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This lacks nuance. If we insist on enforcing private property, thus creating scarcity for most, the whole question becomes much more complex. Because now the ma
by jahaja 7y ago
This lacks nuance. If we insist on enforcing private property, thus creating scarcity for most, the whole question becomes much more complex. Because now the main reason I need the right to someones else's produce is because private property excludes me from providing my own. This indirectly forces the propertyless to work for someone who has land/property.
- erulabs 7y agoI do have to admit I respect anyone who can inhabit such a radical idea as abolishing private property. If I felt there was a path towards that direction that didn’t involve violent revolution and a whole lot of murder - I might consider it. Bolshevik philosophy starts interesting but turns too brutal and violent too quickly. All that said your reply is the most intellectually legitimate reply to what I posted. HN isn’t the place though. I’ve always thought if the worlds socialists and libertarians hung out for a while we’d all get along far more than the world wants us to know <3
- jahaja 7y agoThanks. I would like to clarify though that although I do see myself as a socialist, I'm not at all a bolshevik (or any variety of Marxist-Leninism). Because I agree with you on the inevitable degeneration into authoritarianism and/or state-capitalism. The British philosopher, and socialist, Bertrand Russell visited Russia just a few years after the revolution and summarized his thoughts regarding the bolsheviks in his "The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism"[0], 1920, in which he basically summarizes his thoughts like this: "I am compelled to reject Bolshevism for two reasons: First, because the price mankind must pay to achieve Communism by Bolshevik methods is too terrible; and secondly because, even after paying the price, I do not believe the result would be what the Bolsheviks profess to desire." It's an interesting historical document of a turbulent time, and not socialist theory heavy, so recommended reading for the curious. It's also an example of how socialism is a broad topic, both then and now, not just another word for Bolshevism. [0] http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17350/pg17350.txt http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17350/pg17350.txt