There is an important strategic question embedded in this thread: Do we need to decide what a socialist society should look like before we can do any work that could lead to a socialist future? ************** MB) We don't need a 'blueprint' or recipies for particular dishes in the bistros of the future. We do need to know that the wages system defines capitalism and that we would need to 'sublate' the wages system in order to get on with creating a higher level of freedom. We do need to know that there is a relation between necessary and free time and how that relation impacts on our perceived needs for goods and services. We also need to remember what hasn't worked in terms of creating a classless, socialist society in the 20th Century.
*************** I wonder how much capitalist ideology is smuggled into the assumption that all social relations are first expressed in the individual's mind (cf. the capitalist mythology about the capitalist who profits by bringing his visions to fruition).
************* MB)
All individuals are 'prisoners' so to speak, of their times. However, if enough of us see that the real is no longer the rational, our historical prison walls will become as thin as eggshells.
*********************** Is the first step toward socialism really imagining the details of a socialist society? (Serious question.)
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MB) IMO, no. The first step is negative, to see what it is that makes capitalism tick. The second step is to attempt to create the new society within the shell of the old while negating the mainsprings of the capitalist clock works.
Mike B)
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