: :"I've put forth the idea that we could distribute our wealth according to who needed it, and we could create a world where work was enjoyable instead of drudgery, and I've even challenged my own idea by saying that such a world may not be possible. So far, the only response I've received from Kevin, Zachary Emig, Mike Bednarz, Cara Russell, RWB etc. is that such a world would be a living Hell. Don't you guys have any imagination?": I can just imagine how this "distribution" would be implemented.
Yeah, and your imagination mentions only one possibility, a possibility that is dismissive of the whole idea.
:Since it would be based on need, those who stop producing first would be the most in need.
Those who produce the most in world society are doubtless the majority of those in need, for they are earning wages fit for slaves while powering the machines of multinationals. Or they're slave labor like the multinationals hire in China.
:Since there would be some sort of "controlling authority"
This "controlling authority" of your imagination is not necessary for people to help those in need, just as we have charities in America today that don't depend on police power to get others to donate.
: to distribute "our" wealth (I notice this idea is provided by someone who makes quite a deal about his lack of possessions, i.e. someone who's pocket is not going to be picked),
Imagining a world where there's no property, where people have what they need, where work is fun etc., means much more than imagining government reorganization of life, and it means much more than imagining individual acts of charity or theft amidst a world of uptightness about property, possessions, and work.
: how will this distribution be determined (and just who makes these decisions, the goverment with the speed of the mail and the compassion of the IRS)?
Everyone would make the decisions, democratically, not by majority vote but by consensus. If you can't imagine a purely consensual society, you're lost to the idea of utopia.
: I like the way it works now.
Aw, Max is privileged to enjoy the status quo. Isn't that special? Let's give Max a round of applause for being privileged.
:If I "need" something, I will get off of my dead behind and get it myself.
I see. How privileged you are, that society so favors you that you can get anything you need. Please tell this to the malnourished billion-or-so on the planet, that they're lazy and it's their own fault, that if they just get off their butts they can beat that case of kwashiorkor or marasmus and become successful CEOs.
:Slavery comes in degrees while freedom either exists or does not. I know sloth when I see it (I succumb to it from time to time like any other human). If you truly want something, you will work at it to get it.
So the women of Vietnam who work for Nike at the rate of 26 cents an hour, if they truly want Cadillacs, they'll work harder? Read SPIRITS OF RESISTANCE AND CAPITALIST DISCIPLINE: FACTORY WOMEN IN MALAYSIA by Aihwa Ong.
: I hold no power unavailable to any other human,
I see. So everyone in the world has access to good jobs that will satisfy their every desire if they work hard enough at these jobs. Really! Which planet are you from again?
: and I have the same foibles. I will not discuss the minority that cannot or will not work. You do not have the right to make other people's needs my responsibility.
Nope, I don't, like I really could make you responsible for something on the basis of an e-mail discussion. Go ahead, ignore the starving, the underpaid, and those forced into labor. Just don't expect me to like you for it.
: Benevolence and charity are not behaviors that can be forced on people (that is extortion and theft).
But the world of social Darwinism, the one without benevolence or charity, HAS been forced on people. It's called "austerity planning," and it has been forced on those (usually undemocratic) nations receiving IMF and World Bank loans (usually ripoffs to benefit multinational corporations).
: Sorry to throw mud on your utopia, but it sounds like the wonderful world Hitler proposed would come from the new Reich.
To refer to Dr. Freud again, this sounds like projection. It's CAPITALISM, the ideological substance of the myth behind "if you truly want something, you will work at it to get it" (in the voice of the boss speaking to his assembled subordinates), that has conquered the world and proclaimed the thousand-year "New World Order," the Pax Trilateralica.
: The road to hell is paved...
: Why is it that what I want to do relies on me
What you want to do DOESN'T rely just on you. This is the big lie of the myth of American rugged individualist self-reliance. What you want to do depends on your community's willingness to support you in your doings. There's plenty of historical evidence to show that the true believers in self-reliance had plenty of community support in their pursuits.
None.
