'This is not the age of inventions.'
---Morris, News From Nowhere (Penguin Classics Edition, p. 192).Stoller:
Lose the Morris, Bill. Get back to Marx.
: Why? If Morris makes more sense than marx then why 'get back to marx'? That is unless you have some interest in authoritarianism.
Would Morris' News From Nowhere be your cup of tea, Lark?
A) Plenty of work gets done, by off-stage drones who cheerfully attend to their tasks everyday.
B) The narrator 'guest' is entertained throughout his visit to Morris' utopia by many solicitous hosts.
C) The narrator 'guest'---unlike everyone else---is required to do NO WORK.
How's THAT for 'liberty in the workplace,' eh?
Pretty good...but...
Morris, lest we forget, was an independent artisan who (hand-) made books and furniture for the ruling classes of Europe, the only people who could possibly afford such luxury commodities.
Everyone one else in Europe (i.e. people who actually worked) had to settle for the mass-produced, machine-manufactured commodities that REAL socialism is PREDICATED upon.
In other words, Morris was a REACTIONARY socialist quack, a feudal remnant who wanted capitalism halted so his artisan hegemony would continue beyond the point of historical viability.
His 'utopia' was 'not the age of inventions'; Morris thought society had already TOO MANY inventions. Everyone should have hand-crafted luxury items, said Morris---without ever considering HOW that could be accomplished.
Preindustrial society (again), anyone?
Now that I think of it, Lark, Morris might NOT be your sort of chap. I mean, do you want to 'hand-craft' your own playstations and MTV?
Liberty, indeed.
None.
