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non serviam #4
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Contents: Ken Knudson: A Critique of Communism and
The Individualist Alternative (serial: 4)
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Ken Knudson:
A Critique of Communism
and
The Individualist Alternative
(continued)
* * * * *
Peter Kropotkin opens his chapter on "Consumption and
Production" in "The Conquest of Bread" with the following
words:
"If you open the works of any economist you will find that
he begins with PRODUCTION, the analysis of means employed
nowadays for the creation of wealth; division of labour,
manufacture, machinery, accumulation of capital. From Adam
Smith to Marx, all have proceeded along these lines. Only
in the latter parts of their books do they treat of
CONSUMPTION, that is to say, of the means necessary to
satisfy the needs of individuals....Perhaps you will say
this is logical. Before satisfying needs you must create the
wherewithal to satisfy them. But before producing anything,
must you not feel the need of it? Is it not necessity that
first drove man to hunt, to raise cattle, to cultivate land,
to make implements, and later on to invent machinery? Is it
not the study of needs that should govern production?"[28]
When I first came upon these words, I must admit I was
rather surprised. "What have we here," I thought, "is the
prince of anarchist-communism actually going to come out in
favour of the consumer?" It didn't take long to find out
that he wasn't. Most communists try very hard to ignore the
fact that the sole purpose of production is consumption. But
not Kropotkin; he first recognises the fact - and THEN he
ignores it. It's only a matter of three pages before he gets
his head back into the sand and talks of "how to reorganise
PRODUCTION so as to really satisfy all needs." [My emphasis]
Under communism it is not the consumer that counts; it
is the producer. The consumer is looked upon with scorn - a
loathsome, if necessary, evil. The worker, on the other
hand, is depicted as all that is good and heroic. It is not
by accident that the hammer and sickle find themselves as
the symbols of the Russian "workers' paradise." Can you
honestly imagine a communist society raising the banner of
bread and butter and declaring the advent of the "consumers'
paradise"? If you can, your imagination is much more vivid
than mine.
But that's exactly what individualist-anarchists would
do. Instead of the communist's "workers' control" (i.e. a
producers' democracy), we advocate a consumers' democracy.
Both democracies - like all democracies - would in fact be
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dictatorships. The question for anarchists is which
dictatorship is the least oppressive? The answer should be
obvious. But, judging from the ratio of communists to
individualists in the anarchist movement, apparently it's
not. So perhaps I'd better explain.
The workers in some given industry decide that item A
should no longer be produced and decide instead to
manufacture item B. Now consumer X, who never liked item A
anyway, couldn't care less; but poor Y feels his life will
never be the same without A. What can Y do? He's just a lone
consumer and consumers have no rights in this society. But
maybe other Y's agree with him. A survey is taken and it is
shown that only 3% of all consumers regret the passing of A.
But can't some compromise be arrived at? How about letting
just one tiny factory make A's? Perhaps the workers agree to
this accommodation. Perhaps not. In any case the workers'
decision is final. There is no appeal. The Y's are totally
at the mercy of the workers and if the decision is adverse,
they'll just have to swallow hard and hope that next week
item C isn't taken away as well. So much for the producers'
dictatorship.
Let's now take a look at the consumers' dictatorship.
Consumers are finicky people - they want the best possible
product at the lowest possible price. To achieve this end
they will use ruthless means. The fact that producer X asks
more for his product than Y asks for his similar product is
all that the consumer needs to know. He will mercilessly buy
Y's over X's. The extenuating circumstances matter little to
him. X may have ten children and a mother-in-law to feed.
The consumer still buys from Y. Such is the nature of the
consumers' dictatorship over the producer.
Now there is a fundamental difference between these two
dictatorships. In the one the worker says to the consumer,
"I will produce what I want and if you don't like it you can
lump it." In the other the consumer says to the worker, "You
will produce what I want and if you don't I will take my
business elsewhere." It doesn't take the sensitive antennae
of an anarchist to see which of these two statements is the
more authoritarian. The first leaves no room for argument;
there are no exceptions, no loopholes for the dissident
consumer to crawl through. The second, on the other hand,
leaves a loophole so big that it is limited only by the
worker's imagination and abilities. If a producer is not
doing as well as his competitor, there's a reason for it. He
may not be suited for that particular work, in which case he
will change jobs. He may be charging too much for his goods
or services, in which case he will have to lower his costs,
profits, and/or overhead to meet the competition. But one
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thing should be made clear: each worker is also a consumer
and what the individual looses in his role as producer by
having to cut his costs down to the competitive market
level, he makes up in his role as consumer by being able to
buy at the lowest possible prices.*
* * * * *
Let us turn our attention now to the various
philosophies used by communists to justify their social
system. The exponents of any social change invariably claim
that people will be "happier" under their system than they
now are under the status quo. The big metaphysical question
then becomes, "What is happiness?" Up until recently the
communists - materialists par excellence - used to say it
was material well-being. The main gripe they had against
capitalism was that the workers were NECESSARILY in a state
of increasing poverty. Bakunin, echoing Marx, said that "the
situation of the proletariat...by virtue of inevitable
economic law, must and will become worse every year." [29]
But since World War II this pillar of communist thought has
become increasingly shaky - particularly in the United
States where "hard hats" are now pulling in salaries upwards
of four quid an hour. This fact has created such acute
embarrassment among the faithful that many communists are
now seeking a new definition of happiness which has nothing
to do with material comfort.
Very often what they do in discarding the Marxist
happiness albatross is to saddle themselves with a Freudian
one.** The new definition of happiness our neo-Freudian
communists arrive at is usually derived from what Otto
Fenichel called the "Nirvana
--------------------
* The usual objection raised to a "consumers'
democracy" is that capitalists have used similar catch
phrases in order to justify capitalism and keep the workers
in a subjugated position. Individualists sustain this
objection but point out that capitalists are being
inconsistent by not practicing what they preach. If they
did, they would no longer be in a position of privilege,
living off the labour of others. This point is made clear in
the section on capitalism later in this article.
** Wilhelm Reich and R. D. Laing are among the latest
gurus of the libertarian left. And it's not uncommon in
anarchist circles to hear a few sympathetic words about
Herbert Marcuse's "Eros and Civilisation," despite the
author's totalitarian tendencies.
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principle." The essence of this theory is that both life-
enhancing behaviour (e.g. sexual intercourse, eating) and
life-inhibiting behaviour (e.g. war, suicide) are
alternative ways of escaping from tension. Thus Freud's life
instinct and death instinct find their common ground in
Nirvana where happiness means a secure and carefree
existence. This sounds to me very much like the Christian
conception of heaven. But with communism, unlike heaven, you
don't have to give up your life to get in - just your
humanity.
Homer Lane used to have a little anecdote which
illustrates the point I'm trying to make about the communist
idea of happiness:
"A dog and a rabbit are running down a field. Both
apparently are doing the same thing, running and using their
capacity to the full. Really there is a great difference
between them. Their motives are different. One is happy, the
other unhappy. The dog is happy because he is trying to do
something with the hope of achieving it. The rabbit is
unhappy because he is afraid. A few minutes later the
position is reversed; the rabbit has reached his burrow and
is inside panting, whilst the dog is sitting outside
panting. The rabbit is now happy because it is safe, and
therefore no longer afraid. The dog is unhappy because his
hope has not been realised. Here we have the two kinds of
happiness of which each one of us is capable - happiness
based on the escape from danger, and happiness based on the
fulfillment of a hope, which is the only true happiness."
[30]
I leave it to the reader as an exercise in triviality
to decide which of these two types of happiness is
emphasised by communism. While on the subject of analogies,
I'd like to indulge in one of my own. Generally speaking
there are two kinds of cats: the "lap cat" and the "mouser."
The former leads a peaceful existence, leaving granny's lap
only long enough to make a discreet trip to its sandbox and
to lap up a saucer of milk. The latter lives by catching
mice in the farmer's barn and never goes near the inside of
the farm house. The former is normally fat and lazy; the
latter skinny and alert. Despite the lap cat's easier life,
the mouser wouldn't exchange places with him if he could,
while the lap cat COULDN'T exchange places if he would. Here
we have two cats - perhaps even from the same litter - with
two completely different attitudes toward life. The one
expects a clean sandbox and food twice a day - and he is
rarely disappointed. The other has to work for a living, but
generally finds the reward worth while. "Now what has this
got to do with the subject at hand?" I hear you cry. Just
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this: the communists would make "lap cats" of us all. "But
what's so bad about that?" you may ask. To which I would
have to reply (passing over the stinky problem of WHO will
change the sandbox), "Have you ever tried to `domesticate' a
mouser?"
Communism, in its quest for a tranquil, tensionless
world, inevitably harks back to the Middle Ages. Scratch a
communist and chances are pretty good you'll find a
mediaevalist underneath. Paul Goodman, for example, derives
his ideal "community of scholars" from Bologna and Paris
models based in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. [31]
Erich Fromm writes longingly of "the sense of security which
was characteristic of man in the Middle Ages....In having a
distinct, unchangeable, and unquestionable place in the
social world from the moment of birth, man was rooted in a
structuralised whole, and thus life had a meaning which left
no place, and no need, for doubt. A person was identical
with his role in society; he was a peasant, an artisan, a
knight, and not AN INDIVIDUAL who HAPPENED to have this or
that occupation. The social order was conceived as a natural
order, and being a definite part of it gave man a feeling of
security and of belonging. There was comparatively little
competition. One was born into a certain economic position
which guaranteed a livelihood determined by tradition. [32]
Kropotkin goes even further than Fromm. I'd like to examine
his position in some detail because I think it is very
instructive of how the communist mentality works. In perhaps
his best-known book, "Mutual Aid," Kropotkin devotes two of
its eight chapters to glorifying the Middle Ages, which he
boldly claim were one of "the two greatest periods of
[mankind's] history." [33] (The other one being ancient
Greece. He doesn't say how he reconciles this with the fact
that Greece was based firmly on a foundation of slavery).
"No period of history could better illustrate the
constructive powers of the popular masses than the tenth and
eleventh centuries...but, unhappily, this is a period about
which historical information is especially scarce." [34] I
wonder why? Could it be that everyone was having such a good
time that no one found time to record it? Kropotkin writes
of the mediaeval cities as "centres of liberty and
enlightenment." [35] The mediaeval guilds, he says, answered
"a deeply inrooted want of human nature," [36] calling them
"organisations for maintaining justice." [37] Let's see what
Kropotkin means here by "justice":
"If a brother's house is burned, or he has lost his ship, or
has suffered on a pilgrim's voyage, all the brethren MUST
come to his aid. If a brother falls dangerously ill, two
brethren MUST keep watch by his bed till he is out of
danger, and if he dies, the brethren must bury him - a great
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affair in those times of pestilences [Kropotkin must have
been dozing to admit this in his Utopia] - and follow him to
the church and the grave. After his death they MUST provide
for his children....If a brother was involved in a quarrel
with a stranger to the guild, they agreed to support him for
bad and for good; that is, whether he was unjustly accused
of aggression, OR REALLY WAS THE AGGRESSOR, they HAD to
support him....They went to court to support by oath the
truthfulness of his statements, and if he was found guilty
they did not let him go to full ruin and become a slave
through not paying the due compensation; they all paid
it....Such were the leading ideas of those brotherhoods
which gradually covered the whole of mediaeval life." [38]
(My emphasis)
And such is Kropotkin's conception of "justice," which could
better be described as a warped sense of solidarity. He goes
on to say, "It is evident that an institution so well suited
to serve the need of union, without depriving the individual
of his initiative, could but spread, grow, and fortify."
[39] "We see not only merchants, craftsmen, hunters, and
peasants united in guilds; we also see guilds of priests,
painters, teachers of primary schools and universities,
guilds for performing the passion play, for building a
church, for developing the `mystery' of a given school of
art or craft, or for a special recreation - even guilds
among beggars, executioners, and lost women, all organised
on the same double principle of self-jurisdiction and mutual
support." [40] It was such "unity of thought" which
Kropotkin thinks "can but excite our admiration." [41]
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REFERENCES
14. Kropotkin, op. cit., p. 209.
15. Ibid., p. 206.
16. Henry David Thoreau, "Journal," March 11, 1856.
17. Kropotkin, op. cit., p. 206.
18. Ibid., p. 205.
19. Errico Malatesta, "Anarchy" (London: Freedom Press,
1949), p. 33. Originally published in 1907.
20. Alexander Berkman, "A.B.C. of Anarchism" (London:
Freedom Press, 1964), p. 27. This is the abbreviated version
of the Vanguard Press "ABC of Communist Anarchism" which
appeared in 1929.
21. Ibid., p. 28.
22. Ibid., p. 29.
23. Ibid., p. 25.
24. "Italy: An Illness of Convenience," "Newsweek," January
4, 1971, p. 44.
25. "Un Forum Legislatif de la Classe Ouvriere?", "Granma"
(French edition), January 31, 1971, p. 3.
26. "Cuba Announces Labor Penalties For Loafers," "The
International Herald Tribune," March 19, 1971, p. 4.
27. Theodore Roszak, "The Making of a Counter Culture"
(Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1969), p. 29.
28. Kropotkin, op. cit., pp. 236-7.
29. Mikhail Bakunin, "The Political Philosophy of Bakunin:
Scientific Anarchism," ed. G. P. Maximoff (New York: The
Free Press, 1953), p. 285.
30. Homer Lane, "Talks to Parents and Teachers" (London:
George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1928), p. 121.
31. Paul Goodman, "Compulsory Mis-education" and "The
Community of Scholars" (New York: Vintage Books, 1962,
1964), p. 174.
32. Erich Fromm, "Fear of Freedom" (London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1960), p. 34. First published in the
United States in 1942 under the title "Escape from Freedom."
33. Petr Kropotkin, "Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution"
(Boston: Extending Horizons Books, 1955), p. 297. This book
first appeared in London in 1902.
34. Ibid., p. 166.
35. Ibid., p. 169.
36. Ibid., p. 176.
37. Ibid., p. 176.
38. Ibid., pp. 172-3.
39. Ibid., p. 176.
40. Ibid., p. 174.
41. Ibid., p. 177.
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