Comrade-Z
21st February 2006, 05:48
It is still the case that many self-proclaimed "communists" think that selfishness is an arch-nemesis of communist society. They think that selfishness is something to be suppressed or combated. A really good ("virtuous") revolutionary suppresses one's selfish desires ("sinful thoughts") and completely devotes one's efforts towards "building revolution" and "helping people" (a.k.a. doing god's work).
This strikes me as a remarkably feudal sentiment. I suspect that the notion of selflessness or "altruism" is actually a pre-capitalist idea similar to religion or any other superstition. After all, if one takes a materialist view of the world, one can only conclude that, for the most part, people behave based on perceived material self-interest, even when they are performing seemingly selfless acts. To maintain otherwise is to be maintaining an illusion and hindering a materialist understanding of reality. It would be well, then, to consciously acknowledge the fact that "altruism" is an illusion and selfishness is the rule. When people cooperate and/or engage in mutual aid, we must be able to recognize that perceived material self-interest is at work, not altruism.
I think recognizing the notion of altruism or selflessness as a pre-capitalist idea would go far in explaining phenomena such as neo-Puritanism within the revolutionary left. Usually the motive for these views is a desire to "enhance public well-being" or to "help people." I think it is a reasonable conjecture that people who hold to the pre-capitalist mindset of selflessness are more likely to exhibit pre-capitalist thinking in other areas as well. I suspect that the impetus to "not eat meat, not drive a car, not use air-conditioning" etc. that one often finds with anarchists comes from this pre-capitalist mindset of being a "virtuous" and "altruistic" revolutionary who "abstains from sin."
Of course, one can find the notion of "selflessness" crop up in right-wing thinking all the time. Usually it is tied to things like, "sacrificing one's freedoms for the collective security of the nation" or "doing one's duty to the nation by serving in the armed forces," etc. I expect these exhortations from reactionaries to be selfless to increase in the decades ahead as selfishness and hedonism have an increasingly pernicious effect on capitalism.
Indeed, it seems that capitalism, as a natural part of its own existence, is busily eroding all illusions of selflessness and altruism. I expect this trend to continue. I imagine that one will be able to tell when capitalism has truly reached its apex in a certain society when selfishness is considered "the norm." This may already be the case in many places in the advanced capitalist countries.
Note: It must be noted that I am not talking about pathological greed. That is purely a product of capitalism and its inability to ever guarantee economic security. In post-capitalist society I imagine that greed will largely wither away. Obsessive hoarding of wealth will be regarded as an unusual obsessive-compulsive-disorder and will be dealt with in the most humane way possible. But selfishness is a fact of human existence. That might explain why "barracks communism" would not work--why communism requires as a pre-requisite superabundance.
However, I expect the selfishness that originates from capitalism to be of an "immature" or short-sighted nature at first. People will only think in immediate terms about how to achieve personal advancement. Over time, as people consciously recognize and accept their selfishness, they will be prompted to look at things in a scientific and materialist manner, as it will be obvious that only a materialist conception of the world offers the useful knowledge necessary in order to achieve one's needs and desires. For instance, learning about a non-existent god will seem pointless when one recognizes that one could be using the time to learn a skill or knowledge in order to earn wealth for one's self.
We should always prompt people to take their selfishness further and look at things in a more far-sighted manner. We should ask them, "Does capitalism really give you what you want?" "Does god really deliver the goods? Does he answer your prayers? Or are your tithes to your Catholic church going straight down the proverbial toilet?" "How is this latest imperialist war going to affect your life? Are you going to truly benefit from it? Is it really going to do anything to enhance your security?" "Do you think there will be more to be gained by oppressing workers of other races than by banding together with those workers to fight your common exploiter?" Etc.
It's only a matter of time before capitalism cultivates a "mature" or far-sighted selfishness in the proletariat. This is when capitalism will really be in trouble. This far-sighted selfishness will be characterized with a scientific, materialist, and sophisticated outlook that is able to discern long-reaching cause--effect relationships. This proletariat with a far-sighted selfishness will finally be able to create communist society.
Capitalism has created a monster that it cannot control. How so?
Hedonistic workers do not sacrifice themselves for imaginary concepts such as the "nation," "god," etc. They live only for themselves and their own happiness. And selfish workers will not be satisfied with the scraps that the ruling class throws down to them. They will not be satisfied with mere concessions. They will want complete liberation from wage-slavery and class society.
It must be noted that by "hedonism" I am not referring to the short-sighted "party all night and day" hedonism. I am referring to a far-sighted hedonistic outlook which strives to increase one's happiness over the whole course of one's life. Of course, one is bound to focus a bit more on short-term happiness than long-term happiness. This is simply playing one's cards shrewdly. It would be a pity to work really hard for 30 years, denying one's desires throughout that period but amassing a huge fortune, but then die the day before you start to make use of that fortune and really enjoy yourself. And it must be noted that partying all night and day might be one way in which you would derive happiness. But hedonism is not limited to such immediate pleasures. After all, even partying would get tedious after a while.
I define a far-sighted selfishness as one that is able to recognize the following:
I'm not really interesting in "social work" or "charity" or "being nice to people" or making the world more egalitarian, or fighting for basic human rights, or helping other people out in any sort of way, in fact.
I am hellbent on liberating myself from wage-slavery and all masters. I am selfish. But I am farsighted enough to recognize that wage-slavery is a class condition. Thus, my only hopes for escaping wage-slavery are either the abolition of wage-slavery for the entire class of wage-slaves, or "personal advancement."
But even personal advancement doesn't give any guarantees. The vagaries of the market entail many dangers:
*There could be a run on the bank, and I could lose my whole fortune stored there.
*There could be a severe depression, and I could lose my job.
*My competition could drive me out of business.
*There could be a revolution, and I could find myself and my fortune at the hands of hundreds of angry proletarians.
Because of these dangers, in capitalism one can never have enough money. There would always be the danger of falling back into wage-slavery and/or poverty. That's where the "greedy" aspect of our "human nature" under capitalism comes from.
But I'm looking for a permanent escape from wage-slavery and class society, you know, because I like to have some peace-of-mind.
And then there are the dangers of living in a class society itself:
*My "race" (assuming such a concept meaningfully exists, which it doesn't) could come to be persecuted for no fault of mine.
*My class society could get into an imperialist war with another class society, which could either entail me being drafted or me sitting in my office and getting bombed by the airforce of the opposing class society. Or, there could be outright nuclear war.
And then there are all of the incredibly dreary aspects of class society:
*I can't be sexually free.
*I can't smoke marijuana or engage in other stupid victimless "crimes" like that. In other words, I get other people's skewed sense of "morality" and "best interest" forced upon me.
*I'm expected to flop on my belly every time someone starts singing the Star-Spangled Banner and pay lip-service to all of that nationalistic, patriotic bullshit, or else I could find myself quickly surrounded by some very hostile individuals. (Remember, I live in southwest Missouri, right in the middle of the "Bible Belt" of the U.S.) And seeing people pledge fealty to a flag every morning at school just makes me want to vomit.
*There aren't very many truly engaging or enjoyable people to be around in class society, at least if you are looking for free thinkers and otherwise liberated individuals. I guess if you are looking for racists and bible-thumpers, then class society provides a very stimulating social environment.
There are probably countless other factors that I have neglected to point out.
So, considering all of this, is "personal advancement" within the confines of capitalist society really any sort of "advancement" at all?
And even if I did want to personally advance myself, I had the bad luck to be born into a working class family. Unlike the Walton kids, it would be pretty tough going for me. I don't have $15 billion of capital to start out with.
Now that the "personal advancement" route has been ruled out, the only option I am left with is furthering the abolition of wage-slavery for the entire class of wage-slaves and eliminating the entirety of wage-slavery and class society. If those things don't exists anymore for anyone, then there is 0% chance that I will be subject to them ever again.
This quote was taken from one of my posts at this thread:
http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php...pic=46352&st=25 (http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=46352&st=25)
In short, a far-sighted selfishness will recognize that an individual's freedom exists in a social context and is contigent on the freedom of others. (This is basically what Bakunin recognized some 150 years ago).
In light of this discussion, here are two new possible names for communism:
Hedonist materialism
Selfish communism
Note: this is a slightly rushed draft. I originally posted a longer, more thoughtful version of this two days ago, but the thread was lost to a MySQL database error, and I had to start from scratch. I don't feel like this time it has quite the same lucidity to it, but oh well...and I guess Redstar2000 or someone else can delete the other now defunct thread on the same subject.
This strikes me as a remarkably feudal sentiment. I suspect that the notion of selflessness or "altruism" is actually a pre-capitalist idea similar to religion or any other superstition. After all, if one takes a materialist view of the world, one can only conclude that, for the most part, people behave based on perceived material self-interest, even when they are performing seemingly selfless acts. To maintain otherwise is to be maintaining an illusion and hindering a materialist understanding of reality. It would be well, then, to consciously acknowledge the fact that "altruism" is an illusion and selfishness is the rule. When people cooperate and/or engage in mutual aid, we must be able to recognize that perceived material self-interest is at work, not altruism.
I think recognizing the notion of altruism or selflessness as a pre-capitalist idea would go far in explaining phenomena such as neo-Puritanism within the revolutionary left. Usually the motive for these views is a desire to "enhance public well-being" or to "help people." I think it is a reasonable conjecture that people who hold to the pre-capitalist mindset of selflessness are more likely to exhibit pre-capitalist thinking in other areas as well. I suspect that the impetus to "not eat meat, not drive a car, not use air-conditioning" etc. that one often finds with anarchists comes from this pre-capitalist mindset of being a "virtuous" and "altruistic" revolutionary who "abstains from sin."
Of course, one can find the notion of "selflessness" crop up in right-wing thinking all the time. Usually it is tied to things like, "sacrificing one's freedoms for the collective security of the nation" or "doing one's duty to the nation by serving in the armed forces," etc. I expect these exhortations from reactionaries to be selfless to increase in the decades ahead as selfishness and hedonism have an increasingly pernicious effect on capitalism.
Indeed, it seems that capitalism, as a natural part of its own existence, is busily eroding all illusions of selflessness and altruism. I expect this trend to continue. I imagine that one will be able to tell when capitalism has truly reached its apex in a certain society when selfishness is considered "the norm." This may already be the case in many places in the advanced capitalist countries.
Note: It must be noted that I am not talking about pathological greed. That is purely a product of capitalism and its inability to ever guarantee economic security. In post-capitalist society I imagine that greed will largely wither away. Obsessive hoarding of wealth will be regarded as an unusual obsessive-compulsive-disorder and will be dealt with in the most humane way possible. But selfishness is a fact of human existence. That might explain why "barracks communism" would not work--why communism requires as a pre-requisite superabundance.
However, I expect the selfishness that originates from capitalism to be of an "immature" or short-sighted nature at first. People will only think in immediate terms about how to achieve personal advancement. Over time, as people consciously recognize and accept their selfishness, they will be prompted to look at things in a scientific and materialist manner, as it will be obvious that only a materialist conception of the world offers the useful knowledge necessary in order to achieve one's needs and desires. For instance, learning about a non-existent god will seem pointless when one recognizes that one could be using the time to learn a skill or knowledge in order to earn wealth for one's self.
We should always prompt people to take their selfishness further and look at things in a more far-sighted manner. We should ask them, "Does capitalism really give you what you want?" "Does god really deliver the goods? Does he answer your prayers? Or are your tithes to your Catholic church going straight down the proverbial toilet?" "How is this latest imperialist war going to affect your life? Are you going to truly benefit from it? Is it really going to do anything to enhance your security?" "Do you think there will be more to be gained by oppressing workers of other races than by banding together with those workers to fight your common exploiter?" Etc.
It's only a matter of time before capitalism cultivates a "mature" or far-sighted selfishness in the proletariat. This is when capitalism will really be in trouble. This far-sighted selfishness will be characterized with a scientific, materialist, and sophisticated outlook that is able to discern long-reaching cause--effect relationships. This proletariat with a far-sighted selfishness will finally be able to create communist society.
Capitalism has created a monster that it cannot control. How so?
Hedonistic workers do not sacrifice themselves for imaginary concepts such as the "nation," "god," etc. They live only for themselves and their own happiness. And selfish workers will not be satisfied with the scraps that the ruling class throws down to them. They will not be satisfied with mere concessions. They will want complete liberation from wage-slavery and class society.
It must be noted that by "hedonism" I am not referring to the short-sighted "party all night and day" hedonism. I am referring to a far-sighted hedonistic outlook which strives to increase one's happiness over the whole course of one's life. Of course, one is bound to focus a bit more on short-term happiness than long-term happiness. This is simply playing one's cards shrewdly. It would be a pity to work really hard for 30 years, denying one's desires throughout that period but amassing a huge fortune, but then die the day before you start to make use of that fortune and really enjoy yourself. And it must be noted that partying all night and day might be one way in which you would derive happiness. But hedonism is not limited to such immediate pleasures. After all, even partying would get tedious after a while.
I define a far-sighted selfishness as one that is able to recognize the following:
I'm not really interesting in "social work" or "charity" or "being nice to people" or making the world more egalitarian, or fighting for basic human rights, or helping other people out in any sort of way, in fact.
I am hellbent on liberating myself from wage-slavery and all masters. I am selfish. But I am farsighted enough to recognize that wage-slavery is a class condition. Thus, my only hopes for escaping wage-slavery are either the abolition of wage-slavery for the entire class of wage-slaves, or "personal advancement."
But even personal advancement doesn't give any guarantees. The vagaries of the market entail many dangers:
*There could be a run on the bank, and I could lose my whole fortune stored there.
*There could be a severe depression, and I could lose my job.
*My competition could drive me out of business.
*There could be a revolution, and I could find myself and my fortune at the hands of hundreds of angry proletarians.
Because of these dangers, in capitalism one can never have enough money. There would always be the danger of falling back into wage-slavery and/or poverty. That's where the "greedy" aspect of our "human nature" under capitalism comes from.
But I'm looking for a permanent escape from wage-slavery and class society, you know, because I like to have some peace-of-mind.
And then there are the dangers of living in a class society itself:
*My "race" (assuming such a concept meaningfully exists, which it doesn't) could come to be persecuted for no fault of mine.
*My class society could get into an imperialist war with another class society, which could either entail me being drafted or me sitting in my office and getting bombed by the airforce of the opposing class society. Or, there could be outright nuclear war.
And then there are all of the incredibly dreary aspects of class society:
*I can't be sexually free.
*I can't smoke marijuana or engage in other stupid victimless "crimes" like that. In other words, I get other people's skewed sense of "morality" and "best interest" forced upon me.
*I'm expected to flop on my belly every time someone starts singing the Star-Spangled Banner and pay lip-service to all of that nationalistic, patriotic bullshit, or else I could find myself quickly surrounded by some very hostile individuals. (Remember, I live in southwest Missouri, right in the middle of the "Bible Belt" of the U.S.) And seeing people pledge fealty to a flag every morning at school just makes me want to vomit.
*There aren't very many truly engaging or enjoyable people to be around in class society, at least if you are looking for free thinkers and otherwise liberated individuals. I guess if you are looking for racists and bible-thumpers, then class society provides a very stimulating social environment.
There are probably countless other factors that I have neglected to point out.
So, considering all of this, is "personal advancement" within the confines of capitalist society really any sort of "advancement" at all?
And even if I did want to personally advance myself, I had the bad luck to be born into a working class family. Unlike the Walton kids, it would be pretty tough going for me. I don't have $15 billion of capital to start out with.
Now that the "personal advancement" route has been ruled out, the only option I am left with is furthering the abolition of wage-slavery for the entire class of wage-slaves and eliminating the entirety of wage-slavery and class society. If those things don't exists anymore for anyone, then there is 0% chance that I will be subject to them ever again.
This quote was taken from one of my posts at this thread:
http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php...pic=46352&st=25 (http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=46352&st=25)
In short, a far-sighted selfishness will recognize that an individual's freedom exists in a social context and is contigent on the freedom of others. (This is basically what Bakunin recognized some 150 years ago).
In light of this discussion, here are two new possible names for communism:
Hedonist materialism
Selfish communism
Note: this is a slightly rushed draft. I originally posted a longer, more thoughtful version of this two days ago, but the thread was lost to a MySQL database error, and I had to start from scratch. I don't feel like this time it has quite the same lucidity to it, but oh well...and I guess Redstar2000 or someone else can delete the other now defunct thread on the same subject.