Article discreditng the thesis that Mao "killed millions of people" in The Great Leap
#52
(12-29-2016, 09:05 PM)EspyLacopa Wrote: I'm snipping out most of your reply to make a point here:

Not everyone *wants* to contribute to society, for whatever reasons they may have.

How does Communism deal with these people?

The question is a bit perplexing, because it seems to be being asked upon a false premise or assumption, albeit unintentionally.

By and large, people want to contribute to society to make it better, this is historically observable or we would still be living in the Dark Ages, or something worse. When people get into a serious car crash, usually within a couple minutes, someone stops to make sure the parties involved are all ok - if they aren't, they call paramedics. These types of things happen now, there is no reason to believe people would cease to do them in a communist society? The same rationale applies to production. Example: we may not care much for doing jury duty, but we do it anyways because we believe, at least in theory, that doing so helps create a more fair and just society - and I am speaking in the context of capitalism. Why would this rationale not exist in communism? Not that we would have jury duty in communism (because we wouldn't), but nevertheless this rationale is applicable to production as a larger concept in general.

I don't think the 'free loader' problem is an issue as many people believe due to what I articulated above. There is far less incentive to work NOW than there would be in communism, yet today, we still make society go - even though its often for piss poor wages, shoddy and sometimes dangerous working conditions, crappy hours, and accomplishing repetative, mundane tasks that we wouldn't be doing otherwise. And afterall, the biggest freeloaders currently are the capitalist class - who produce absolutely NO social value whatsoever - they live entirely off the value produced by the working class, and they enforce this power and privilege violently through their state apparatus, courts, and police force. It's nothing less than legalized, forced robbery.

But hypothetically....If someone wants to influence a decision which will effect them and their conscious output in the labour process, surely it would be in their interest to participate to some degree and show some consideration in helping to advance productivity and society in general. Though alienation is generally a symptom of capitalism, people who refuse to participate in a socialist or communist society may find themselves isolated from others around them and not be taken as seriously. *shrugs*. Thats my thoughts on it. Communism is a very long ways off so its difficult to say for sure exactly how this issue, if it were one, would be dealt with at this time.

Quote:How do you ensure that the people genuinely enjoy the job that they have?

Production in communism gives your labor (and your labor power!) a purpose, and work, in turn, gives meaning to you and your family's lives. It (your work) also improves society, which in turn, also improves you and your family's lives, and collectively gives all of our lives more existential meaning. Presently, work doesn't do this. Instead: we are simply viewed as instruments of production by those who purchase our labor power, to be cogs in a never-ending, revolving profit machine - to be chewed up, spit out, thrown away when we are no longer useful; to be replaced by another cog that will go through the same mundane process (see Marx's concept of alienation)....or, in less colorful terms, communism doesn't objectify you, your labor, or your existence as a whole as capitalist society does. The key to understanding why this is so lies in an observation of how production is carried out under communisn and capitalism respectively: products manufactured under communism are done so for their practical application and use; under capitalism they are done so on the market for exchange value as a commodity.

Enjoying your work in a communist society isn't a "rule" per se (it can be and often is a rule under capitalism though, since many places can discipline or even fire you for simply not providing service with a smile, which needless to say is undemocratic to the extreme), its just the logical outcome of us being able to own, use and/or consume what we produce. This in itself would make a world of difference, quite literally, on how we consciously view not only our work, but the resulting products as well. Also bear in mind, that communism would allow you to pursue multiple endeavors if you chose to do so. This would be helpful in circumventing 'burn out' or boredom, since many people eventually do get tired of doing the things even that they like.

Remember, there is no state in communism, so all decisions on production are democratically decided and carried out by the given community per its needs. To have any input in these decisions, some participation is likely required - that's how democracy works (and by democracy, I mean in the realest sense of the word, and not the meaningless empty sham that is bourgeois democracy because capitalism and democracy are absolutely incompatible with one another - you can't have it both ways).

This turned out a bit longer than I intended, but thats about as simple as I can explain it.

*Btw, there is no need to insult yourself - I think you have the intelligence, capacity and rationale to understand this stuff.
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"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (addressing the bourgeois)
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RE: Article discreditng the thesis that Mao "killed millions of people" in T... - by FireIceTalon - 12-29-2016, 11:35 PM

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