Re: the Communist Manifesto: critique

Boris Stremlin asked whether, in acommunist society, "would there be no
mediation at all, since everyone would exist in immediate communion with
everyone and everything?"

If my sister's dog is ill and she calls me to ask whether I can watch her children while she takes the dog to the vet, we might say that my babysitting is an "unmediated" service, or perhaps one "mediated" by a lifelong relationship. Does anyone think that communism could be "unmediated" in this sense?

I certainly don't. "Well, then, if not by money and not by family ties, then by what?" Communists have always seen political organization as the mediation that would serve the working class, specifically the formation of a political party by that part of the working class that is committed to the implementation of a communist vision of our future, that is, a party of communists. The task of communists is to provide organization at all levels of society, from the most local to a world-wide scale, that can secure production and distribution that serves the needs of workers.

Here, among philosophers at least, we commonly hear the phrase "Hayek has shown..." That is, there is widespread skepticism about whether such a planned and organized society could be tolerably efficient in allocation of productive resources. There is much here that, in my view, needs more discussion. Central issues are "efficient for what (needs or market demand)?" and "how can we mobilize and organize the the dispersed knowledge of the workers about their needs so as to organize production efficiently enough to meet our needs?"

Paul
 

Boris Stremlin wrote:

> At 12:10 PM -0600 16/3/02, Paul Gomberg wrote:

> >When Marx and others denounced capitalism, the denunciation centered on a
> >communist vision, a world where human relationships would be unmediated
> >by money and markets, where production and human society generally would
> >be oriented toward the needs of the working class. Of course, it is
> >unfashionable to defend this vision now, but so what?

Whether this was in fact Marx's vision is a matter of some debate.  But
I'm curious about what exactly would mediate human relationships in the
society you envision.  Or would there be no mediation at all, since
everyone would exist in immediate communion with everyone and everything?

--
Boris Stremlin
bstremli@binghamton.edu