(September 16, 2024 at 6:40 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: When I mentioned "nobility", I was talking about how the adherents believed that what they adhered to would actually produce a better world for all. They thought that assigning production to the people, or trusting magnates to do the right thing following the money, would in the end in both cases result in a better society for all.
I can agree with such take though one must note that such "nobility" could also be ascribed to nazis or khmers who too believed that their actions will result in a better world.
Quote:That's clearly not the case in either instance because both systems ignore the basic urge of greed.
Of course, after both systems are shown flawed, apologists show up to explain why this or that experiment (Soviet Union, Gilded Age in America) went wrong, not because the ideology was wrong, but "the people didn't implement it right".
This ignores the fact that in both cases, greed -- for power or money or control -- is for better or worse an essential human quality.
It can't be really said that communism failed because of greed as it was never built nor there was real conception of what should be done to build it and how it would look in precise terms. Something that is just vague dream or perhaps messianic promise can't really fail because there is no possibility of achieving it in the first place.
The first revolt is against the supreme tyranny of theology, of the phantom of God. As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.
Mikhail Bakunin.
The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.
Socrates.
Mikhail Bakunin.
The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.
Socrates.