3 ms·

You might not like what he has to say, or you might disagree with his visions, but Marx, especially for his day, was especially insightful on this point: >He i

You might not like what he has to say, or you might disagree with his visions, but Marx, especially for his day, was especially insightful on this point: >He is a hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman, or a critical critic, and must remain so if he does not want to lose his means of livelihood; while in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic. Of course he was also a visionary in this idea of alienation, which makes up the core of his early work and is persistent through his mature work. To him, this alienation from one's species-being to achieve ends set by others is only a core part of class society, and it can be overcome.

AnimalMuppet 8y ago
It would seem to me, though, that society would lose the advantages of specialization. If I decide I want to fish for a while rather than being a computer programmer, well, I'm a professional computer programmer, but an amateur fisherman, and not even a very good amateur. If society needs the fish to keep from going hungry, it needs good fishermen and women, not just whoever felt like fishing that afternoon. If it needs the cattle for the food supply, it needs something better than whoever felt like rearing cattle that evening. And when I go back to being a computer programmer, I very much do not want to untangle the mess of whatever amateur felt like programming on the afternoon that I went fishing. But it is true that specialization leads to alienation, or (a term I think might express it better) isolation or disconnection. I'm disconnected from the fish I eat, because I'm a computer programmer and not a fisherman. I'm disconnected from the professional fishermen and women, too. That may not have been the sense that Marx meant, but it's also true.
xkcd-sucks 8y ago
The tension between > where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes and > society regulates the general production seems like it's still a bit of a challenge

AnimalMuppet 8y ago

It would seem to me, though, that society would lose the advantages of specialization. If I decide I want to fish for a while rather than being a computer programmer, well, I'm a professional computer programmer, but an amateur fisherman, and not even a very good amateur. If society needs the fish to keep from going hungry, it needs good fishermen and women, not just whoever felt like fishing that afternoon. If it needs the cattle for the food supply, it needs something better than whoever felt like rearing cattle that evening. And when I go back to being a computer programmer, I very much do not want to untangle the mess of whatever amateur felt like programming on the afternoon that I went fishing. But it is true that specialization leads to alienation, or (a term I think might express it better) isolation or disconnection. I'm disconnected from the fish I eat, because I'm a computer programmer and not a fisherman. I'm disconnected from the professional fishermen and women, too. That may not have been the sense that Marx meant, but it's also true.

xkcd-sucks 8y ago

The tension between > where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes and > society regulates the general production seems like it's still a bit of a challenge