitalism
goes into crisis mode.
--adx
--- Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
> 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
> ___________________________________
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
> 

"Mary Poppins is alive and well in Argentina, she sends her regards."
- Rod McKuen, The Mud Kids

		
__________________________________ 
Do you Yahoo!? 
Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site!
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/