- Comment from MofA .. Archived Message
Posted by Shyaku
on April 23, 2020, 12:44 am
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"It is entirely erroneous and risible to view any action of the state as "authoritarian." This infantile disorder is derivative of all liberal thought, which rests on a methodological individualism, the idea that society is nothing beyond the individuals which allegedly constitute it. Incidentally, left-wing anarchism shares the same theory of the state, regardless of its ostensibly social objectives. The state in both views is just an exogenous, evil "thing," which interferes unjustifiably in civil society and markets. Of course, this theory has no connection to reality at all if you are sane enough to accept the merits of public libraries, roads, water treatment, schools, healthcare, environmental protections, etc. The Marxist theory of the state is the correct one. The state emerges from class relationships, and enforces them through a variety of means. But, it is also a terrain of class struggle and a resume of the balance of class forces in society. The historical evolution of the state clearly expresses these realities, and working-class movements and left-wing parties have shaped the state and its institutions in important ways. Public health care systems are inextricable from the success of working-class struggles. The power of the coercive branches of the state are an expression of the weakness of the left. And so on. It follows that a working-class demand for stronger lockdown and quarantine measures in the interest of protecting lives and the very public institutions we need has nothing in common with "authoritarianism." Only an asshole capitalist who truly thinks, as the Governor of Texas put it, that "there are more important things than life," would say so. Let's be clear: the call for more meaningful and stronger directives and rules in the present is only coming from the left because it alone cares for the health and well being of fellow human beings. It is the right-wing assholes and capitalists who want to "return to normal" as soon as possible. Those warning of the authoritarianism of any lockdown measures are regurgitating the heart and soul of reactionary right-wing thought and capitalist interests." |
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