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Solutions originate from within. Every problem that is created or caused by human
beings can also be resolved and eradicated by human beings. If we made it, caused
it, hatched it, invented it, etc., then it is not natural, it is not necessary, it is not eternal,
and it can be stopped.
If you see a problem as a problem, then what ought to be is obviously of some interest
to you. If you see any facts as problematic, then you have at least some concern, some
care, about what is, and therefore about what could or should be. What is is never a
problem, unless or until what ought to be is imagined. To conceive that there is a
problem is to envision what ought to be, to visualize what could or should be.
It has so often been said that socialism has been a disaster.
State-socialism has been a disaster. Authoritarian communism has been a disaster.
But, democratic socialism has not been a disaster. Libertarian communism has not
been a disaster.
It has often been said that what is mine is mine and what is yours is yours.
First, there must be agreement on what constitutes and justifies personal property.
Only after this is determined and acknowledged can we declare that what is mine is
mine, and what is yours is yours.
Max Stirner believed that property "exists by the grace of law". Stirner believed that
property "is not a fact, but a legal fiction". I agree with Stirner on this.
James Madison believed that property is "a social right". I believe that property rights
are derived from social agreement. I also believe that really-existing property rights
are not derived from an authentic social contract. Madison's words describe what
ought to be, not what really is. If property were a social right, then property would be a
democratic right.
Pierre Joseph Proudhon believed property is "theft". I believe this is true, because the
right to property has never been clearly justified or constituted; the right to property has
only been randomly asserted, and has always been vaguely assumed. I think that
Jacques Pierre Brissot better clarified Proudhon's own stated opinions concerning
property. According to Brissot: "In nature, exclusive property is theft." I believe that
inclusive property is not theft. Socialism is not about eradicating personal property
in personal resources; it is all about eradicating private property in manufacturing
resources. Socialism wishes to replace exclusive property in industrial goods with
inclusive and collective property in all such goods.
According to Benjamin Franklin: "Private property is the creature of society and is
subject to the calls of that society even to the last farthing". Most philosophical
conservatives, or ideological capitalists, will not agree with Franklin's stated opinion
concerning property. I believe that Franklin's words describe what ought to be, not
what is. Property ought to be the creation of society; property should be the conscious
creation of a constitutional and democratic society.
To those ideological capitalists who like to call themselves anarchists, let me point
out two quotes from two respected political philosophers which are a clear slam
against the very notion of an anarchist version of capitalism. The first quote is from
Jean Jacques Rousseau: "Laws are always useful to persons of property, and hurtful
to those who have none." The second quote is from Jeremy Benthem: "Property and
law are born together, and die together."
"Private property is at once the consequence and the basis of the state."
-- Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin
Misery is the suffering that is caused by poverty. If we can end poverty, then we can
put an end to the misery poverty causes. If human beings would come together,
reason together, organize together, plan together, and work together, we could put
an end to poverty today.
A lack of comprehension is indicative of a lack of interest. If you have no curiosity
about socialist and democratic solutions to human poverty and misery, then you
will give no sincere attention to what socialists and democrats have to say.
Consciousness of facts is all about neural discharges. To be cognizant of any fact
involves activity in the brain.
Our hopes are also facts. There are a lot of existing facts that human beings have
caused, created, produced, generated, etc. The human mind, and the human will,
have brought into being an entire world of artificial, synthetic, and manufactured facts.
The human mind, with all its neural discharges, and with all our hopes, has been
the origin and source of most of the facts of which you are aware.
"Violence is as American as cherry pie."
-- H. Rap Brown
"God made the waters, man made the wines."
-- Victor Marie Hugo |
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Posted by rallen2 on 2008-02-18 18:09:51 | Rating: | Views: 49
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