Skip to main content

Competition & Progressive?

I couldn't make it past "The Principles of Communism" without several questions that may or may not appear obvious to others, but as for me, I need to know before moving along and taking the rest in. For example, competition, appeared to be one of the devils of society, one that communism must crush in order to be successful. Competition according to Engels was partially at fault for classism. This made me wonder how we conceptualize competition in our society today. Is this a cultural phenomenon. I remember as a child competition showed its face every day, from getting a star in the elementary school classroom to fighting to be a the top of the class in high school or winning the swim meet. How does a society function without competition? What are the detriments of competition? Is all competition evil?
Secondly, a lot of aspects of communism seemed to be very modern and progressive. For example, the idea of globalization was already mentioned: "In this way, big industry has brought all the people of the Earth into contact with each other..." Also, the idea that the Earth did not belong to anyone and the need for absolution of private property seemed to be progressive as well. "Equal inheritance rights for children born in and out of wedlock" is another progressive idea. Finally, the idea of the family in communism seems to me to be very modern. However, what I don't understand is the role of the woman. I don't understand the "community of women". What role does the woman play in a communist society? Is she valued and respected? How is this different from a democratic society? Is the difference significant?

One last note....when reading about the proletariat, I keep thinking about people who lived paycheck to paycheck today....any ideas?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Purdue's Professional Revolutionary

In light of the discussion we had during our advisee meeting on Friday about being strategic in our means as critical scholars I was struck by the words of Lenin who emphasizes the role of the intellectual. He says, "The history of all countries shows that the working class, exclusively by its own effort, is able to develop only trade-union consciousness, i.e., it may itself realize the necessity for combining in unions, for fighting against the employers and for striving to compel the government to pass necessary labor legislation, etc. The theory of socialism, however, grew out of the philosophic, historical representatives of the propertied classes, the intellectuals." (pg. 74) This idea of the bourgeois socialist intelligentsia as an instrument of raising consciousness and fomenting dissent is an ideal one I am sure but in contemporary times we, the academics, forming a substantial part of the "intellectual elite", occupy a unique position which forces us into ...

Whose means justifies their end?

I spend a lot of my time teaching and disciplining children now-a-days and through these experiences, I have found many similarities in the ways that Marx and Engel construct their arguments for communism and against capitalism, most of which are shaped around the concept of deflection. First, let me provide an example from which my conclusions are built, all of which are inducted from daily experiences. I know that my experience is nothing novel or new, especially if anyone reading this has had the pleasure of working with large groups of kids. In a classroom there is supposed to be only one goal, one guider, and one “law maker” and that lovely job title has been bestowed upon me, the teacher. In trying to achieve my one goal to teach multiplication, I tell every student to be quiet and do their work. While not paying attention, I hear several of the students talking. When I look up, I single out the first one that I see talking (lets call him Crandon). I tell Crandon, “If you continu...

Is participation just a rhetoric?

Participation and participatory strategies are used in different spaces globally to involve communities and ensure their voices in the discursive space. The culture centered approach foregrounds active participation of community members in the construction of shared meanings and experience (Dutta, 2008). Basu and Dutta (2009) underline the importance of participation of community members in the enunciation of health problems as a step toward achieving meaningful change. My experience with participatory projects involving children and community members also bears testimony to the importance of participation in impacting society; effecting a sustainable social change. But at the same time, this question looms large in my reflexive spaces that "Is it all just a co-optive process as the structural issues have remain untouched?" Basu and Dutta (2009) discuss different approaches of participation, critique the top down participatory campaigns and provide an alternative theorizing o...