Monday, May 22, 2006

It's not my fault I'm selfish; It's human nature.

As anyone who reads this journal can probably guess, I've been a communist for a long time. That said, I have heard the vast majority of all of the major arguments against Marxism-Leninism from pretty much everyone I know. One of the most common, and perhaps the most frustrating ,is the argument that communism "goes against human nature, because human nature is selfish".

Hmm. Human nature. I see.

This is such a widespread opinion, and yet it doesn't make sense to me. Now that I've actually stopped to think about it, there are so many ways to debunk this "argument". First of all, I could even argue that "human nature" doesn't exist, but this is not a widely accepted point of view, so I will approach the issue from a different angle ( For an excellent explanation of the non-existence of Human nature, see " Understanding Marxism" by Frank Cunningham, Progress books 1978, Chapter 2.).

Many capitalists argue that selfishness, the reason that communism doesn't work, is human nature , because many human beings have a tendency towards selfishness. On the other hand, many human beings have a tendency towards murder.

From a scientific point of view, many of the oldest human remains discovered have spear heads lodged in them, an obvious sign that human beings have been killing each other for the entire duration of our history. Even from a religious point of view, In the bible the first human to die (ever) is Able, murdered by his brother Cain ( Genesis 4:8), and this is a belief upheld in all of the Abrahamic faiths. It is reasonable to also say that Murder is human nature.

So, why does our society punish Murderers?

After all, they were just giving in to their human nature. You can't fight human nature, right?

Many other behaviors such as stealing, drug abuse and rape have been with humanity as long as we have walked this Earth, in every culture on the planet . Is it un-reasonable to say that these acts are also human nature? So once again, why does our society punish thieves, rapists and drug addicts? Can't these individuals dismiss their behavior as an act of human nature, completely outside of their control?

Almost every act that is considered a felony in every nation of the world, could be viewed as an act of human nature. This is very strange.

Back to the subject of murder, if murder is human nature, why do we punish murderers?
The reason our society punishes murder is that the overwhelming majority of our society HAS NEVER COMMITTED MURDER. Despite the strong tendency of human beings to kill each other, as long as humanity has existed, the majority of human beings have never killed anyone. Those who do kill someone in our society have broken an unspeakable taboo, despite how common the occurrence is. Very interesting, especially since the act of murder does seem to meet all of the criteria to be considered "human nature".

The overwhelming majority of our society has never committed rape or stolen anything . The majority of our society, and humanity as a whole, have somehow managed to overcome the primal instinct within themselves to steal from others and commit rape. Once again, both of these behaviors do seem to meet the criteria to be considered "human nature", being as they are both common in all cultures and have been with humanity since the beginning. And yet, both of these behaviors are a social taboo to humanity in general.

Selfishness is exactly the same. Selfishness has been with human beings from the beginning, in all cultures, and it continues to be very common in our society, so selfishness would seem to be "human nature". In many ways, selfishness is much, much more common and widespread among the general population than any other type of behavior I've mentioned so far. And yet,
even selfishness is in no way, shape or form encouraged by our society in general.
Corrupted CEOs who selfishly pillage their company, hose stockholders and initiate massive layoffs are usually charged with some sort of white collar crime. Corrupt politicians who selfishly take bribes, embezzle tax money and promote their own conflicted interests are usually impeached (Usually.), Employers can no longer selfishly exploit their employees as much as they would like, because now there are many hard-earned labour laws in place. All of the most extreme forms of selfishness are still against the law.

Even the common, minor forms of selfishness are strongly frowned upon by our society at large.
Many would dispute this view, as under our current capitalist society, greed and individual-centric attitudes are constantly promoted in all of the mainstream media sources and educational institutions. While this is true that the bourgeoisie class do shove selfish values down the throats of the masses, this is purely commercial, and largely superficial.
The true will of our society can be seen everytime that selfishness does rear it's ugly head. When I have acted selfishly to those around me on occasion, no one has ever encouraged my behavior. On the contrary, whenever I have acted in a selfish way, all those around me immediately make their strong disapproval known to me, often with angry shouting. I react the exact same way towards others when they are selfish towards me. This is how our society reacts to selfishness. Most of this angry behavior comes as a result of the overwhelming influence of selfishness on our society, in the media and education institutions. This anger is our societie's rejection of the selfishness being pushed on us by the bourgeoisie.

Even the word "selfish" itself, and all related words, reflect this social taboo. In the English language, there is no positive context for the word " Selfish", the word "greed", or any derivative words. The word "Selfish" itself is a very pejorative word. Our language is actively trying to discourage this behavior through the use of context, as are the languages of cultures all over the world.

So yes, selfishness is common, and widely saturated within our society. The tendency towards selfishness in human beings is strong. On the other hand, this does not mean that selfish behavior is un-avoidable, and un-stoppable in individuals, nor is it accepted by our society.
Like all other distasteful tendencies of human beings, selfishness can be ignored and purged
from an individual. Human beings make their own choices, and if you are selfish, then you choose to be selfish. The individual is in control of their actions, and responsible for them.

When socialism is finally instituted, the poisonous commercial influences of selfishness forced upon society will be purged once and for all, and human beings will finally prosper mutually under the new society in the making.

Monday, May 01, 2006

May Day!


Today is Mayday, international day of workers struggle all over the world.
On this day all progressive peoples forces unite under the banner of humanity and march with hope for a new world, a better world.

Many great Socialist developments have happened in the world as of late. In Cuba, President Fidel Castro met with President Evo Morales (Bolivia) and President Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), and signed an agreement between the three nations based on the principals of Socialism, and opposition to United States interests. In Bolivia, President Morales has nationalized all resources in the name of the Bolivian people. In Nepal, parliamentary democracy has been restored by the combined efforts of the People of Nepal and the Maoist peoples vanguard. In the United States an estimated 20 million people, mostly of Latin American descent, protested against the fascist immigration policies proposed by the American government, virtually shutting down many areas of their country as they tried to assert their rights as human beings.

These are only some of the many struggles being waged by the people of the world in defense of their rights.

At this time, more than any other since the end of the cold war, a better world is in sight. The first stages of socialism, and eventually the society of communist man, can be glimpsed in the distance.

Of course, it isn't all progressive and positive; The United States continues to regress further into fascism. The legitimacy of the Belarusian elections is being denounced by all of the powers that be, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephan Harper ( Ironic for a man who got into power on under 40 % of the vote.). The conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti still rage, as the people struggle against their imperial occupiers, with no end in sight.

As Marx said, perhaps the stage of Capitalism is in it's final days, the last conflict between the forces of the old world and the new. In order for the human race to prosper, the forces of the new world must triumph. In the name of the human race, Socialism must triumph!