Monday, March 27, 2006

Save me



Thanks to Stuart commenting on the peice before last.

My reply is slightly convoluted, so I'll make it here rather than in the comment box.

ISTR William Morris stating: Peter sober needs protecting from Peter drunk. That's as fine an expression of a communitarian ethic as you'll find. The obvious danger is, inm saying people need to be protected from themselves inspite of their expressed preferrence ("No, leave me, I'm fine, I can walk") is that it turns into a nasty authoritarianism.

Obviously, the first point is that in a democratic society that ethic would be carried out by the community upon themselves - organically, to use a slightly dangerous term - rather than by an alien élite.

Secondly, this is in line with marx' Aristotelianism - and the notion of a Good. Free development implies a Good that we aspire to and can live by - which in turn implies a bad that we may want to prevent.

In essence, I see socialism as being the acknowldgement that the individual only can grow through a community, and having a community committed to helping that individual grow. The community cannot be some alien state, but the lived experience of all its individual members.

1 Comments:

Blogger Bill said...

Lo Stuart,

Interestingly, that was Shaw's response - if you'll recall from my talk - he compared it to killing a dangerous animal - if they're not capable of behaving like a human...

Personally, I'd hope tehre's a better way (exile to an island for one thing). But it would be utopian to declare socialism would act in eitehr way...

1:27 PM  

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