Revolutionary Imagination – A Gentle Reminder

My world view and philosophy in a nutshell: ” By putting us in competition, by claiming that it is human nature to compete, that it is human nature to be aggressive and violent, that it is human nature to be selfish and greedy, conservative philosophers, especially those who espouse capitalism are denying us our real human nature.

Not all of us can be musicians, artists, actors, engineers, scientists etc. but we can all appreciate the social value that each of us brings to the smooth functioning of society. So I am not saying does that every person should be equally rewarded for what they do, or that they should all do exactly the same things. I am asking for us all to recognize and appreciate that which others contribute, while expecting the same appreciation for what we do. In capitalist countries doctors are far more appreciated than street cleaners and most doctors study medicine not because they are concerned about health, they do so because they wish to live in mansions, drive Porches and marry beauty queens. Yet, the work of street cleaners is as important to the health and well being of communities as that of doctors. The crudest, crassest forms of materialism is found in capitalist societies where the value of a person is judged by the size of his/her bank account, the car that s/he drives, the suite that s/he wears etc.

In appreciating your blog/facebook entries, I appropriate your writing sense and skills, which now become as much mine as yours. In giving me new senses, you have refined your own. If you had withheld your powers, the many other readers and I would have suffered a loss, but so would you. Properly defined individual and social interests always coincide.

In helping me become a human being, you become one yourself; in destroying my humanity, you destroy yours as well. This is why Capitalism, Apartheid and racism could never work; it attempts to build the humanity of a minority based on race/class while destroying that of the majority. Marx summed it up, “mutual completion… leads to truly human life.”