[lbo-talk] The State and Capitalism

[Miles Jackson]

John Thornton wrote:
> With the exception of the anarcho-primitivists who would have everyone 
> subsistence farm or some such nonsense I've yet to see any serious 
> proposal about how such a society would function. I'm being generous 
> including anarcho-primitivists ideas as serious but while undesirable it 
> is possible so feel I should I include it.
>
> John Thornton
> ___________________________________
>   
It's important to keep in mind that money is a relatively recent 
innovation in human societies.  For the vast majority of our existence 
on this planet, humans have done quite nicely without currency, so 
there's certainly nothing natural or inevitable about currency-based 
economies.  And just as many people in slave-owning societies couldn't 
imagine what life would be like without slaves, many people in our 
currency-based society cannot imagine life without money. 

Note that this is not an argument in favor of "anarcho-primitivism" 
(whatever that is).  It's a reiteration of the fact that many social 
conditions that are considered inevitable at time A turn out to be 
socially malleable at time B.

Miles