Phhhhhtt!!
No, I am a very vocal detractor from the Intellectual Property Tycoon mindset.
That's not the problem. The problem, is that expecting somebody to labor endlessly for the benefit of another person, who for whatever reason, is unable to labor, is unreasonable. This is exemplified and demonstrated through caregiver fatigue, which is why I specifically put a spotlight on it.
Communism instructs "Each according to his ability, to each, according to his need." EG, those that are able to labor, should labor-- for those that are unable to labor, and have unmet needs. The natural parallel is found in elder care settings. Those people are too old and infirm to care for themselves, and require constant total care. The demands of that on caregivers causes baldfaced resentment, even in people who are deeply emotionally attached to the people receiving the care.
This leads to a dichotomy, and an easily exploited vulnerability in the system:
First, the dichotomy-- The notion that there is no class divisions of any kind trainwrecks into the reality that there are quadraplegics and other special class citizens that will, through no fault of their own, consume vastly more than they can produce. This is duplicitous doublethink. The reality is inescapable, and no amount of self-induced cogitative dissonance is going to remove it. This creates a stepping stone in the mental landscape to create other class divisions, which results in a stratified society, not a universal society.
Then, the vulnerability-- Due to the harsh reality pointed out above, coupled with the functional equivalent of caregiver fatigue suffered by the "supporting class" (eg, those that labor, and MUST labor, for failure to labor results in the intrinsic harm of the recipient classes), this class becomes vulnerable to resentment, and can thus be leveraged by ner'do'wells. Humans DO NOT exist (mentally) in "objective reality". They exist within the confines of their mental conceptual frameworks of that reality. That framework is maleable, and that perception of it can be thus manipulated. If one thing should be patently obvious about modern society in the capitalist dystopia we find ourselves in, it is that "Perception Management" is totally a thing, and is *VERRRRYYY* effective.
(It is via this mechanism that the Intellectual Property Tycoons convince the public that it is "Theft!!" for their works to ever enter the public domain, among other abuses.)
I would argue that Marx's view of the ideal situation is at best "Meta-stable", and in practice "Intrinsically unstable." It is just one social movement away from complete collapse, at all times, and that is assuming you are willing to overlook the intrinsic duplicity involved in overlooking the obvious divide between the caregiver, and the one cared for. (While not their fault, and if they were able to they would certainly give more, the quadraplegic bound to the wheelchair cannot offer the caregiver anything other than their gratitude. The caregiver cannot eat gratitude, nor wear it, not drink it, nor do anything with it in a material sense. Meanwhile, they are expending vast sums of material resources and time. This dichotomy SHOULD NOT be overlooked. Ugly realities like these NEED to be addressed in meaningful, non-hand-waved manners. Appropriate measures must be integrated to assure that the caregiver and the care recipient, both have all of their needs met-- AND-- that the social perceptions of those needs are kept in a correct and proper fashion; It is VERY easy to malign the care recipient as a "Useless eater", and it is also VERY easy to malign the burning-out caregiver as "Callous, cruel, and unsympathetic to the needs of others" because they needed, AND TOOK, some personal time away from that kind of labor (or took some other material assist that they needed to keep their life together).
This latter is especially true, and you can find examples of it all over social media, where the "rest of the society" reacts without proper knowledge or comprehension, based on their emotional perceptions of the periphery of a situation, without delving into the details or underlying circumstances, then engages in a judgemental and officious manner. (See for instance, the cases of doxxing against completely innocent people who were captured on camera walking past white power and nazi gatherings. people that were literally just on the sidewalk, trying to get past, but lumped in with "THE HATED!", and punished without regret or oversight.)
The truly sociopathic among us see these kinds of behaviors and mechanisms as means to twist the system to their favor, and to oust potential rivals or sources of animosity toward themselves; EG, ways to seize power, and then leverage it for self-gratification and empowerment. As such, failure to observe and genuinely intercede on these failures is actively inviting exploitation.
Marx appears to operate from a disconnected utopian fantasy about human nature, rather than accepting these ugly details that manifest; His proposed system does not give proper gravitas to these human failings, and as such, his system cannot function with humans.
Author
Topic: AmeriPol thread (Read 3593404 times)