How Do You Define Morality?

[DanaC]

orthodoc, the thing about Marxist philosphy is that it takes as its basis a democratic process as the goal. Communism in theory is about as democratic as it's possible to be. The idea of Sovietsin every workplace, each sending representatives to a larger body who then send reprentatives to an even larger one until eventually every town, city and factory has a say, in theory is highly democratised. Now, obviously the way it was actually done in Russia didn't meet that model. But the theory had a lot of interesting possibilities.

It's also important to understand that Marx wasn't working towards a revolution, he was predicting the conditions that in his view would lead to one. Given the proximity of his writing to the 1840s revolutions and the earlier French Revolution, that wasn't entirely off base. Also, given the extremes that existed within the emerging industrial nations it was something that many people were talking about.

We all think of Marx as the one who came up with socialism, but actually he was merely one part (though a biggy I'll grant you) of a strand of political thinking that was around in much of Europe at the time. There were groups in England in the late 18th century who were experimenting with communal living long before Marx was writing.

I still contend that a government with the power to decide each person's appropriate contribution (which would cover education, activities, career choice, and offspring - number, sex, and parents thereof, along with finances) and needs (again, broad categories) would have far too much power and would stifle (at best), or kill (more likely) the population and economy. I would/will always work against that.

And you'd find most socialists (and indeed most communists in my country) would also work against a government that sought to control "education, activities, career choice, and offspring - number, sex, and parents thereof, along with finances".

The history of leftwing activism in my country includes fights against laws which dictated who could do what trade or job, it includes the fight against overbearing employers who sought to dictate morality to their workforce. It's about increasing freedom, not curtailing it.