On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 2:36 PM, Aaron Toponce <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 5/6/2010 1:03 PM, Charles Curley wrote:
>> On Thu, 06 May 2010 12:49:08 -0600
>> Jacob Albretsen <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Marxist.
>>
>> I figured that "right wing nut" and "Marxist" were mutually exclusive.
>> But, hmmm, these days, in a world of assault talk show "hosts", etc.,
>> maybe they aren't. You are right, I should have included it.
>
> Marxism is identified as total authoritarian state economic control.
> Economy controlled by the state is defined as left of center. So,
> Marxism would be left wing nuts. Right wing nuts would refer to liberal
> economics as controlled by the society (libertarians, neo-liberalism).
Where do you get the idea the Marxism is defined as total
authoritarian state economic control? I would say that Marxism is
defined by a critique of capitalism that describes how it divides the
people into social classes based on who controls the means of
production, and predicts its eventual failure through a revolution of
the proletariat (working class) and transition through a form of
government called Socialism to a form of government called Communism.
Marxist Socialism is indeed defined by state control of the economy,
but he intends it to be a temporary state, controlled by the
proletariat, to keep the economy functioning as the capitalist class
structures are dismantled. Marxist Communism, his end goal, is a
stateless, classless, democratic society where everyone gets a vote in
economic decisions. He was actually pretty vague on how this would
actually work, but I don't think "total authoritarian state economic
control" is a fair description of it.
Of course, once other people started running with his ideas and
filling in the details, things didn't end up working out the way Marx
had hoped they would. Fortunately, most socialists today are
Democratic Socialists or Social Democrats, both of which seek to
create a more equitable form of government gradually through the
political process rather than through advocating violent revolution
and a (temporary) dictatorship of the proletariat.
--Levi
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