536 lines
29 KiB
Plaintext
536 lines
29 KiB
Plaintext
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-----=====Earth's Dreamlands=====-----
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(313)558-5024 {14.4} (313)558-5517
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A BBS for text file junkies
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RPGNet GM File Archive Site
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.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.
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______________________________________________________________________
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"It is both dangerous and absurd for our world to be a group
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of communions mutually excommunicate." --- Alan Watts
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______________________________________________________________________
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issue number 3 September 7, 1992 // ///
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//
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\\\\
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Address all correspondence to mlepore@mcimail.com
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CONTENTS
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________
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#3.01 Book Review: Mary Lee Settle, ..... Joanne Forman
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_The Scapegoat_
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#3.02 As We See It ....................... Philadelphia Solidarity
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#3.03 Economic Measurements in .......... Mike Ballard
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Constant Dollars
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#3.04 "Materialist Conception of ......... Daniel De Leon
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History" (first published
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in 1911)
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______________________________________________________________________
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ORGANIZED THOUGHTS is dedicated to the organization of the working
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class to establish industrial democracy. Compilation copyright 1992
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by M. Lepore. This document may be freely reproduced and distributed
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by the general public, in electronic or printed form. Please upload
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this publication to your local BBS's, and send copies to associates.
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______________________________________________________________________
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#3.00 Introduction ..... | #3.01 Book Review .....
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Mike Lepore | Joanne Forman
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___________________________________|__________________________________
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The book review is contributed by | Mary Lee Settle, _The Scapegoat_
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Joanne Forman, who is known for |
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accomplishments in several |
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fields, including reviews of the | The American literary novel has
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arts, political journalism, and | been mired in navel-gazing
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musical composition. She has | self-pity for two generations --
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written frequently for _The New | but there are exceptions.
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Unionist_, the newspaper of the | One of the most brilliant is
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New Union Party. | Mary Lee Settle's _The
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| Scapegoat_. Set during a West
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The article "As We See It" | Virginia miners' strike in 1912,
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originated with a group called | it is far from being cardboard
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London Solidarity. It was later | agitprop. Richly panoramic,
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adopted by Philadelphia | _The Scapegoat_ examines the
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Solidarity, who submitted it to | interplay of the classes. A
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this forum. Time will tell | supporting player in this broad
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whether more Solidarity groups | canvas is Mother Jones.
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will spring up! | (Scribner, pb.)
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The standard of living in the |
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U.S. has declined in the past | Joanne Forman
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forty years, despite marvelous | P.O. Box 1101
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advances in productivity. Mike | Ranchos de Taos, NM 87557
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Ballard reminds us to look at |
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wage and GNP trends in terms of |__________________________________
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constant dollars, and we will
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surely see that the wage system
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just isn't working in the interests of the majority of the people.
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Reader reactions to O.T. #2, the debate about worker-owned
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corporations, spanned the entire range:
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One correspondent writes,
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> My compliments on the decorum and quality of your arguments.
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> I find reasoned debate somewhat scarce in this realm of
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> cyberspace.
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Another writes,
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> I get very impatient with these abstract discussions.
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In fact, nearly all of the reader feedback was concerned with whether
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the discussion was _interesting_, rather than whether the individual
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arguments were _correct_.
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<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>
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On Feb. 5, 1911, the Rev. Thomas Gasson, in a widely-advertised
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address in Boston, denounced the idea of socialism. Daniel De Leon,
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then editor of the socialist _Daily People_, replied to Gasson in a
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series of 19 editorials. In this issue I am including the 17th
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editorial of that series, entitled "Materialist Conception of
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History".
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This essay is timely because of the recent claims by the political
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right, including the Bush-Quayle campaign, that organized religion
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and conservative politics are the exclusive sources of morality and
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"family values". Father Gasson was one of those simplistic orators
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who equated capitalism with marriage, socialism with promiscuity,
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and similar demagogic gibberish.
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De Leon here demonstrates the necessary material aspect of morality.
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This is not a rejection of religion or spirituality, but an eloquent
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argument that a material foundation for morality is indispensable.
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Those who enjoy Greek mythology may recall that the god Hephaestus,
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called Vulcan by the Romans, provided the other gods with animated
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horses made of brass, tables and chairs (the "tripods") which flew by
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themselves through the halls, and, for himself, servants of gold, but
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endowed with intelligence. It almost seems that our ancient ancestors
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were dreaming of the day when automation and robots would be invented.
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In this essay, De Leon refers to the ancient fantasies which have
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finally become reality, thanks to the creative genius of labor.
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If we would be truly moral, let's establish a new system of society
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corresponding to the fact that modern machinery has reached, to use
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De Leon's words, a "stage of perfection that an abundance for all is
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possible without arduous toil". For genuine morality, start there.
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<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>
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Reminder -- The various organizations and programs mentioned in this
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publication are not affiliated with each other. They do have at least
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one similarity: when they talk about workers' self-management in a
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classless society, they mean exactly that. They do NOT propose
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handing over any power to a so-called "workers' state", ruled by a
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"vanguard party". Therefore, these movements overlap partially, in a
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sector that isn't described accurately by the usual "leftist" label.
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Yet their programs and tactics are somewhat different. There are only
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a few forums for discussing the similarities and differences of
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workers in this sector. This publication is one such place.
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<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>
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Announcements
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<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>
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The Industrial Union Party One hundred years ago
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has a new mailing address: (actually, it was on August
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IUP, P.O. Box 533, White Plains, 28, 1892), the Socialist Labor
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NY 10603-1506 Party nominated the first
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socialist presidential candidate
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in the history of the United
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The Industrial Workers of States. The 1892 SLP ticket
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the World can now be reached consisted of Simon Wing for
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by Internet e-mail at: president and Charles Matchett
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iww@igc.org for vice-president. THIS year
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marks the first time in a century
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that the SLP is unable to
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My bulletin board topics on nominate candidates, due to
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the GEnie network have been financial restrictions. The
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more popular than I originally party is going ahead with its
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estimated. The topic "The REAL "1992 Campaign for Socialism" as
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Marx and Engels", which is in an educational effort. For
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the Religion and Philosophy BB, information, contact the SLP at
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has exceeded 26,000 lines of P.O. Box 50218, Palo Alto, CA
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text since the topic was created 94303.
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Jan. 1, 1992. The "Industrial
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Democracy" topic, which is in
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the Public Forum BB, has I am looking for a volunteer
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accumulated over 20,000 lines of who has a scanner and OCR
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text since it was established software, to make ASCII text
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June 17, 1992. Anyone files out of books and pamphlets
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interesting in participating in the public domain. I don't
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should know that the cost of know whether archaic fonts used
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GEnie non-prime time access in the older documents will cause
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(weekends and weekday-evenings) OCR problems.
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starts at $4.95 per month
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(plus sales tax) in many parts
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of the U.S. International The quotation in lines 2-3 is
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access is also available. from Alan W. Watts, _The Way
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E-mail me for additional of Zen_; New York: Vintage Books,
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information. 1957, p. xiii
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______________________________________________________________________
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#3.02 As We See It ....................... Philadelphia Solidarity
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______________________________________________________________________
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========== As We See It ==========
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Published 1991 by PHILADELPHIA SOLIDARITY
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Box 25224, Philadelphia, PA 19119, USA.
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1. Throughout the world the vast majority of the people have no
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control whatsoever over the decisions that most deeply and
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directly affect their lives. They sell their labor power while others
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who own or control the means of production accumulate wealth, make the
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laws, and use the whole machinery of the State to perpetuate and
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reinforce their privileged position.
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2. During the past century the living standards of working people
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have improved. But neither these improved living standards,
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nor the nationalization of the means of production, nor the coming to
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power of parties claiming to represent the working class have
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basically altered the status of the worker as worker. Nor have they
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given the bulk of mankind much freedom outside of production. East
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and West, capitalism remains an inhuman type of society where the vast
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majority are bossed at work and manipulated in consumption and
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leisure. Propaganda and policemen, prisons and schools, traditional
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values and traditional morality all serve to reinforce the power of
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the few and to convince or coerce the many into acceptance of a
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brutal, degrading and irrational system. The "Communist" world was
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never communist and the "Free" world has never been free.
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3. The trade unions and the traditional parties of the left
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started in business to change all this. But they have come to
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terms with the existing patterns of exploitation. In fact, they are
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now essential if the exploiting society is to continue working
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smoothly. The unions act as middlemen in the labor market. The
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political parties use the struggles and aspirations of the working
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class for their own ends. The degeneration of working class
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organizations, itself the result of the failure of the revolutionary
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movement, has been a major factor in creating working class apathy,
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which in turn has led to the further degeneration of both parties and
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unions.
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4. The trade unions and political parties cannot be reformed,
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"captured," or converted into instruments of working class
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emancipation. We don't call however for the proclamation of new
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unions, which, in the conditions of today, would suffer a similar fate
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to the old ones. Nor do we call for militants to tear up their union
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cards. Our aims are simply that the workers themselves should decide
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on the objectives of their struggles, and that the control and
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organization of these struggles should remain firmly in their own
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hands. The _forms_ which this self-activity of the working class may
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take will vary considerably from country to country and from industry
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to industry. Its basic _content_ will not.
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5. Socialism is not just the common ownership and control of the
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means of production. It means equality, real freedom,
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reciprocal recognition and a radical transformation in all human
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relations. It is "man's positive self-consciousness." It is people's
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understanding of their environment and of themselves, their domination
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over their work and over such social institutions as they may need to
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create. These are not secondary aspects, which will automatically
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follow the expropriation of the old ruling class. On the contrary
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they are essential parts of the whole process of social
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transformation, for without them no genuine social transformation will
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have taken place.
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6. A socialist society can therefore only be built from below.
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Decisions concerning production and work will be taken by
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workers' councils composed of elected and revocable delegates.
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Decisions in other areas will be taken on the basis of the widest
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possible discussion and consultation among the people as a whole. The
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democratization of society down to its very roots is what we mean by
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"workers' power."
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7. _Meaningful action_ for revolutionaries, is whatever increases
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the confidence, the autonomy, the initiative, the
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participation, the solidarity, the equalitarian tendencies and the
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self-activity of the masses, and whatever assists in their
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demystification. _Sterile and harmful action_ is whatever reinforces
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the passivity of the masses, their apathy, their cynicism, their
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differentiation through hierarchy, their alienation, their reliance on
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others to do things for them and the degree to which they can
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therefore be manipulated by others -- even by those allegedly acting
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on their behalf.
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8. No ruling class in history has ever relinquished its power
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without a struggle, and our present rulers are unlike to be an
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exception. Power will only be taken from them through the conscious,
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autonomous action of the vast majority of the people themselves. The
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building of socialism will require mass understanding and mass
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participation. By their rigid hierarchical structure, by their ideas,
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and by their activities, both social-democratic and bolshevik types of
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organizations discourage this type of understanding and prevent this
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kind of participation. The idea that socialism can somehow be
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achieved by an elite party (however "revolutionary") acting "on behalf
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of" the working class is both absurd and reactionary.
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9. We do not accept the view that by itself the working class can
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only achieve a trade union consciousness. On the contrary, we
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believe that its conditions of life and its experiences in production
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constantly drive the working class to adopt priorities and values and
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to find methods of organization which challenge the established social
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order and established patterns of thought. These responses are
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implicitly socialist. On the other hand, the working class is
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fragmented, dispossessed of the means of communication, and its
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various sections are at different levels of awareness and
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consciousness. The task of the revolutionary organization is to help
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those in different areas to exchange experiences and link up with one
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another.
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10. We do not see ourselves as yet another leadership, but merely
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as an instrument of working class action. The function of a
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Solidarity organization is to help all those who are in conflict with
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the present authoritarian social structure, both in industry and in
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society at large, to generalize their experience, to make a total
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critique of their condition and of its causes, and to develop the mass
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revolutionary consciousness necessary if society is to be totally
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transformed.
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______________________________________________________________________
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#3.03 Economic Measurements in .......... Mike Ballard
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Constant Dollars
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______________________________________________________________________
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From: miballar@leland.stanford.edu
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The figures below have been gleaned from the "Survey of Current
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Business" and publications of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As
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is shown, output per worker has been growing in real terms since
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1950. Yet, it seems that the general standard of living for
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people who are employed (as opposed to people who are employers)
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has gone down.
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YEAR GNP MEASURED IN NUMBER OF WORKERS AVERAGE VALUE OF
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BILLIONS OF PRODUCING GNP OUTPUT PER WORKER
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CONSTANT 1982 IN CONSTANT 1982
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DOLLARS DOLLARS
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____ ________________ _________________ _________________
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1950 $1,203.7 63,377,000 $18,992.00
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1955 $1,494.9 62,170,000 $24,045.00
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1960 $1,665.3 65,778,000 $25,316.00
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1965 $2,087.6 71,088,000 $29,366.00
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1970 $2,416.2 78,678,000 $30,709.00
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1975 $2,695.0 85,846,000 $31,393.00
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1980 $3,187.1 99,303,000 $32,094.00
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1985 $3,618.7 107,150,000 $33,772.00
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It is true that many commodities now sell for lower real prices
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than they did earlier. This is most apparent in the electronics
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area, e.g., televisions, radios, computers and so forth. As the
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amount of labor time it takes to produce a commodity goes down,
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so should its price in a free market. (Over time, the effects of
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supply and demand on price tend to balance out, barring global
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monopolies.)
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The cheapening of commodities by the reduction of labor time
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necessary for their production is a general tendency of the
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economy. Some commodities which have not undergone extensive
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automation may appear to be way out of line with the prices of
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yesteryear. Measuring prices in constant dollars is a way of
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bringing these things into perspective. Houses for example, if
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they are of the same quality (materials etc.) as those
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constructed in earlier times, may appear to be vastly more
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expensive than those of earlier times, if one does not deflate
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the price.
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The point of my comparison is that in terms of a steady
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measurement, like constant dollars, one can see that the real
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productivity of labor has grown tremendously since the 1950's.
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The problem is that the real wages haven't grown with this
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productivity. If one takes the figures for total people in the
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workforce given by the government and divides that figure into
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the total amount of money paid in wages in any given year since
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the 1950's and then measures that money in constant 1982 dollars,
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you find the price of labor as a whole, runs between a wage of
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$7,000 and $10,000 per year. So, while real wages have remained
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relatively constant, the real dollar total of goods and services
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has exploded. If these wages can only buy $7,000 to $10,000
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worth of the commodities that are being produced and if the
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recession/depression is real (and the advice is to ask anyone who
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is unemployed for the answer),then it would stand to reason that
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the best way to get the economy going again would be to see that
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more money goes into the pockets of those who produce the wealth.
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This is more of a trickle up theory, if you will.
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That's one goal of the IWW. In fact, we think that labor is
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entitled to all the wealth it produces. We see the wages system
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as inherently unjust and our strategic goal is to abolish it. As
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to our expectations, as a class they should be at least as high
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as what we already produce.
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||
Join us!
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||
I.W.W. Ph: (415) 863-9627 863-WOBS
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||
1095 Market St. Suite 204 Internet: iww@igc.org
|
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San Francisco, Ca 94103
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______________________________________________________________________
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#3.04 Materialist Conception of History ........ Daniel De Leon
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______________________________________________________________________
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|||||| Reprinted, with permission, from the Sept.-Oct.
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|||||| 1992 issue of the De Leonist Society Bulletin.
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The materialist conception of history is not a deduction from
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assumed premises. It is the induction from facts carefully
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ascertained and construed together. These facts history furnishes in
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abundance. They leave room for no alternative other than either
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reject the facts as false, an impossible thing, or, accept the
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materialist conclusion to which these facts point. From the
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||
inexhaustible quarry of historic facts a few leading ones will
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suffice.
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The sense that involuntary poverty is an evil to him who is
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afflicted therewith is found in all literature, and in all ages. The
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sense of the evil has affected people in two ways. What those ways
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were is typified by the best types of the people differently affected.
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Isaiah and Plato may be taken as the oldest types on one set;
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Aristotle and Xenophon as the oldest types of the other set.
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The set typified by Isaiah and Plato undertook to remove the
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affliction of involuntary poverty, then and there. There reasoning
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was that, involuntary poverty being an evil, the moral sense must
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revolt against it; and, seeing that morality could not bide by the
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sufferings of mankind, all that was needed was to render man moral. A
|
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quickened morality was to establish paradise on earth -- Isaiah's
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"Kingdom of the Lord of Hosts", Plato's "Republic".
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|
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The set typified by Aristotle and Xenophon looked upon
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involuntary poverty as an evil, but a necessity, an unavoidable evil.
|
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The Aristotelian passage, cited by Marx, -- "If every tool, when
|
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summoned, or even of its accord, could do the work that befits it,
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||
just as the creations of Daedalus moved of themselves, or the tripods
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of Hephaestus went of their own accord to their sacred work, if the
|
||
weaver's shuttles were to weave of themselves, then there would be no
|
||
need either of apprentices for the master workers, or of slaves for
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the lords." -- this passage strikes the key-note of the reasoning of
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this set.
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There is not on record, in the history of intellectual
|
||
development, another instance of an error of judgment embodying a
|
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truth of such colossal proportions as the error which the
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Aristotle-Xenophonian school uttered in the passage cited above.
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There is no other instance of error big with such constructive powers.
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The Aristotle-Xenophonian school looked upon involuntary
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poverty as unavoidable because the tool did not move of itself. Under
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such mechanical conditions, the alternative was -- either economic
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dependence, that is, involuntary poverty, for all, with leisure,
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hence, the opportunity for intellectual expansion for none; or,
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economic dependence, hence, involuntary poverty with its train of
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suffering for the masses, and the consequent economic independence for
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some.
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The Aristotle-Xenophonian school grasped the sociologic law
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that decreed intellectual progress. Pardonably unable to project
|
||
itself into the future so far ahead as the time when mechanical
|
||
conditions would be so radically revolutionized that the "weavers'
|
||
shuttles would weave of themselves", this school considered slavery,
|
||
which meant labor and poverty, to be unavoidable. By doing so, the
|
||
Aristotle-Xenophonian school planted itself upon the material
|
||
conditions as the prime factor to determine social institutions and
|
||
morality. The fruitfulness of their posture is inestimable.
|
||
|
||
In the first place, it was a shield against wishes that were
|
||
impracticable. The Isaiah-Platonian school, by aspiring and grasping
|
||
at a goal for which society afforded no material foundation, led from
|
||
disappointment to disappointment, and finally to the psychologic spot
|
||
where the road forks -- one road striking in the direction of extreme
|
||
Reaction, to a frame of mind in which the well-spring of lofty
|
||
sentiments is dried up, and the masses are looked upon as brutish
|
||
herds, who get no worse than they deserve when starved or beaten over
|
||
the head into quiet; the other road striking in the direction of
|
||
Hypocrisy, the original sentiments being preserved only in phrases,
|
||
while actual conduct is hard to distinguish from Reaction -- each of
|
||
the two roads being worse than the other.
|
||
|
||
In the second place, the Aristotle-Xenophonian school furnished
|
||
the key to the successive correction of whatever principle, which,
|
||
however correct at one time, time may subsequently have rendered
|
||
incorrect. By subjecting Aspirations to Material Possibilities, the
|
||
key furnished by this school opened the portals for loftier and ever
|
||
loftier sentiments in the measure that Aspirations, once lacking
|
||
material foundation, were furnished with the same by the material
|
||
conquests of advancing society, and things once held impossible, had
|
||
become accomplished facts. The passage from Aristotle cited by Marx
|
||
contrasts the two schools, and it illustrates the incomparable
|
||
superiority, moral and material, of the Aristotle-Xenophonian posture
|
||
over the Isaiah-Platonian.
|
||
|
||
The Aristotle-Xenophonian is the Materialist Philosophy.
|
||
|
||
The Materialist Philosophy subordinated the Heart to the Mind.
|
||
By doing so, the Materialist Philosophy is the Guardian of Social
|
||
Morality.
|
||
|
||
Mass-humanity, the facts of history demonstrate, ever adapts
|
||
its moral conceptions to its material needs. The Anti-Materialist
|
||
does not, and can not escape that law of human action.
|
||
|
||
The Anti-Materialist not only cripples himself, he injured
|
||
society. By expecting universal Good Will, the application of Golden
|
||
Rule, in short, ideal morality under conditions in which, for
|
||
instance, "the weavers' shuttles do NOT weave of themselves", the
|
||
Anti-Materialist renders himself stone blind to the advent of the
|
||
material conditions when "the weavers' shuttles DO weave of
|
||
themselves". Expecting the impossible, the Anti-Materialist impedes
|
||
the inauguration of the possible. It is seen in the fact of the
|
||
churches, the centers of Anti-Materialism, being filled with
|
||
Reactionists and Hypocrites.
|
||
|
||
The Materialist, on the contrary, ever adapting Aspirations to
|
||
Material Possibilities, never can inflict upon society the alternate
|
||
and double injury of promoting Reaction, or Hypocrisy, or both. The
|
||
highest possible Ideal that material conditions afford he stands for
|
||
-- none beyond that. Where material conditions -- as, for instance,
|
||
when the mechanical appliances for production are so rudimental that
|
||
the abundance needed for the welfare of all is a physical
|
||
impossibility -- his Mind will curb the beatings of his Heart, and he
|
||
will abstain from preaching the New Jerusalem.
|
||
|
||
He knows the deep morality of the warning against the shouting
|
||
of "Peace, peace, where there is no peace", and the deep damnation of
|
||
the practice. On the other hand, when material conditions have so
|
||
improved -- as, for instance, when the mechanical appliances for
|
||
production have reached the present stage of perfection that an
|
||
abundance for all is possible without arduous toil -- then will the
|
||
Materialist's Mind give full rein to the throbbings of the Heart, and
|
||
he will proclaim the advent of Man's terrestrial wellbeing. He will
|
||
do so because, aware of the deep damnation of upholding "War, war,
|
||
where there can be peace", and the lofty morality of insisting that
|
||
there be "Peace, peace, where there can be peace."
|
||
|
||
Being the carrier of the highest Morality, Socialism is
|
||
Materialist, Materialism being TRUE, Anti-Materialism FALSE, and false
|
||
pretence.
|
||
______________________________________________________________________
|
||
|
||
Revisions to this file
|
||
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
||
|
||
Oct 22 1992 Changed e-mail address
|
||
|
||
____________________________ Line 527; end of issue number 3 _______
|
||
|
||
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