'Under socialism all will govern in turn and will soon become accustomed to no one governing.'
---LeninDavid:
Barry, what I am trying to make you see that when you decide to become a musician, and excel at it, it would be very hard if you were constantly forced to switch jobs every so often and devote time to something you don't want to do.
Barry:
Aw, shucks! We'll just have to let you do ALL the music while someone else does all the cleaning, won't we?
: Barry, how would your socialist economy accommodate people like David, who need to practice their skill intensively in order to master it?
Presuming that you read this post and this post and still reject the idea that even specialized workers can DO OTHER THINGS (like David does every time he shows up here on this debate board), I will have to say that my initial suspicions about you are being confirmed. . .
The argument for the social division of labor go back as far as Plato, who stated:
[W]e must infer that all things are produced more plentifully and easily and of a better quality when one man does one thing which is natural to him and does it at the right time, and leaves other things.(1)
Upon this 'first principle' the ideal 'republic' was formed:
[T]he shoemaker was not allowed by us to be a husbandman, or a weaver, or a builder---in order that we might have our shoes well made; but to him and to every other worker was assigned one work for which he was by nature fitted, and at that he was to continue working all his life long and at no other; he was not to let opportunities slip, and then he would become a good workman. (2)
This line of thinking, naturally enough, leads to this conclusion:
There will be discovered to be some natures who ought to study philosophy and to be leaders in the State; and others who are not born to be philosophers, and are meant to be followers rather than leaders.(3)
I mean, if you're going to have highly specialized musicians, would you want anyone LESS trained to be the leaders?
Thus the social division of labor became the initiating condition of Plato's ideal society, a 'republic' characterized by dictatorship (4), eugenics (5), and thought control (6), or: a rough draft of OUR society.
And you guys are calling ME a fascist because I champion complete political equality for all.
Go figure.
: Barber's "Adagio for Strings": brings tears to my eyes every time.
And the REALITY that 75% of Americans are stuck in mindless jobs (7) brings tears to MY eyes, you petit-bourgeois liberal elitist.
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1. Plato's Republic (Jowett Translation, Modern Library Edition), p. 61.
2. Ibid., pp. 67-68.
3. Ibid., p. 204.
4. Ibid., p. 203.
5. Ibid., pp. 182-83.
