jdhoch
3rd May 2012, 06:22
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That is not about going back, which is impossible, Patnaik said. We have to go forward with new ideas. The call for a more robust social safety net (protecting workers rights, unemployment insurance, social security, health insurance, etc.) isnt new, but such policies can be a step towards new ideas, a transitional measure, he explained. Rather than making those policies the final goal, as part of a more-or-less permanent accommodation with capitalism, they should be seen as a stepping stone toward radical change.
We can work towards a reassertion of welfare state policies, not as an end but as a vehicle toward greater justice, as a way of making visible the inherent limitations of capitalism, he said.
In additions to the limitations of capitalism, there also are ecological limitations we cant ignore, he said, which means the goal cant be raising India and China to the material standards of the United States. Patnaik recognises the need to adjust older socialist goals to new realities.
The world simply has to be refashioned, both in the third world and in advanced capitalist countries, and specifically in the United States, Patnaik said, which means experiments in alternative ways of living that are not based on material measures.
This really is a spiritual/cultural question, about what it means to live a good life, he said, which should not be seen as foreign to socialism. Marxism shouldnt be reduced to productionism. The goal of socialism has always been human freedom, which is about much more than material wealth.
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MORE...
http://www.systemiccapital.com/the-goal-of-socialism-has-always-been-human-freedom/
That is not about going back, which is impossible, Patnaik said. We have to go forward with new ideas. The call for a more robust social safety net (protecting workers rights, unemployment insurance, social security, health insurance, etc.) isnt new, but such policies can be a step towards new ideas, a transitional measure, he explained. Rather than making those policies the final goal, as part of a more-or-less permanent accommodation with capitalism, they should be seen as a stepping stone toward radical change.
We can work towards a reassertion of welfare state policies, not as an end but as a vehicle toward greater justice, as a way of making visible the inherent limitations of capitalism, he said.
In additions to the limitations of capitalism, there also are ecological limitations we cant ignore, he said, which means the goal cant be raising India and China to the material standards of the United States. Patnaik recognises the need to adjust older socialist goals to new realities.
The world simply has to be refashioned, both in the third world and in advanced capitalist countries, and specifically in the United States, Patnaik said, which means experiments in alternative ways of living that are not based on material measures.
This really is a spiritual/cultural question, about what it means to live a good life, he said, which should not be seen as foreign to socialism. Marxism shouldnt be reduced to productionism. The goal of socialism has always been human freedom, which is about much more than material wealth.
...
MORE...
http://www.systemiccapital.com/the-goal-of-socialism-has-always-been-human-freedom/