On Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:55:00 -0400, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> Attacks on inequality are, it seems, a crucial element in political
> agitation. But lets be clear. At least from a Marxist perspective, the
> demand for equality is quite false. And the formula for communist
> society
> does _not_ imply equality; in fact it is a call for inequality:
>
>> From each according to his [her] ability:
>
> In other words, humans are unequal in their ability, and it is wrong to
> call
> for anyone to provide more than his/her abilities provide.
>
> To each according to his [her] needs.
>
> Humans do not have equal needs; many need much more than others. That
> need
> should be satisfied. Again, communist society is a fundamentally unequal
> society.
>
> The aim of communist society is human freedom, and human freedom (however
> defined) is in contradiction to the demand for equality. We demand much
> more
> medical care for the ill than for the well. That is only one example.
>
> And I think that even for agitational purposes it would be well to get
> away
> as much as possible from attacks on inequality and put more emphasis on
> the
> constraints on human freedom built into capitalist relations of
> production.
>
> Carrol
>
> P.S. And in politics, of course, we demand very unequal effort from
> various
> sectors of the population or from particular comrades. For example, we do
> not place political demands on children nor on parents. That is why the
> suggestion that students should refuse to take the tests associated with
> No
> Child Left Behind is such an outrageous suggestion. Individual students
> and
> individual parents must not be asked to stick their necks out. The
> political
> burden of attacking NCLB must be born by others.
>
>
>
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