"With too much freedom comes far too much responsibility; not that users aren’t entitled to full responsibility but, honestly, they don’t want it."
Equating communism in general to a restriction of freedom is simply erroneous. A core tenet of communism is democratic control over production. There are two main branches of communist philosophy: statist and anti-statist. The anarcho-communists, who are more liberal than any other political philosophy I can think of, would never say that a freedom must be restricted by someone above.
"Authoritarian" is what the author meant. Ironically, capitalism exists to allow for the design of somewhat decentralized, somewhat competitive authoritarian institutions that will control production. What he's describing is more inherently capitalist than communist. He's confused by the fact that the USSR was simply a state-capitalist society just like the US is, only with weaker trust networks.
"Equating communism in general to a restriction of freedom is simply erroneous."
Perhaps, but it's certainly an easy mistake to make, since historically, all governments that have claimed to be communist have been authoritarian or totalitarian, and none have had democratic control over production (or really over much of anything). Some of these governments hold "elections", but who is going to be in charge after the election is never in doubt.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 17.7 ms ] threadEquating communism in general to a restriction of freedom is simply erroneous. A core tenet of communism is democratic control over production. There are two main branches of communist philosophy: statist and anti-statist. The anarcho-communists, who are more liberal than any other political philosophy I can think of, would never say that a freedom must be restricted by someone above.
"Authoritarian" is what the author meant. Ironically, capitalism exists to allow for the design of somewhat decentralized, somewhat competitive authoritarian institutions that will control production. What he's describing is more inherently capitalist than communist. He's confused by the fact that the USSR was simply a state-capitalist society just like the US is, only with weaker trust networks.
Perhaps, but it's certainly an easy mistake to make, since historically, all governments that have claimed to be communist have been authoritarian or totalitarian, and none have had democratic control over production (or really over much of anything). Some of these governments hold "elections", but who is going to be in charge after the election is never in doubt.