----- Original Message -----
From: Eva Durant <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>People were not consciously structuring slavery,
>feudalism or capitalism. It happened to them
>as a consequence of the physical environment including
>technological/economical development and in turn, social
>relations.
I am beginning to understand your thesis Eva. It seems
to be one of two possibilities:
Hypothesis #1. "People" are defined by their actions.
"People" can only do good things.
If that is so, then the "people" can rule because they, by
definition, can only do good. Moreover, anyone who does
bad is, by definition, not a person.
But wait a minute! Wasn't that Hitler's thesis too?
Hypothesis #2: "People" can do no wrong. Only the "system"
can be wrong.
Hasn't this hypothesis been falsified by Joseph Stalin?
Question: Over a hundred million people were killed during
the last century.
Isn't it possible that some of those who were doing the burning,
raping, shooting, clubbing, knifing, and bombing were doing it
because they LIKED it?
Even among primitive people, the murder rates are high.
System problems again Eva?
Where on Earth, has the "system" EVER allowed the "people"
to become the angels you claim them to be?
"The new human freedom made striving for expansion and power possible. Such
freedom, when multiplied, creates anarchy. The anarchy among civilized
societies meant that the play of power in the system was uncontrollable. In
an anarchic situation like that, no one can choose that the struggle for
power shall cease. But there is one more element in the picture: no one is
free to choose peace, but anyone can impose upon all the necessity for
power. This is the lesson of the parable of the tribes." [ p. 21, Andrew
Bard Schmookler, THE PARABLE OF THE TRIBES; SUNY, 1995. ISBN 0-7914-2420-0 ]
Communism is just another stupid idea whose time has past.
Jay
