The ideology of solidarity and the theft of labour power.
Perhaps because of masochistic tendencies, perhaps because Nozick's "Anarchy, State and Utopia" is lying on my desk. I've been reading some things about theft, about property to be more exact. I think the debate in the current West European-American brings to light a few points of interest and some deeper conflicts within the Left as a whole after the whole post-Soviet debacle. Liberalism, the ideology that loves the freedom of the burgeoise and the mechanisms of capitalism ("free" press, a justice system, the police, representative democracy, etc) is apparently being taken seriously by some people. I believe that this is because we're in a rather peculiar situation in Sweden, above all. The Social Democratic ideals, after they decided to cooperate with the ruling class rather than overthrow it (though there have been spasms in the radical corpse from time to time) serve as an ideology in Sweden. With the situation in the Left Party it's become, in some way at least, a left Social Democratic party (that is, reformist, pro-welfare state, etc.).
Don't get me wrong. I believe in solidarity. I believe that people work as a group, that there are social, political and economical mechanisms and reflexes that strengthen or weaken solidarity. I also believe in security: security against a bad time in your life, a mistaken education or whatever it might be. These are good things: but they are not socialism. That liberals believe it is show an ideological reflex rather than anything else.
To get back to the concepts of freedom and theft and why they are far more befitting a socialist than a liberal. First of all; freedom is based on what you can afford. It's no harder than that. With the existance of classes of people (revealed by the skewed numbers of applicants to higher studies that I wrote of before, with sociological studies, with historical studies, with even sociogeographical studies) where some have, and some have not, the matter of freedom becomes a matter of a struggle, the class struggle. One class freedom always intervenes on the other. That is the reason for the pathological hate that the right wing has towards the welfare state: it's actually served to move forward the positions of the working class. I think freedom as an abstract category is an impossibility, due to incoherence that always appears in systems that contain it (be it Sartres or Kants). The world is not "open" per se; you do not simply have the power (a term intrinsically linked to freedom) to do certain things. Be they climb a mountain, read a specific work or live in a special place. These cases are analogous in that they all require a certain asset in yourself, the skill of a mountainclimber, the skill of reading or the possession of certain capital. They all open possibilities. Also, you are never free when you sell yourself.
Which brings me to... theft.
Are taxes theft? They are not in the framework of the burgeoise state. Who are you taking money from, really? Well, all of us, depending upon what we do. But think once more: where does money come from? It comes from the application of labour on dead matter. What people create. If you had no boss, you would have far more money. Why? Because your boss steals from you: in a way that is far more basic, more intrinsicable to the capitalist society than any such action from a government (which, by the way, is another enemy of the Left: but I'll leave that tangent for later).
Liberalism, with it's idiotic, metaphysical conception of freedom has somehow managed to hijack the ideological arena and claims that it will actually liberate people. Some right wing people are more honest than others: they say outright that they want to bomb people into freedom. If we want to become an alternative to the Social Democratic party, their ideas and above all: their pathological class betrayals we have to demask the ideologies of freedom and theft and establish revolutionary politics in it's place that uses the welfare state as the starting point, but not the end of it's progress.
Don't get me wrong. I believe in solidarity. I believe that people work as a group, that there are social, political and economical mechanisms and reflexes that strengthen or weaken solidarity. I also believe in security: security against a bad time in your life, a mistaken education or whatever it might be. These are good things: but they are not socialism. That liberals believe it is show an ideological reflex rather than anything else.
To get back to the concepts of freedom and theft and why they are far more befitting a socialist than a liberal. First of all; freedom is based on what you can afford. It's no harder than that. With the existance of classes of people (revealed by the skewed numbers of applicants to higher studies that I wrote of before, with sociological studies, with historical studies, with even sociogeographical studies) where some have, and some have not, the matter of freedom becomes a matter of a struggle, the class struggle. One class freedom always intervenes on the other. That is the reason for the pathological hate that the right wing has towards the welfare state: it's actually served to move forward the positions of the working class. I think freedom as an abstract category is an impossibility, due to incoherence that always appears in systems that contain it (be it Sartres or Kants). The world is not "open" per se; you do not simply have the power (a term intrinsically linked to freedom) to do certain things. Be they climb a mountain, read a specific work or live in a special place. These cases are analogous in that they all require a certain asset in yourself, the skill of a mountainclimber, the skill of reading or the possession of certain capital. They all open possibilities. Also, you are never free when you sell yourself.
Which brings me to... theft.
Are taxes theft? They are not in the framework of the burgeoise state. Who are you taking money from, really? Well, all of us, depending upon what we do. But think once more: where does money come from? It comes from the application of labour on dead matter. What people create. If you had no boss, you would have far more money. Why? Because your boss steals from you: in a way that is far more basic, more intrinsicable to the capitalist society than any such action from a government (which, by the way, is another enemy of the Left: but I'll leave that tangent for later).
Liberalism, with it's idiotic, metaphysical conception of freedom has somehow managed to hijack the ideological arena and claims that it will actually liberate people. Some right wing people are more honest than others: they say outright that they want to bomb people into freedom. If we want to become an alternative to the Social Democratic party, their ideas and above all: their pathological class betrayals we have to demask the ideologies of freedom and theft and establish revolutionary politics in it's place that uses the welfare state as the starting point, but not the end of it's progress.
posted by Björn at 1:07 AM
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