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Why communism and anarchism are not solutions?

As frequently stated on this site, addressing a problem requires following this process:
1. Acknowledge the problem
2. Conduct a thorough analysis.
3. Develop a solution, often partial.
4. Implement it.

Communism

We refer to Marx's analysis in Capital:

Observation

The bourgeoisie monopolizes wealth, leaving the proletariat with only the bare minimum necessary for its renewal after a life of misery.
Policies (in England) recognize the problem but fail to take measures commensurate with its severity.

Analysis

Marx dissects surplus value to understand how wealth is usurped from workers.

However, there is no consideration of human nature and its dimension of social ambition, namely the desire to become bourgeois oneself... and usurper.

Solution

Abolish the bourgeois class.

Implementation

Soviet Revolution.

The party becomes the new tyranny.

Anarchism

Observation

The state oppresses citizens through bureaucratic regulations, and justice largely serves the powerful. Large-scale wars are waged by states.

Analysis

It also ignores social ambition by assuming all humans are moderate, and thus peaceful once they have the means to live decently and freely from their work.

Solution

Abolish the state.

Implementation

If implemented, we would quickly observe an invasion by an external country imposing its tyranny, or the emergence of multiple micro-states seeking to expand by force.

Our analysis

In both cases, the aim is to eliminate power: that of money in communism, that of the state in anarchism. In doing so, they ignore that power is the product of social ambition, inherent to human nature, which therefore cannot be eliminated.

Let us note at this stage that just because the solution they propose is naive and dangerous, it does not mean that the demands (the observation point) of communism or anarchism are not perfectly legitimate. In other words, once these two systems are discredited, the problem is not thereby resolved, and the argument 'the problem will resolve itself within capitalism' remains false and morally shocking.

Throughout history, various methods have been experimented with without decisive or stable success over time, attempting to entrust power to a well-chosen person who would exercise it with probity and competence. Even today, many believe the solution lies in a better system for designating those who exercise power. This vision ignores three essential points:

   •   

The extraordinary capacity of certain individuals to advance disguised.

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Self-deception, a product of cognitive dissonance, which means that probity and competence are not enough. One would also need to have no beliefs.

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Power changes people.

In the end, the solution necessarily consists not in eliminating power, or seeking to entrust it to the right person, but in framing the exercise of power, that is, framing the decision-making process. The real problem is not who, but how.

Further exploration

Consult the closely related question:
Necessary condition for a satisfactory social organization

Refer to the following questions:
What is a human being?
Why do humans reason so massively wrongly?
What conditions must be met to produce serious reasoning?
and above all:
How to make decisions in conformity with the general interest?

See the paragraph 'The philosophical question arising from progress' in Chapter 1 of the book From Capital to Reason.

Finally, an effective solution is presented in the second part of the book From Capital to Reason.

 

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