On Our New Visitor, The "Comrade"

Mr. Comrade has poured his elaborate thoughts out before us, in his many comments to my previous post, and this requires a response.

Let me begin with a quote from Mr. Comrade:

"In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic."

Communism is thus not about the Individual choosing what to specialize in, in the social division of labour. "Society" decides for him. The Great Economic Czar of Planning Decides. This is a Prescription for Disaster.

And where is this "ideal society"? - not in Soviet Russia, not in China; indeed, not in West Bengal or Kerala or Tripura.

Only private property empowers the Individual. Without it, all are dispossessed. And private property is a "natural law": the fish in the fisherman's net are taken to be his property by all, even though the ocean has not given him a title deed to his catch. The golden rule we all follow in markets is that "possession indicates property." If all property was declared to be held in common, the "comrades" would strip every shop bare and take everything they desired in the name of "brotherhood." It is this brotherhood that is a dangerous idea: the communists idealize "society;" and in their ideal society, the Individual becomes a mere cipher, a statistic, a nothing: "wee the sheeple."

And comrade should ask a worker in a car factory, working with Capital he does not own (advanced robotics) whether he would prefer to be with a hammer and sickle, which are his own property.

Indeed, this is why our comrade talks of "alienation": in reality, we are all competing individuals. It is futile to conceive of a great "society" wherein we love all our neighbours: "shiny happy people holding hands." In truth, we will always be competing with them. Life is Competitive Individualism. Communism sacrifices the individual at the altar of society.

And I sincerely doubt whether either Chile or New Zealand will ever revert to communism. Actually, I even doubt whether the avowedly communist parties of West Bengal or Kerala will ever attempt to realize the property-less world of our Comrade, wherein "society decides what we produce."

I hope Comrade will find his points answered above. I also hope he will no longer bother this blog with his nonsense. Talk to your kind, Comrade. Don't push your propaganda where it don't belong. I want no more long comments from you. Stay out of this forum. This is a libertarian blog. Libertarians do not bow their heads to "society." Libertarians stand up for themselves. We decide what we want to produce and sell, and what we want to buy. We carry our own guns, and protect our own properties. And we do not lead dumb masses to their ruination. Stay out, Comrade. You are not welcome here.