"Item Id","Item URI","Dublin Core:Title","Dublin Core:Subject","Dublin Core:Description","Dublin Core:Creator","Dublin Core:Source","Dublin Core:Publisher","Dublin Core:Date","Dublin Core:Contributor","Dublin Core:Rights","Dublin Core:Relation","Dublin Core:Format","Dublin Core:Language","Dublin Core:Type","Dublin Core:Identifier","Dublin Core:Coverage","Item Type Metadata:Text","Item Type Metadata:Interviewer","Item Type Metadata:Interviewee","Item Type Metadata:Location","Item Type Metadata:Transcription","Item Type Metadata:Local URL","Item Type Metadata:Original Format","Item Type Metadata:Physical Dimensions","Item Type Metadata:Duration","Item Type Metadata:Compression","Item Type Metadata:Producer","Item Type Metadata:Director","Item Type Metadata:Bit Rate/Frequency","Item Type Metadata:Time Summary","Item Type Metadata:Email Body","Item Type Metadata:Subject Line","Item Type Metadata:From","Item Type Metadata:To","Item Type Metadata:CC","Item Type Metadata:BCC","Item Type Metadata:Number of Attachments","Item Type Metadata:Standards","Item Type Metadata:Objectives","Item Type Metadata:Materials","Item Type Metadata:Lesson Plan Text","Item Type Metadata:URL","Item Type Metadata:Event Type","Item Type Metadata:Participants","Item Type Metadata:Birth Date","Item Type Metadata:Birthplace","Item Type Metadata:Death Date","Item Type Metadata:Occupation","Item Type Metadata:Biographical Text","Item Type Metadata:Bibliography","Item Type Metadata:Player","Item Type Metadata:Episode","Item Type Metadata:Season","Item Type Metadata:Episode Type","Item Type Metadata:Explicit","Item Type Metadata:Block",Zotero:Artist,"Zotero:Attorney Agent",Zotero:Author,"Zotero:Book Author",Zotero:Cartographer,"Zotero:Cast Member",Zotero:Commenter,Zotero:Composer,Zotero:Contributor,Zotero:Cosponsor,Zotero:Counsel,Zotero:Director,Zotero:Editor,Zotero:Guest,Zotero:Interviewee,Zotero:Interviewer,Zotero:Inventor,Zotero:Performer,Zotero:Podcaster,Zotero:Presenter,Zotero:Producer,Zotero:Programmer,Zotero:Recipient,"Zotero:Reviewed Author",Zotero:Scriptwriter,"Zotero:Series Editor",Zotero:Sponsor,Zotero:Translator,"Zotero:Words By","Zotero:Item Type",Zotero:Note,Zotero:DOI,Zotero:ISBN,Zotero:ISSN,"Zotero:Abstract Note","Zotero:Access Date","Zotero:Application Number",Zotero:Archive,"Zotero:Archive Location","Zotero:Artwork Medium","Zotero:Artwork Size",Zotero:Assignee,"Zotero:Audio File Type","Zotero:Audio Recording Format","Zotero:Bill Number","Zotero:Blog Title","Zotero:Book Title","Zotero:Call Number","Zotero:Case Name",Zotero:Code,"Zotero:Code Number","Zotero:Code Pages","Zotero:Code Volume",Zotero:Committee,Zotero:Company,"Zotero:Conference Name",Zotero:Country,Zotero:Court,Zotero:Date,"Zotero:Date Decided","Zotero:Date Enacted","Zotero:Dictionary Title",Zotero:Distributor,"Zotero:Docket Number","Zotero:Document Number",Zotero:Edition,"Zotero:Encyclopedia Title","Zotero:Episode Number",Zotero:Extra,"Zotero:Filing Date","Zotero:First Page","Zotero:Forum Title",Zotero:Genre,Zotero:History,Zotero:Institution,"Zotero:Interview Medium",Zotero:Issue,"Zotero:Issue Date","Zotero:Issuing Authority","Zotero:Journal Abbreviation",Zotero:Label,Zotero:Language,"Zotero:Legal Status","Zotero:Legislative Body","Zotero:Letter Type","Zotero:Library Catalog","Zotero:Manuscript Type","Zotero:Map Type",Zotero:Medium,"Zotero:Meeting Name","Zotero:Name of Act",Zotero:Network,"Zotero:Num Pages",Zotero:Number,"Zotero:Number of Volumes",Zotero:Pages,"Zotero:Patent Number",Zotero:Place,"Zotero:Post Type","Zotero:Presentation Type","Zotero:Priority Numbers","Zotero:Proceedings Title","Zotero:Program Title","Zotero:Programming Language","Zotero:Public Law Number","Zotero:Publication Title",Zotero:Publisher,Zotero:References,"Zotero:Report Number","Zotero:Report Type",Zotero:Reporter,"Zotero:Reporter Volume",Zotero:Rights,"Zotero:Running Time",Zotero:Scale,Zotero:Section,Zotero:Series,"Zotero:Series Number","Zotero:Series Text","Zotero:Series Title",Zotero:Session,"Zotero:Short Title",Zotero:Studio,Zotero:Subject,Zotero:System,"Zotero:Thesis Type",Zotero:Title,Zotero:University,Zotero:URL,Zotero:Version,"Zotero:Video Recording Format",Zotero:Volume,"Zotero:Website Title","Zotero:Website Type","Zotero:Attachment Title","Zotero:Attachment URL","PDF Text:Text",tags,file,itemType,collection,public,featured 112,https://antipodean-antinuclearism.org/items/show/112,"Box 89, Item 1900: Draft of Towards a social theory for ecotopia","Typescript (photocopy) draft, with handwritten emendations.",,"Richard Sylvan","The University of Queensland's Richard Sylvan Papers UQFL291, Box 89, Item 1900","Antipodean Antinuclearism: (Re)constructing Richard Routley/Sylvan's Nuclear Philosophy",,"This item was identified for digitisation at the request of The University of Queensland's 2020 Fryer Library Fellow, Dr. N.A.J. Taylor.","For all enquiries about this work, please contact the Fryer Library, The University of Queensland Library.",,"[79] leaves. 55.77 MB. ",,"Manuscript ","https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:cbc0b65","Australian National University - Far Bookcase - Second Bay - Second Shelf - Pile 4",". .. . , TOWARDS A SOCIAL THEORY FOR ECOTOPIA Participation in attempts at social change often has the .. effect of revealing to participants the structure of the soci e ty in which they live. It is hard to be a practical environmentalist th1/:: i v.: J _e:ng;a~eEl in or s1.,1pporting a range of environmental batt le s without observing that most environmental problems in our sort of soci a l system are generated basically by the domination of the society by J corporate interests, which have a strong interest in ma i ntaining an industrial and consumption system which appears to produce environmental problems as a matter of necessity. If one is not directly engaged in opposing the plans or activities of sawrnillers , miningcompanies, power and energy compan ie s, transport firms, chemic al and pesticide comp a nies, p a ckaging companies, real-estate developers and tourist-resor t promoters, to name a few, one is engaged in battling thei r political or bureaucratic advocates and protecto rs (nominally 'regulators') in the sh ape of forestry commissi on s, mining departments or authorities, hydro-electricity authorities, energy authori ties, transport corm iss ions, l and commissions, politicians and the l i ke. ' Usually t h e battles by citizen environ- /qsr1~j mental groups h ave littleAsuc c ess, and the chances o f success appear highly cor related with the degree of corporate domination within the political unit concerned. Even where environmental problems appear to a rise from the interests of non-corpor ate groups, for example workers or consumers, it can be conv incingly argued that the y are still primarily a reflection of corporate domination and st r ucturing of both the employment and consumption a n d life-s t yle choices ope n to peopl e , that is, of indirect cor po rate or capitalist influence in shaping the social structtlre values. : Environmental issues throw up sharply again the question as to whether it is possib le to devise a social structure which does not have this feature of direct or indirect cciporate domination, without ..--·--· ----·-·•··-•·--·-·--·-·· · · - - - - - - - - - - - - _... . --···------x- 2. r~placing it by some -1 other equally or e~e? __ more _undesirab_l _e ____~_ind of domina tion-=__s_~E~ as -/ bureaucratic or totalitarian domination-which is such that replacement would be unlikely to produce anything which could be described as a solution or improvement. Our belief is that we can devise a better system which dispenses with this disastrous element, and furthermore that we must do so if environmental problems, as well as a whole set of other problems which are also consequences of the same structure of domination, are to be resolved at any but a superficia½ temporary and inadequate level. wa ys to see the problem. or size. There are of course other We might see it as just one of technology But the technology we have seems to be a consequence of other features of our society, rather than the ca use ·_ al though it is certainly true that there is an inte~a ctive process and certain kinds of technology strengthen certain interests in the society over others~ :~S for smallness, we might remember that the industries of' I IISu} d... I , ::___ currently destroying the Border Ranges rainforesi~(' in relative terms) quite small. Or we might feel that we are in the grip~ of a runaway or out o f control machine - a point of view put forward first by Jacques Ellu./ [ ] • Or as Peter van Dresser very nicely puts it ''We have built a Frankenstein monster of industrial and commercial relationships which is almos t totally running our lives."" True ~but the machine was was not built on random lines, and it systematically serves the interests of some groups at the expense of others. So the machine is not 'out of control' in one sense - it is doing the job it was designed for. ff-some environmentalists, espe ci ally of the more cons ervative kind, do believe that the system in which they live is basically sound, but that it consistently delivers mainly destructive results and decisions either because -th.2.- it is run by the wrong people ('Oh! for a statesman'; seeABorder Ranges sheet), or because we do not yet have go od mechanisms for 3. takin g accou nt of envir onme ntal inter ests, which .is seen as a new consi derat ion. Such an appro ach tends to overl ook the limit ation .C'.'f>·''}~i=t on resu lts throu gh. polit ical/ burea ucrat i c actio n or mecha nisms which resul t from the exist ing struc tu re of corpo rate domin ation of the socie ty, and to the exten t that it is succe ssful it would depen d upon reduc ing or balan cing that domi nation anywa y. ·- Some impro ved mecha nisms may enabl e some impro vemen ts in limit ed areas , but they will not be able to chang e a basic ally destr uctiv e lifestyle based on conti nuous and growi ng indu stria l produ ction and consu mptio n, and so unles s more basic chang es in the socia l struc ture are sough t, will proba bly only succe ed as delay ing tacti cs in the inevi t a ble destr uctio n of what remai ns of the natur al world and l , · ·¥;1 / >fr'J I a H lr-.rt r? t 1~ reaso nable socia l enviro nrnen t. · \'\ J rn this neces sarily rathe r A paper we want to try to devel op sorre of the basis for a socia l theor y which might be descr ibed as a form of Liber tar i an or SelfManag e d Socia lism. J~~~ \ ~- It migh t seem odd that anyon e shoul d advoc ate a basic ally +i.1/ liber taria n type of posit ion as neces sary for aAso lution to envir onmenta l probl ems, since envir onme nta lists are mostl y seen to be advoc ates of great er restr i cti ons, mor~_ rules and regul ation s, legis latio n, burea ucrat ic contr ol and plann ing, to restr ict and reduc e the damag e peopl e can do by their consw ning and produ cing activ ities . This restr ictiv e appro ach seems to be dicta ted to a large exten t by the failu re to quest ion the basic soci~l struc ture which makes peopl e ' s produ cing and consu ming so destr uctiv e in the first place . If a frame work o f essen tially damag ing life- style s is accep ted as 'natu ral' and uncha ngeab le, then of cours e envir onmenta l prote ction will seem to be a matte r of limit ing these sorts of a llege d freedo ms by furth er restr ictio n; but if the probl em is ""-r se e n rathe r as one of struc: ;\ing socie ty so as to remov e the force s which make peop le's 1 ,... ~-y""\ .._ _ __ _ '""'""\ ... a · pro ucing and consu ming so destr uctiv e, the 3. 1. Pootnot e 1 from page 3. J_ We don't of course wish to suggest that working within the system is a just a waste of time, and we should watch it all But in each go while we sit back and wait for the revoluti on. 1 each hard that fgct of urgent battle it s easy to lose sight necessit y urgent won victory is on l y temporar y, to lose sightJcff will IJ_Ot they to; begin construc ting the sort of society in which imposing of This is not and canno.t be a matter be~ t emp o rary. some sort of Boy Scout 'Conserv ation Ethic' or minor changes in the directio n of energy savtng on a soci~y which produces environm ental degrada tion a~ a matt.er of its fundame ntal :?__!:_ructu_r.:-_ e . 0 2 4. need for a restrictive approach is less obvious. The problem of how to reconcile environmental aims with the aim of a free society and with other goals is essentially one of obtaining an 1 ~ b 1 . J. environmenta ~ o f 1 1. f-e. -. . . society/way enign The restrictive approach then) is a cons equence of accepting C the existing se c. in/ f framework and,,\ attempts to graft environmental considerations onto a basically hostile structure restrictions. as further The situation might be compared to what happens when an attempt is made to enlarge an o ld theory which has encountered data it cannot _handle - the initial reaction is to try to maintain theoretical framework and ac count for the further the material by the 'enlargement' of the theor ~ usually through a series of ad hoe further assumptions or makeshift subsidiary theories which have the effect of restricting the application of the theory. We arrive at a vast and complicated structure , such as the Ptolemai c theory or certain fashionable mod ern logico-semantical theories of natural language, which for a time may appear adequate and succeed in delay,j the realisation that the original theory itself is in need of fundame ntal revision. The existing mass of environmental an d planning legislation and proliferation of bureaucratic procedures J---J- s uchf Environment al Impact Statements plays much the same role in modifying a fundamentally environmentally-hostile social struc tur e and life-style a s the addition o f further epicycles did in Ptolemaic the ory. X The env:ironmentalist who appreciates the need for basic change finds himself however confronted by rather unattr a ctive conventional choices. dom inat ed On the one hand capitalism offers a system wru'ch ,-s by private capital interests which depend crucially h;'resou r ces\and where unequa l economic 5. is seen ~ri d other power On the other side of the as ad essential condition for freedom. conventional choice we are presented with a system which does not appear t o offer an essentially different life style and which ,,~. . (_~ f f( I~ I 1: t/ 1 clearly endorses many of the ~ame values - industrialisation ~~~ogress, J 11 .i 111/, r / /4./,,-;..Jf p1J'. J i:,. ,·i,.{;,, usually to commercial interests. ( we won't go through all the points that could beQ;sed here in detail - they are too well known - we just want to set the points in a certain light ~ Even where they compete with private corporations instead of me rely serving them, 'nationa- lised' public sector organisation s act like further corporations or powerful individuals, and there is very little real community 1 . -1,,.c) 1:,t---2i--t ~,t P.--t1 I , le-,__,~L-, {\ ~ c,.j- - . ~~ s-: ~ - -·· C~~ -~ ~ -c - ~ L-:.. ~..zx/\_, _~) \..A.,,\. • [ ..:....}--{c ~ c •1J,-.-,{',,/_,,t C _A A,i4- (_,~ l-r-:1 (f't-o-~---l)-v'--0 f) - - V'---'2, dl>--Cf- 0 'l[..z_ cZt,__...,...--14_)_1 ( , D .___ t ~ -r ,c.,.__ C~-z_ __ 7• control. Finall~ those individuals or corporations who control the means of production can exe rcise enormous power, both through these alle9ed 'community' institutions, and through their abi l ity to control what will be produced, how much, how and where, and their monopolisation of the abi~ity t? direct productive labour , -.;(K_,t:.\ their control of the pro ductio~, (\ control the in short ~ ,:· ._• c..::., .:'.' \' Those who . means of production are thus able to obtain a very large measure of control over the social framewor~ which comes to be structured largely in their interests. This domination through 4/. I structuring now extends to almost/areas of life, and has been documented independently in many areas, from the food we eat to the way we travel1 from the houses we live in.i to the way we re lax. The control does not of course, take the form of control of individual decisions at the individual level; they do not decide that you or I will purchase a purple~ a green car, for example, but the social i framework in which the places in which peo~le live and many other aspects of their lives are structured around cars is determined in their interests, and so is the kind of car the market provides. The fact that individuals are free at the individual level, and that such mechanisms operate at the level of controlling the largely (.•\ i! ~ i.A""""\.'• I n.S invisi ble social framework which coT$,-a-ins and channels the choices /1l 1My the individual can make, explains why people retain the iJ/ 1,<;, ~ ,.1 1 ,\ freedom and of full control over the ir lives in such a system. These distortions are not merely occasional of 1 'abuses' or aberrati ons - they are structural features which occur systematically 1 in all capitalist societies which have free ~ublic life forms. rI'hey are the result of a reduction of communal life forms to various extensions of individual life forms;of the fact that communal life . rv IC ,_.. .l.{1\, 1 forms occur in a reduced and impoverished indi vidualist) ,A.H3fttr. The result ~tha t commun al control of the social framework is ~)j~~ et ineffective. and that some individuals and group s are able to I 8• obtain great power through their capture and control of the social forces of organisation and production. If capitalism offers a distorted,individualised account of community which allows for no genuine co,1,,,1u11ttl control over the social framework of li fe . on the Marxist side we are offered a matc hing and impoverished distorted account of individual which allows for no genuine individual control over individual life! Marxist~ very commonly present line account of ~cc.;cfj (f what is in effe_~t a r,~oduction A:,- - (.,,cl.. - - ~) /(. individuals - l(c role of t he individual is Iv) \ .1 -~f):Or- r,·(;e ~-& their concept constantly and revealingly illustrated by appealing to the individual as a unit in a production .- - 1 line. Accordi.ng to this account the individual IS I l.'v\:. l~ji/,1 1 ~ •. IJ,2 ,,K{1~•,i{uii. / L-_ t;:: 1 no·+h ing, the soc~fty h, _ is entirely a social product/,,\is no more than his role in the pro duction line, he has no separate 'self ' but only the characteri~tics he acq uir es as a re sult of his ...___. membership of a society or class ~ Indiv iduals are in effect to be . l ,\·~ We don't make any cla im to be Marx scholars, we shall be making (' heavy use i n elucidating and criticizing the a ccount, of the S . U. Gene ral Philosophy Department recent publication Paper Tigers Although this book will be a major target in much of what follows we would like to record that it ·seems to us a valuable piece of work, which does a great deal to illuminate the nature of the conventional ideological choice and expose their philosophical base~ . It is also an ad ])t i r ably clear piece of work (in contrast to most Marxist scholarshi~ which casts lig~t into many dark corners, including some which, from the point of view of the attractiveness of the Marxist a lte rnative , might perhaps better h ave been kept a little dimmer. . conten -t J.o n that The acco unt offered makes it clear that the ·(> (_ ~) S:l::-Fl-ee a p osition is 'totalitarian' is by no means a capitalist p lot but h as an important point. I I 3 Any per son can fill role in the production li ne as well as any other (Ste ve ns). Quote from 9. treated as cells in the group body, and the only legitimate formso f individual expression are through community life forms. ·c· ·L ,. · · rtf; ,- TIL), H t.'.•t1tf-• •'.r , (· r, ·1 , ~ • 1'1, 1, ,•,,U,/ ♦ :,4, ) The al t ernative to such a position - I~dividualism A - is . seen by Marxist s as the position underlying capitalism, which holds that indivi duals contain no social influences which are not ultimately re duced to individual forms o f influence. Individualism - which is taken as the alternative to the view pres e nted above - is seen as the source of c a pitalism and inevi tably lea d s to a ll the excesses and distorts of that ,\ system. Individ ualism must be stamped out r oo t and branch if '- L /;I ,~...-f. it• al·te,nutive to ca1;,alism is to be built 1fthe failures and admittedly authoritarian cha~acter of existing Marxist systems ii-tti.._,1·lif-·} are, according to this line of~traced to the failure to do a thorough e r1 o tl3 A job of stamping it out in spheres other than that of economic life. ! Indeed Individualism in this variety of Marxist theory seems to play much the same role as sex did in Christian theory - it is the source of all evil, and the f'I\ [' \- f ' mojification of the individual ego and its submission to the ~' group replaces the mortification of the flesh and its subjection to the spirit. f\ v' J (\ To condemn all individ_ualism because some distorti'ons of i t produce bad results is like condemning sex on a ccount of the objectionable nature of, sa~ prostitution. J./( ;d /, Ii I ), . -~ <; ~-.. :~ ., . ,, :.:. 1'11\ .~ ~ , I~\ t :, h Howeve r , on€=.ffiay.:-==inc-l-ineL::::to-·:··be' j t wo u 1 d be 10 ( I,.. , ' < /1 n a ive to s ee no connecti on between such a doctrine, and the actual p r act i ce of Marxist societies (as /lli(n/ r. Blackburn). Marxists do J (- ,J - Such a position must if followed out consist1 ently, be suspicious o f e v ery sort of individual independence and activity which cannot be subsum_.ed in some sort of collective interest, even something as simple and ap p arently non-capitalist as producing your own food becomes suspect (see for example the Kronstadt man i festo). It appears to provide a justification tc,,l 10. for any amount of suppression of individual views and dis s ent And where these are seen as being opposed to class interest. ""~Yth1 '> (V if 1 ~ social products)-t:.My_.. appeaL to provid e if individuals are /' a justification for manipulation of individuals for collective e nds, as bad or worse th<3n the indirect manipulation for pri vate interests of capitalism. ,,Such a do c trine seem s indee-d to make life very easy for the capital is t, who does not have to exert himself greatly I its ,~1,uthortarian potential f or the individual. to demonstrate?, as a free individual, freedom For if there is no such th1ny -J and if there is no such thing cannot be taken f!:;,9JTI someone ; as individual choice, individual choices cannot be qbr c7d te d or is that individuals just trodden upon. don't matter, except of course insofar,_,, as the production line There are few people who can fail to is short of hands. be repelled by such a position once it is stated in its stark simplicity - which of course it usually is not. From an individual point of view such a situation would have many of the drawbacks of capitalism, and in some ways might even be worse - goals, modes of re ~hi ng them and suchlike would all be externally imposed on individuals. i r-£ ttr±-s==±s_ i 11 de. e-d·--ctre--nas±c-t-1a r x is L sociai- theury----:;:.md - - I ~--_,,,,.., ------- I ------ -- ever the v a r i a t i o n s ~-hl-e._ under the label------.-Marxisrn' / I ~ - - ---- / tf .f erqn --:::-......... ___1 ------h . . an - entiu::=~,tl:_to se e now- J:.bey can alL--na:ve s hard ----::-:---...._, ~t_ V • ,::i • --------1 ~--- ------- ---------- t h ore t i ~GU.Qd at i o Tl------~ ~ s ± e n _ Q J an En 1 i g h ten ea / !1 LX.i.Sln~ ~ e ~ _ Q l l t to k :, It is difficult to see how ~~ t ofAmora l to concern I ---------- ------~ 11S. ,.,,~ ( \.""\. by the _Nf'W ,·...... \_, ~\.... .... ~J -..-.~~ with any ..:.- can be compatible . ~~ -'-/' concern for individuals and their fa te, as opposed for daiJ C ~ . or societies. It is difficult in fact to see how the.re_ can be room for any but the most 11. attenuated moral considerations at all i n such a view, since even the comparison of societies in te~~s of the sort of suffering they inflict on individuals i5 . th~ illegitimate. It does however seem to be individuals who su.t fer ,...__whQ__.a re ,)~ :; ~,_ ,--t :... , ,.. \ t "".I f b ..:. ' ""'f . ·- . -~ exploited or ~ominated, so unless an attempt .. ( is made to give an al terna ti ve a(:count of these in t e rn1·s of I \ the Class Mind ; it is difficult to see how such a position tould even justify the choice of one soci·cil S~S}t?-,n. over the other on v ' moral grounds. If this is indeed the basic Marxist social theory - and whatever the variations available under the label 'Marxism• it is hard to see how they can all have an entirely different theoretical foundation - then the vision of an Enlightened 0 .._,..__ . ~t: L: • r ."""" -, ( ·' ,! Marxi sm which has been held out to us by the New Left is a t-- mirage. The consequences of this system can be seen then as the 1 • ,iJ I Ov\ el , m:nt.~ of A u.r;C.'tf..lf-< j V f power - or individuals (as in capitalism) in favour of their having no power at all as individuals, but only through their membership of some collective, class or community. For anyone who does not accept the ,d reduction of legitimate indi1ual life forms to group life forms, such a system of power must be seen as oppressive. From the I point of view of the individual$ power to control his own life, Q S opposed to participating in controlling group life, to opt such a position app ea~ to be oph~ , for the exchange of one set J of masters for another, of one form of domination for another, ~ and possibly ~~worse formo C l J ./ following una ttrativ.e t er ,rs: ~ So then our choice appears in the _./ if capitalism allows some individuals ,\ to dominate over others and control collective life through the social framework, 1.1kr-, 11•, • • the Marxist alternative allows collective-. hc,,, C\ 12. control o f collective life, bu t also collective control of indi v id u a l life, allowing no ~ep,:-1, rate legitimate individu al {,c.....;_ life forms. If Marxist s are right in point in g t o the disas t rous I' i H'--' results o f covert domin ation of ,.,social f ramework by private capi talist interest the capita l ist is su rely also right in pointing to the oppressive character t o th e individual o f their 0 lternat ive. * Of course both sides would dt~Y that the problem can be set up this way , the capitalists bec auIB social framework to dominate the/ de11_1/ that there is a (because o f the i r reductionist - the Marxists, because th ey would deny 1, th at there is any legitimate f o rm of individua l control to lose in collective domination. a 3rd point of view. ,r - ~ ',(. f l( ,;,, ·K · It is di ffic ult t o accept that we are face d with such .J f J f:i, The problem i s seen esse ntially from -' -- - -· - --- - - (111 f 11/"" ,j'(' unpalatab le choices . }(' / .; ii1C..- And indeed lo ~] ic and,, coit,tJ strate that we are not. to demon- There have been, and in a fe w places where l1es te rn cul tur--al destruction is not yet compl ete, the re rc, ,.:.,,1 1 soc iet ies which a r e not capitalistic , wh ich are anti1~.n capitalistis but where a vigorous individual\ is va lued o r not I dis cour ~ged and for ms o f independent individual economic activity n1 ;, y ,: ,· \ /1 ~j°> \ ,, \'( .{ .'~f. \j ( ""· . T-~,i,.! ·-; , f ·, :~: '{!. ~-""1 '1 / ., I J, ,: f ::· and lead t o 1 cap ifo1, iSr.> · , in the way the Mar xi st critiaue it must, and which coexists wit h true co:u1munal ins is t s life-forms. 1 ~;0c:~ 1~•- :~ s~:h ~~~·~~ti~; •;~~p(:\~ ; ;e'd as individuals, co ll- ~-1abora ted \ ·; ··: 'I In such societ ies th ere is a form '\ of in di vidualism whi ch does not inevitably undermine the socie tie s . I proc eed and even dominate . ' ._._) in groups, or as whole communities, more or less as the . o~-;~·~ion demand~d~:,yw hile s ome of the , product .,' } ;>,d, :.'j ,~ ~ \ might be given to those who had no thing, it was not u s u a lly -J 13. regarded as a purely communal product unless commu~=ally use produce~b~ t was primarly for the of he who had t f J obtained it or his kin. (See HOWftt in t~e~ Aboriginal case; The t=orest Peo2-J.-~ ; for the rules _Wai-Wai ) , I,. some g ar dening societies too, such as that of Melanesia, individual eco n omic activity of a certain kind migh t even be th e dominan : t mode of production, yet the society is not capi t alist, and is even strongly opposed to the attitudes of ~apitalism.* The existence of such societies seems to show * See the failure of individually owned Waiko, 11 trade stfs [encouraged by the Australian adm i nistration] was ... mainly because such individualism , _t_u_,._t_i..__ _ _ _---=-p_r_o_f_i_t_a_c ___c_r_u_1_·n--""'-g_t_o__o_n_e person, was disapproved of by the villagers"" , p.418. that it is possible to obtain both communal control of c o 111munal life and individual control of individual life, that the one does not necessarily drive out the other. It seems clear fhm the anthropol o gical facts that the Marxis t critique that individualism produc~ s capi t alism has failed to make some important d1'stinctions between kinds of individualism. It may of course claim to allow ade quately for individuals and distinguish a kind of 'individualism' which is legitimate in the Marxist view. On further inquiry it turns out to be the case that what is labell e d individual activity in :.:i 'q cl1 c .A s-2.s is the kind of secondary and derived life forms the individual may engage in as part of the group collectivity or class, as in the Marxist / distinction between what is called 'Individualism'and'Possessive Individ~1ism' (see MacPherson} But since this continues to 14. ,. ' M S 15 only legitimate forms of individual life are .t that the· those which can be reduced to collective life forms and that no dist1 n -:.. C:-, independent economic individual life forms I for example, are legitirnate 1 it is a dist,n.ction in net me on:i:y perpetuates the false J~hdnm~ .J .Jt iin fact : merely , now as the choice between Possessive Individualism (as in capitalism) and 'Legitimate The latter is however only another and misleading Individualism' .. name for the participa tton of the individual production units 111 the production line. Since it continues to admit no legitimate individual independent activity , espe cially economic activity, distinct from or not reducible to that of the group, it - cannot e xplain our anthropological facts that these so c 1c ties do al low some i,·1d7K',k·l~ ,d in divi dual life forms, am/ - JS v ---- including economic ones _merely as in attempt to dispel the .A uneasy feeling the . ,...------··· -- a- (t hrough confusing --. .. ,\ . - production line theory arouses in most of us , te i-minological . ' ,r -r,, , Marxises in fact shuffle. / dd.Sthe same trick with this sort of recognition of legitimate individualism as Social Democracy does with the reco0nition of the social - it offers a terminological label which pretends µ to recognise a distinct life form but iryfact reduces it to an .impoverished and limited subvoJ--i<=:1-J of the dominant life form. 77The Marxist cr.i tique appears to have confused · the recognition of distinct individual life forms - distinct that is from those of the collectivity - with the attempt to reduce all legitimate life forms to in dividual life forms or constructions from them. It has confused Individual i sm, in the sense of the recognition of individuals, with Individual Reductionism, which is the recognition of nothing els~ but individuals. It is not the former but the latter which underlies capitalism and its variations. On the economic level the Marxist critique has failed to recognize that not all forms of individual economic 15. 1(r activity lead , capitalism, and at the soci al that not all forms of individual power le~d to power over rrh e triba l s oc iet ies ~...; ~ ~ others. considered were examples of societies which had individu alism - distinct individual life forms and economic activity - without individual reduction- i j m ~ ') ,, 1((.1{ , 1l'J Individ u al reductionism produces distortions and gre~t inequality of power because the social forces and means of decision-making, of organi~ ation and of production, are turned into concentrated power for the selected individuals who . ff represenithose forces in the indi vidualisa/ forms. In the tribal societies we considered this did not happen - decision r . P making was not usually the preogative of an individual h~d ' A or chief, organisation and production were not directed and controlled by bureaucrats and powerful individual capitalis ~ or groups such as corporations. In societies which took a similar form, individuals would have secure ind i vidual use right s for certain limited purposes to the means of produc ti on , for example the land, which would give them the right to produce for their own needs but not the rights they have in a property system~ For example, they would not have the right to dispose of it as they saw fit, or the corresponding right to accumulate larger shares of the means of production than others, or the right which in practice arises from this last, to employ another person's labour. The mean'.,;"" communJal ly, 11 of production wou/.-{ como, o m be seen as basically held t.c: al 1 for the use of each"". Individuals would have, as individ uals, secure access rights to the communal means of production to produce for their own needs. Var ious forms of mixed individual, group and community production could develop, based on mutual interes~as people see fit, but the important point is that access rights to produce oould accrue to individuals as su ch. Provided th7 ao not encroach on 16. others, 1ndi vidudfs could set their own goals, decide (A,·hu.. t _,.\ they, as individuals need and like to work on, and pursue these goals in their own way at their own time. each could· In such a situation, pu~sue his own way, instead of all marching in <~ I tl' j. ,, step - the situ,it,;,1 in whic ""'h all must pursue a .. -& . i ~ and collectively determined set of goals, at a collectively determined time, place and in a collectively determined wa~ would I be avoidedQ C!S""""' Such a system would Ado tribal land tenure 3ys tems, involve two levels of decision-ma~ ~ing and of life forms. On the one hand decisions at the social framework level would be determined through communal decision-mak ing processes/ wh r( h would normally, ~nvol ve communal participati.,1:y 't---(__y •-<.. i :r ~ , ,t -1 ., ' \ ( forms ,...._ rather than i-04-i -v~:r-. methods. The sorts of decisions which would come up here concerning the use and creation of 1hL t{0_ means of production would be those that affected,\ community ( e.g. in the Melanesian case the; included the t/«2. issue of whether Acommunal for es t land cou}cl be wood chippe~ w~ -~l, could not be decided by individuals and holders), ( u't :I 1 ( / If .. 1u. ""'-J; 1 f\ I' • , I :) / .. . , ' ) / f in our case, what sort of public transport systemsAto have, all sorts of social framework and infrastructur e questions, question~ abou t the sort of c c mmunally-ope rated production enterpri ___ses tc have/ and so on~ This sort of society could admit a form of vigorous individualism , capitalism. b ut it would not be and could not lead to The sort of individualism admitted here would be one which could coexist with a great deal of rich communal life, and which did not eliminate or reduce communal life forms. rrhe indi vid·;_,iJd s in such a society would have the rnJps to control their own lives, both as distinct individuals diff[-:.J-0.,,-ff.J _, as members of a cornmuni ty. and also, but 1 have would be the means to cont;.~\ ,~.~e ..li '-'.t s_ ~~-·othe; s !' C (r r"": ,tu,-,. • (,~·{, ,_-,, 11; ,· i ifr ,.: .I- ,< /1 ,, (' ·, ( jJ~' ,.,_ F J ! '' //, ,., , < ~ (. ,• //, 7 r ..-_ ; , 7 2-f ' . .· ' ""/',. 1 ., , /·;,, """"?(. , .1.·1~ . ""· ·. . rr~~. What they woul~ !1ot . 4 , , 1 . ' lc . { ..rf,t '. < 17. The sort of po sition embodie d in these so r ts of societies is in many ways a very natural one. two levels - It allows for control at the social framework level is controlled communally, and the level o f p rod uction for i nd i vidual nee~s is controlled by individuals~ It i s the n a mixed picture. (but a very different one t o that whi ch appears in th e capitalistl' mixed econo my '). 4,1.,{ In such a picture, people ar e both individua~A· members of communiti es. For a f ree society in which peopl e control th c.. L1 own lives both sor t s of control are needed. (.( ,v· So, if y ou ask someone in China what occupation he would l i k e . to f ollow , he replies, according to report, that h e 0 has no des ire s of his own in this respect, he would l ike t o be whatever t h e community wa n t s or n eeds him to be . ,1 ., ( A very p ro pe r answer according to the th eo ry set out in ' P a per Tiger s '). If you ask someone here what he woul d like to be, you would very likely get th e reply that he woul d like to be what or ever he can find a job in,,\ if h e is inr t t) a mbitious, whate v er pays best or offers the best long-term monitary prospects ; i.e. whatever capitali sm needs him to be. (A good an swer also syst em) . acconli-1'1 '. 1 t o t h e In neither c ase does the answer indicate a person who is I (I in control of his own li fe, who do es what he wants to do, or J\- ·- · tk~ what he finds s_ati_~_fying . _ At the ,; be st A distortion:; L ---~ap.i tali sm a nd Marxism offer us, in each cas e on e kind of con fr ol wi thout t h e other, or the other l evel o nly I -J,;, I i mpo verished and \ qt""t-c•,li1. i:1/-r..rl. f orm. Bu t , \ ( \ \ \ ( , , I~ ,I C( i •Ii I ; I ii, an since the l e vels . j ' t ,/ ,._- tf ) I of con trol have a large level of interdependence1 . each 11,, 1 lev el of control become s in fi,:,~it irnpover irlr- d t :--· ,·· -._...,/ .. \S . h ·""l, -r c . v~' . wi 7'~ut its compl~=:.m ent....-;_,.. 'rhu s for example, mo st individual s 1 cannot live a fully free or satisfying individual life in a society structured at the frame work or inf~s t rat~r ·e 18. ·fo leve\ provide mainly dr~~~7 , repetitive work, or no work at all, and so on. Both sorts of control are necessary, and to achieve this a society must first control the social framework, including the means of production, communally, and second ; give each individual secure acce~to the means of production for his own use to enable the individual to control his own life at the individual level. Su6h a society would be 'self- managed' at both crucial levels. * (from page 17) Of course./,. - t hat is what these positions offer at their best,., f thi:-; ·---is an idealisa~i~ In practice most capitalist countries -• •--•--•·-•---•-•---•••---•--•--•-••-- --•--•---•••n------••-- do not offer even individual control (that is they do not have the individual freedoms appropriate to liberal capita l ism), and most communist countries do not practice genuine commun ity control or self-management on the social framework level (that is collective life Ain fact controlled by individuals in the ·:; ha pe of bureaucrats or politic al codu11 ,lie~-' .c An alternative of this basic ,., f c,· .-·;;'/t .... .J, -t"" . I; 1 J fr1_ 1~ <- J_ ) • sort_,\ has been_ J by a few thinkers, mo~s::tiA recently in a modified form by Ernest '"" ,, c , ~ , C~11lenbach~ in ~arly ,.- b<:t{::).k Ecotopia ,,.r/, ' _t ; i'. \ There are however more substan tial philosphica l r e ason s f or the false dictptomy, which lie in the basic reduction p os i t ions underlying capitalism and Marxism, 1,,-•, / •;; , ,/ 1c'?. • {_ .c ·( . t. /j Io 7;'t,J •/ i(,,: , I '/ I/ t:t,, d ~iR/o:,a,.J 21. The basic reduction underlyi ng the ideology of capitalism is the reduction of communal life forms to certain sorts of individual life forms, or mere rough~ J.y, of communities to individuals, while that underly ing Marx,sr:11 is a reduction of individual life forms to certain sorts of communal life forms, that is , of individuals to elements of certain sorts wholes . * * Burnheim in rpaper Tigers' points out that the usual contras ~f between individualism and reduction of ' i-l~_>f15'~--. \ in the sense of a !) ' • 1) dr 1.A,.-t.-ctt/.J' to parts of societies which are then 1,·1 -t- . c,t1 .__: ho·~c1•-·; ., treated is fu \ her individuals, is a f u/:;e_ f r~~nershipf /1 // / .j_,._, of ,,tc.,· '·- / / '-.C-~ <_ __.../ ~ ..... ; / / o ollectivism. proquction versus ""',,, ~ ~ ·~- 22. According to the third theory, both these sets of reduction alternatives should be rejected. ! A non-reductionist position, accordin g to which there are legitimate in~i vidual life forms which are not reducible to soc ~ / life forms, and legitimate soc~ I life forms which are not reducible to individual life forms, can give a more adequate account of t he data than either of the reductions and s ynthesi ze much of the material eac.lt uses to support his case t.<-•!1 ; le ,',· I•~,·\// avoiding -~ difficulties the reductions engender. of the Individualism, in the sense of recognition of legitimate non-reducible individu~/ forms, is one th ir1J - the lif~ individual reduction position that all life f orms ultimately can be reduced to these, is a very different thing. How are th e. reductions justified·? The argument involves appeal to the subsidiary notions to support the reductions. The systematic false d;~otomies which justify them in argument are as follows: (1) capitalist ( 2) ;ndividualism - versus coll e ctivism. individual c' l<)1<..,2,t s--ly) of means of production versus '· ., • ) : ' Cl a-l--t erna ti ve ownership. versus ( 3) (a) indivi (L..c als as not SO'Cil~/ly determined at all (b) the individual is completely soc io. l ly determined. (4) {a) 'obse rvational data' as theory-free versus (.} 5,. ( b) 1 o bservational data' the or- y - depend ~_nt. t, (5) (a) individuals as completely free , versus (b) indiv iduals as complo tely determined (atl choices ,ndividuals make are in fact d etermined) . ( 6) (a) The free soc iety as one .in which individuals can control individual life, versus (b) the free society a s one in which people collectively determine collective life. All these false dkl1 0 tomies are reje.c ted by the nonreductionist postiion .. 2 3. (1) and (2) we have already partly dealt with. To j,.,i-1_1.I / ,. ;~ / sum up, the false dichotomy over fo L/3 the alternative of a mixed form of control of the m eaus of production which does not fit into the simple classification, which enables the form of :c ~ m,v-~Aily the infrastructure to be cG-Jd..ect~ controlled -<-0.!id H~ use of it to be individually-controlled, as advocated by the non-reductionist position. The presentation of the individual as not soc✓(~ ,,/;;_' ci I/ l determined P'~ at 11 appears quite freql.lntly in capitalist 7 ( 3) (a) , I' \' \ arguments, espec rct. lly in the economi""l c sphere. Most capitalist '-.. / e conomic a rguments depend upon taking ind i vidual choices as 'raw', as not in any way in £ lue n ced by o r dependent upon a social framework. They appear to presuppose an absolute indiv i dual who would make the same choic es in any society. Th~s for example env ironmentallsts who suggest that things like a~r tT condi tio~s are u 1-w1 ,:c_,.,:__~sct""1/ and wasteful of energy are ,n 11~ H: \f 4 , 1 {, raw, and The choice is represented_ have air -cond itioners. a that peopl e rreducible - to interfere with it would be ...~~ .A. ""' authorita~ because it is presented as a choice at the level of individua l li f e-control, instead of as a social framewor k dependent choice, A good e xamp le is McCracken [ ] . This is part of the strate gy of reduction to individuals through trying does not exist, or if it does, i s a lso chosen by the individual on the level of personal 'raw' choice - ('a legally elected government determined it'.). Environmentalists are always encountering the related, arg ument that a certain predicted level o f consumption, say for forest products, energy demand, 24. space, must be met , no matter how disastrous its environmental consequences'. 'Demand' is treated as expressing the individual~ raw needs or choices, which are ,coN.:.e.11J.ed as lacking a social context, and therefore, it is argued, as being essential to meet a ~d authoritarian not to meet. To deny such demands would be to abrogate individual freedom. rrhis is the basic argument for Cons1u1,:r ism, and it is widely employed by those who wish to promote industrial growth t o meet alleged cop (_.il.i,, 1 t: r-- ~ eeds ' reg a rdless of the consequences. Courses of action which fail to accommo date cons!-< 11-iu; i nl t hus ruled out, and are consumerism and its consequences repre s ented as necessary and inevitable. Of course many people,especially environmentalists, realise there is something wrong with this argument. do not just up a,vJ ' demand' expres~~~ays, People junk paper f or packaging, or energy capacity to power hea~ed swimming pools or electric toothbrushes. All these 'needs' are the product [ 1,.r7 -'·- of a certain sort of;\ social co ntext, which the Con sume .ri sin igno r es, or presents as inevitable, wh e n it is /lrgument not, or chosen by people ge1rally/when >r is not. The Consomerist Argument, then, is a pa.rt of the capitalist reduction choices to individual choices, which is pJrt of -the~ reduction of : so c ~I life forms to individual life forms. [Accompanying th=js r e duction is a picture of th e individ tt~ l s ~ s c ontaining no s 6 cial elements which are not i n some way f}-1· 1--<. l.·-~\. C --- ~ t,; :_+ ,. : -~: _,, ; c ..{ · ,) , ,.)_ --·· l ~reducible to p- roperties of individuals &'\, l] \ . (b) On the oth er side of the conventi on al battle we are presented with an equally distorted and reductionist picture o f the individual os completely so c. ; -= ally determined. I :f the capitalist picture presents social choices as just certain kinds of individual choices, the Marxist picture tells us that there are no individual choices which · at-e.. ,H·[ reducible, 2 5. orl exarnina,tion, to socja/ choices. Marxists ,uj}if- (r l- reject the 'J capitalist a ccount of the individual and society and ~s ~st on the importan ce of the social fram ewo rk, but in th e process eliminate# the i ndividu al . In 'Paper Tiger ~' two main arguments are presented for this positi o n . · (i) The Invariance Argument: This argument appears in several pap ers in the 'Paper Tigers' coll ection and seems to be central. Essentially it argues that the individual does not him- self d ete rmine his own choice unless the determination would b e invariant in any social framework. , Thu s Steve ns, SuchtiJ Chal;,1, ers, and Burnheim. and In Burnheim's paper the argument appears in the f orm of the demand for cor e an of self, which would be unchanged under any variation of social U11 k'.;:; co ntext or framework,~ t his can be provided 1 there is tJ;1( re,\/ s. 1,> as J 'the sear ch for the real self proves illusory' , 1 ) ,7 nd the pictu re of individuals as completely s-r, ,,,,;/l mi ned is e stab l ish~' ,.'--,fZf ,'J(~, L;""'I ,:'"" (~ . ..,. fc.: J ,,.;1 ,· /. ..,· 11/J "" ''j,., lc.-,J c./ Pr~suP1l,4 7 affair. . . 1 constraint It acts a j A ...,. - -·· 1 ,(..' ( ! [ 0 . -•..., • ' , / u,.. vrt;.( /(C /J I '\\ ',""'·,..__ ____ __ p:t.h ~ • , I I/..-, ~ r\..i.- , I) _, /:: (·,/ - · ~t'"""" (, / , II/1/Jt of development, and its influence will therefo r e be seen ( 27. in all the properties he displays, without1 of course, being the l/is actual complete determinant of those properties. development involves as well his own indi viduallj de termine d -f~L1/u:--r1 .,· in the same way that the actual development of aH individual with a certain genetic inher i tance also involves environmental fa ctors . This is the sort of picture of the individual in relation to h is social context which u..r1de-rl ;e. s the non- re:1uctionist position , and it is in most respect s a fai-r!J natural one. In contrast the two reductionist positions present, in term s of the analogy, a false d ic hotomy picture 1./ of t he individua l as comple tel yg·enet ic ally determined i-:!'11- -- ' ~-, ·t~ .--• - l ~ the one han d . (Marxism\ and as comp.J:_etely ,1'fl- environmental ly determined on the other (cap ita lism). (ii) The second set of arguments for the complete social de te rminat ion of the individual f is L papero presented in It is an interesti n g a nd ,, sugges tive but l ikewi s e fallacious argument , which proceeds fr om the assumed theory= ..c:=-_aepen d en t characte r o f al l data, to the conclusion that ' individual' obscrv.d r<' ;u, { C'< '~t obs e rvation, \ entire ly dependent on shared social ,.tr tifact s; 1 I.e. theor ie s, is a social and not an ind ividual phenomenon. {u e.nce and duct s . knowledge I tfw 11. , are social and no t individual pro- It is p ointed out that the phenomenol o gy and epistem- ology associated wi th capitalism - empiricism and th e individua lis t red ucti on - holds that observation al data is completely theory - indepe nden t, and this approach is correctly rej e ct~~ d as in compatible with th e, o f theory forma ._,___ r--- ti on /At1(l actual process fa lsification . Even if the o ther connections in the argument are admi tte d, we contin ue to be p resented with a f alse contrast, this time between obs ervation a~ completrly 'hard' or as 2 8. completely 'soft', a s compl etely theory - depe ndent, or as comple t e l y th eo ry - independe nt. Again the obvious p osi ti on s ee ms to b e overlooked by the opp os ing reduc tio nist c a mps. gi Ve L--t. The point n eeds more elabora tion than c..an b ....:. h· ,f l0 ½~ , but briefly, what i s o verlooke d in the a rgume nt is the po ssibility of saying that some observations are theorydependent, and some are not ,\ that is, that there 'so ft' da t a. cffe~ 'ha rd' and the comple te Su c h a position would explain wh a t theory-depen dent theses cannot explain,the unden~b/e fact that some theories are fals ,; fied. It can also explain - what t he e mpirici st position cannot - ~ hy theories are not nearly as f alsifi a bl e as t he e mp iricist takes them to be, and some not falsifiable at all, and why in many cases what is n ee ded is a c once pt ual shift, that is a shift to rei,1 h--rpreJ1,4f,;,, of the theory·-depend e.nt area of data along the li nes presen fo,l. b...J a dif ferent theory. The theory - depende nc e aspect might be s een a s gi ving a certain cl~~ (the 'so ft data'), or it d ependi~t data [' 01 mjh~ theory- be seen as giving certain t heory-depe nd e nt constraints on observati on, while still leaving room f o r a no n - the ory depende nt area to op.~rate within those constraints, t h at is, an area in which , ,n ~ peop le opercit1 11t , with J c/,fl c, (:~1f- theories can reac h agreement . (Neither of the two reduct ion ist theories can adequately expla in agreement and di~agreemen t be tween people h ol ding different of such a non-reductio nist account of theor i esV_/) observation an d theory would be that they are seen as both u 11d_ social and individual - scienceA knowledge have but they s sooQI elements ;;-l 1 1 occur at the individual level, they are both f1lfd . social ~nd ind iv idual products. AA similar account in all o f free-will and determinism would see individuals as partly 4.. • f r ee, a n d a s Pftly determined - . • the latter determination occ urri ng as constraints on individual action rather than as 29. giving an area of completely determined action and another different area of completely free action. i,..J., £ ~;(b) '1 he notion of freed(l.m and of a free society is A one of the most important suffering from systematic ambiguity . 1 Each position defines the notion in accordanc e with its own concept of individua l and society; thus the capitalis t position ck~hes freedom as the control by the individua l of his own life (with appropria te safeguard s), the Marxist as the con t rol by the collective or class of its own life and so on. The non-reduc tionist position would reject the notions of l, 'J C'{ ,r·1 freedom which each reduction position offers, and would see 1\, the choice as involving a false dichotomy . According to the non-reduc tionist position, to be free is to be free as an individua l and also as a member of a community , to be able to control one's own individua l life as an individua l, and also to be able to act freely with others in controllin g and determinin g the social framework . ;,< 'f. ¥- -~ --- ~ ~""I:-~ The false dichotomi es presented by the two-reduc tion cire.. reason positionsA clearly systemati c in nattire. for them lies in a logical assumption and approach which is com m on to both theories - the reduction positions are the result of extension alism 'm. 2~te:rlalisrn ') in logic and metaphysi cs,oper~ti ng both through the accounts of the subsidiary n otion ~ and resul6~ . i n the the basic reduction position of individua ls reduced to eleme nfr of cul u,,,~ sorts of social wholes versus social wholes as reduced to constructi ons out of certain sorts of elements. 29 . Those who do not appreciate that everything is connected to everything else, and that relevant logic particularly is connected to everything else, would probably be surprised to learn that the basis of these false dichot.01les lies in logical theory. The two ,{ reductionist positions apply in social theory a particular set of reductionist doctrines a bot.ft the whole-part relation. The individual reduction position which underlies basic capitalism is that the whole is reduced to no more than the sum of its parts the parts are the thing and the whole i s a mere fiction or certain sort of construction. The opposite reduction holds that the whole is the thing and that the parts are no more than components of the whole - the y have no real function or role of their own except to make up the whole. This is of course the approach which matches the Marxist reduction of individuals, and it results from buying~~l~same logical assumptions about wholes and parts and applying the reduction move in the opposite direction. The logical assumption behind the reductionist approach is that the social whole-part relation is extensional, as it is treated in standard mereology. <.? r o ./r:,.·_ .~""' '-··• ,. / :J.. ti ·, r• i J (""~ \., C l' l •'-·\.. ) C • . ~\__(_ ___ · '-- '-- 'c l ... • : ,: · - v•~,1-. .__,, :;>>··\- ', '.\ I (_,-..._ .... l-··""' '- - It is the seeing of th e whole~ part relation as extensional which forces the choice be.tween seeing wholes as just aggregations of parts, as on t he capitalist side, and seeing parts as j ust bits of wholes, as on the Marx ist side. If the relation is extensional, then one or the other reduction is inevitable, so th at someone who w, she~ to reject one reduction, say the re duction of wholes to parts, Cf!JD -fi,'j is ob li ged to embrace the one, the reduction of parts to wholes so that the Marxist reduction of individuals is an outcome of sharing s uch an extensional outlook. With an intensional relation this choic e can be avoided, there can be both wholes and parts, each with properties not reducible to those of the oth er. Consider;for example, the /mplicational case where we represent the proposition that A as the class of sta temen ts implied by A, or equivalently the class of consequences of A. Then if the notion of consequence is treated e xtensi onally, for oF example as material implication, the joint consequences ~ A & BJ that r:F -1 i 42.., is the consequences~ proposition {A & B} will just be the sum of the separate con sequences of A and the separate consequences of B. That is {A & B} = {A} U {B}, or, in terms of wholes and parts, the whole {A & B} is just the extensional sum of the parts {A} and {B}, and is therefore reducible t o it in a straightforward and common sense. If on the other hand, the notion of cons£ },enc(;,. is treated 1 intensionally as in re levant implication, the n the joint conseque nces of A & B exceed and are not reducible to the sum of the separate consequences of A plus the separa te consequences of B. That is i' B} · not just and can 11c: t be reduc ed to the ,' The residue or sum of its part~ proposition A and proposition B. the whole proposition {A & difference between the joint consequences of A & Band the sum of their s _e parate consequences might then cal led an emergent fea t ure; ·\ k __:-. The relation between suc h emergence results from intensionality. reductionisrn · of the whole-part relation and extensional treatment ' ' .1 Cr./) N,!/- , !f,dvhr//l-7 '/)_ft. ('. . . J1l7'UJ 1 11 //i,c✓ t'1. d(c: -, { l • A • r:-.I /)c!tf.·c·.:JlA~/,-. 1/J)7 1. of it is so close that the {A & B} for the ~ = {A} U {B} feature is sufficient • of the whole,-_- '_part relation. extensional~ In opposition to this 1 it is possible to develop a theory for an intensional whole_:-:._~ part relation in an intensional mereol og y which models the whole ·-- -~part relation in terms of an intensional implication relation such as entailment. It would be rather surprising if the social whole ~~ part relation . -- ,.,,.-- an extensional one which enabled simple summation except in were certain special cases. It is after all rather well-known that people can do in combination what they cannot do separately, not just in the to extensional sense in which they can sum their joint forces (e . g. I . lift a rock), but al.so in the more important sense which is no~_ extensional in which what they can produce i n cc-mbination may be far more than (and different from ) the sum of the separate efforts of each (e.g. in writing a joint paper). Such emergence seems especially to be a feature of activities which involve combined inte nsion ~ __,.lity l as many activities which are characteristically social seem to. The simple reduction of social wholes to sums of individual parts is the basic reduction of basic capitalism. The position is ""({ f:t-•c· ,·1 ( , __ very important from a theoretical standpoint as the crucial r--e-l-e.v~nee point for the understanding of other positions / .just as are the Basic Reference Theory and Basic Empiricism to the understanding oV pos~tions ~ in epitemology . and logic. . 1, However as with the Basic Reference Theory and Basic Empiricism, the numerous difficulties the primitive form encounters lead to many refinements, elaborations and extensions, and there are few who now hold the basic primitive position. The reduction of social wholes to individuals view points is liberalised correspondingly - [thus it is no good identifying the position of Jf.4. capitalism with the primitive reduction and attaching t~at, in the fashion of Bwnheirn. ref J. One lih.eralisrd reduction position, which appears to correspond to the extension of capitalism in Social !Je111ocracy, holds that social wholes can be reduced through anal:'.{Sing them in ten:ns of a theory concerning the assumed components and their interrelations. Thus the reduction is liberalised hyond a simple whole-part one, to provide a theoretical explanation and to take account of yet furt her features of wholes in terms of th e behaviour and interrelations of their compon e nts. Such a th eo ry would however be extensional, in accordance with the usual assumptions motivating this kind of reduction, so that the essential, non-reducible emergent features of the social will still be missed. The reduction - although i t will be ab le to take account of a more complex set of interrelations, between comp onents, will con tinue to be inadeouate and to leaitimise /\ (::, an impoverished version of communal life ""orns ~ "".'here is ·' j strong logical case that such reductions cannot be made. This ~ is provided by such results as I] rrow' s the:erem ancl. pa ral lel results in voting theory. * The fact oi complex interdependence between the individual and the social whole also provides a strong prima facie case against a reduction, since if some characteristics o ~ individuals depend essentially on the social whole, the latter obviously plays an irreducible role. But some characteristics of individuals do seem to depend on and be modified by the social framework, tn the same vwy that the growth and species composition of the plants in a f)'lic..' -..:.... Ob 'i,• ' ..,' ""·- 1\~' ·'- ,~ .. -.. . .,.\ 0 -(-,-( \ ""'r-~s,.~ ...: .""' n,~\ _c....:i ...... Ct.C... 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We suggest that it is not a coincidence, and that the following rough connections and correspondences hold which provide mappings between positions in different areas of intensional (in logic)- non- philosophy: referential (in semantics) - theoretical (in philosophy of ( 0 - extensional (in logic) - /t, v-J!,J Jl t:t I A referential science) - social ( in social theory) j observational (philosophy of individual (in social theory). science) ( in semantics)- Some of the routes connecting these concepts are fairly clear, others are less so. Some of them, for example the epistemological-logical connections, are elucidated in Beyond ] ~ ~ ploring ~einong's Jungle and . These correspondences give rise to the table on the previous page. This table should not be read as indicating that people who hold one of the positions on the line hold the others, or even that they logically should. For first most / of the connections have been overlooked, especially in this century, and second, the positions do not even ehtail one another because the ronnecting links are suppressed; and these , even if logically necessary, may be rejected by peGple who hold one but not another position in the line. Positions do however form closely linked ways of looking at the world they are world views. ~~st of the positions can be seen as modifications of or responses to~l , the basic reference world view position, within its own intellectual framework. This is especially true o f 1 's conventional ~pponent, Marxist socialism. In 3, the necessity and rationale for the ~arxist converse reduction is created by the acceptance of the main intellectual apparatus of the basic individual reductionist worldview, and ~~arxism challenges ea! i talisrn very intellectual framework. ·1tHtd1 from within its own In contrast postion 5, the non- reductionist position, challenges 1 from a auite different s tandpo in t. The table should make it possible to distinguish clearly between two positions which, although entirely different, might on some theories (e.g. a r~arxist thecry) run some risk of confusion, that is, between the Libertarian Socialist position and the Social Democratic one. The difference parallels that between .the Fregean Double Referenre theory and the non-reductionist position regarding intensionality. Social De mocracy must be seen as an liberalisation or extension of basic capitalism, in the same way that the Double Reference theory is an extension of the Reference Theory which enables it to take account, albeit in a quite inadequate way, of much further material which the basic Referenm Theory cannot ,- .. ! ,.. handle. ~ . :> t•( ·f\ t1•~ l ..J,.J.._ .,,.._ ..;· ' ! ,·, '· / This is done through setting. up individualised substitutes fo;-- communal life forms, usually through the medium o:f so-called w- ~epresentative' or 'public' individualp institutions which control the 'publid sector and much of the social framework. ,';',i I ~!.:'• .I Given an individual reduction1),...(such as that of Mill, the major theorist of representative government) such representativeness appears inevitable, the only possible and logical way to handle communal life forms insofaras they can exist at all. is far From the standpoint of a different theory, it from inevitable; and the increasing destruction of communal life forms in :f:avour of such 'public' ones is dama g ing, impoverishing, and leads to great concentration of power. Social Democracy operates normally with a capitalist basis and grafts the 'public' sector on as an extension J just as the Double Re f erence theory operates with the Reference Theory for the normal case and extends the theory to d ea l with difficult cases. The Double Reference Theory employs a substitute reference, the sense, for cases whe re the will not work, just as Social Democracy employs substitute individuals to represent community life forms for cases where a purely 'private' approach does not work. sense, is treated as a The second mode, the further sort of reference, just as the 'public' sector in Social Democracy is treated as a f urther sort of individual life form. Both these positions extend and liberalize the reduction of the basic position, rather than providing a genuine alternative to it. )'I. How do the reductions connect with the basic position .. of each theory? -----, I l_ /--------✓ ~- Each position uses its reduction to vindicate i t's own vision of a satisfactory societ~_L,{'~he capitalist 30. - reduction..---_:-· to-individuals position vindi cates capilalist ' . society through the following CJ1'v ' j\, /v I - Ayn Bandish type of argument:- If individuals are entirely self-made, and none of their properties are the result of the social framework, then the fact that some people are superior to others in certain respec ts must simply be due to their being inherently superior individuals in those respects. But if some individuals, by being more able than others, are able to acquire more power or more advantages for themselves, this is only right and ( C? 1,'f-isrn) Such inequality is unjust to no one, and prope~. I\ the result is the admirable one that the better are better rewarded and have more control over the shape of society. w, #1 Th~s the individualist reduction lead~ only a AH.:,. l\ with few further assumptions which not implausible, to a /\ position justi fyi ng inequality of power .. The Marxist position, equally, uses its reduction to vindicate ,ts vision of the social order, as one in which the individual can express himself or exercise power only through participation in the whole, the collectivity. Individuals can, in this soDq( and especially~ economic order, exercise n~ power as individuals, and power is held only by the collective, or class o rganisation . In contrast to these positions of inequality of power for the .individual on the one side, and of no power for the individual as such, on the other side, the non- reduc tionist theory co rresponds to a position of equality of power for individuals, both as individuals 9 n~ through the social framework. In its vision of the good society, individuals have equal power to determine the social framework, and equal power to control thsir own lives at the individual level . The social frame(,J c•rk 1 for example insti tutions1 should allow 31. life and deve lop each indiv idua l to maxi mize cont rol of his own comm unal his own disti nct pote ntial , as well as optim ise pote ntial . ccftr ol of comm unal life is commLJJl._~3 1, o.tic:l. that of indiv id ual life is indiv idua l. l Capi talis m is view ed as a disto rtion of indiv idua The oppo site uctio nism . life forms whic h is impo sed by indiv idua l-redA.>hrll'o ,,.1-,,:t._ c JJ ,• 6 · c i.l(,,t ( [nr.n:n,t:;,.J (dfi'f( ,:,..- /i h - f/,('_ h.·t ·fto abs orb th e pt\ attem 1 rrti~~J? h whic es a disto rtion r\ redu ction prod~ A ~+· 1 renc es in goQI~ indiv idua l comp letel y, to swal lo~ up, deny diffe and need s. This is an equal . dist o rt ion. iced The disto rtion s have some para llel wi t ~ othe ~not in rece nt w ~1 Cing . For exam ple / there is a para llel with the and oppo site forci ng of peop le's char acter s into disto rted the m expr essio n, sex role stere otyp e s whic h frus trate and deny thei r lives . and impo veris h and limi t thei r oppo rtuni ties and force d by the Ther e is a para llel also with the disto rtion s In the d. sepa ratio n of sexu ality and love notic ed by Freu that the same way the non- redu ction ist posi tion woul d hold t were ove rcom e good socie ty could be acA1e..,.: e cl only if the spli and the two sides reun ited:-\ ~~~•·:~~""gl~c i :~i:i~u :~\:~ ' ~~~•h :~ · ,, , . - -~ f\ s, and part of a disti nct 'self ' with disti nct need s and goal ,.,. . . .,,._~ I . . \vr. J. • r .} ,' / , . . , ,.: , . _ ,7 ;,t ' Both must be r ecogn ise d comm unity with common need s and goal s. ,\ IJ /. •· t -' I' j 1 in the struc ture of the s ocie ty. up some Such a non- redu ction ist posi tion can then take redu ction of the data that each side uses to supp ort its with out howe ver redu ction . 1,1cui- t i ~ J_ ___ t he pena l ties impo sed by the Thus it can claim s~pe rior expl anato ry powe r. as we have For exam ple, the non- redu ction ist posi ti o n can s of each othe r, po i nte d out, acce pt each side~ basic criti cisma11c{ -, also thei r it can re cogn ise the claim s of the indiv idua ls I . limi tatio ns. limi tatio ns , an d the claim s of the soci al its d criti que. It can admi t th e va l idity of much Marx ist-in spire 32 . For instance , it can agree that in capitalism people are frequently unaware of the real social determinants of their actions and values a nd see as free choices on the individual level what are in fact determined at the framework level. It can agree that the utility of the invisibility of the manipulated social framework to capitalism is to dis~uise the existence of other options and make a situation~ which is to the advantage of so~e gr oups, appear necessary or ine scapable , ~ * or to the advantage~and chosen by all. This is however not evidence for the Marxist theory as opposed to th e nonreductionist theory which it supports just as well or better/ 1 a nd it does not show that there is no such thin g as free individual choic e . S imil arly most of the valuabl e part of the Marxist critique of capitalism can be seen as evidence for the lack of re al communal control at the social framework level, rather than as .,or··· supporting the thesis ~hat that N,·11 /Je_: on!_y level on which anythi n r; really occurs. is Thus also the t heury can take accou nt of classes without bein~ stuck with the ~l g iditi es and difficulties of a class reduction or a class view of history . ., ,1, ·; ..\ •~ ~ ' I\'-\ \ ~~ Class explanations for ind ividual action can be used where they a.re required, but individual aL.+1cr1 C<.H o.lso be reco gnized and there is no need to explain all the a. r:t ions of in di v i cl u a 1 s in his t or y forces and so on . ,1 s u 1 t j_ mat e 1 y the pro c/cL d of c 1 as s Such a theory can also provide t h e basis for - what is lacking in Marxist theory - * For documentation of this thesis, see Conscio usness . t Captains of Thus also some, but not all, of the >.I... Marxist critµq~ of the last twenty years remains of value to the non-reductionist position . 32.1 a critique of socia l Democracy which distinguis hes i t clearly from Basic ( apitalism . Th e majo r the oretical feature of ,ocial Democracy is th e attemnt to take account of communal LLfe for rns and other cases wh1 eh obviously cannot be accoun ted for adequately in basic capitalism , in terms of an individua l subs tit w~s for them-as in the ' publ ic' sector , Governmen t by represent ative A Marxist-ty pe theory cannot take individua ls , and so on. adequate account of this individua lisation , because it is committed to seeing all the actions of individua ls as represent ative of class forces, so that the indivi dual ' captt!Ye ' of social life fo rms in Social Democracy ' becomes for them just their capture by various class forces. measures bt.d'('tf'.... A'--. .;i«: From a~philoso p hical viewpoint the reduction positions have their bas i s i n a part icular,and ~~dequate,but widespread logical and me taphy s ical theory. It would be surprising --...,_ how ever if these b a sic redrutions, wh oi~ distor.___.,.tions underlie n_ early all tHcc/.r,,r,1_ social thought, originated entirely i n a particular logic al theory . The logical theories ct.U--rt:,z. t at a particular time indirectly reflect social values and intellectual currents a t that time, like every other sort of theory, and do not stand in some unique way above and beyond them. If a different kind of logic has been needed, it would probably have been developed. The prev~knL c of this now established logical theory may explain why few now see through the reductions, but it does not entirely explain why they we r e developed. A / """" J'&""' /.~r-,l.. fl'/ are common to such socie t ies, L/1.d racteristics which (' 34. sophisticated ~0cttd despite the rising d eM•cracies to-day seek, but which ~DP and the 'high standard of living', which is supposed to provide justice and the good life for all / always The l ow level of environ- seem to be further off than before . ~"" 1 P-, r,y mental d e struction cl /\ t-r; ~u( conscious life-style) · '·'-·~ and the environmenta lly- src;~{~i;.1 -_ . frctture.~ which ha~( often been noticed, t-... s ha l~? the almost total lack of in ;.,~uali ty and poverty-' the "")...•'-·◄ }'-'- \,._:, \ '-,__-\ V·' ,:. c.l-11,·, ·,•-7' high level of equa1, ·7 of power and relative lack of ~e\fe-r-R-me-Ft-t-r ,..._ domination; the considerable level of leisure ( o fte:ri, as SaA/eAl .f . /1 as pointed out, greater than that in modern western societies) and the frequerlly rich cultural and communal l ife [Ref. Sahlens?]. These features have been attributed to various things th e.. low level of technology, the communal living feature, the hunting -- 3ei fttc;..ing life- s-fJ Jc: and the norn a ti ic life ,~hich was 1 The first we can definitely ru le out. The mountain forests of Gr e ece were destroyed, the Middleof its rich topsoil and stri_: ppped of J1'HidZ by erosion, (r e f . Lowdermilk~b y a people with a 7 uite low (9 1 e v e l o:E technology by u,..;--- QWa standards, who also had a culture :). .,.._J.._ which was Mark .ea by great inequality -e-:r en s/cpJ<.:'...-.me nt. ...(_., \ ,.''1-/·, ,,_: .. Living ,Jt ;. d , 1)\ -(_ \. \ l ,y r ant e es/\ th e se features, as by no means gua .. a/ modern cities demonstrate · &Fra the success of communism appears .I t.t. c (J'(t t:< ( --1~1.rl; ,Je__ i I\ to be a consequentia l rather than;\. wh ile the no roadie life {;,Jic-<.u;f,:tl with the hunting/gath ering ,:S; style cannot be the whole story ~(J """"""'- t{ 7 I\ YI L ~ some societies which gardened also had or have I' these features feature seems to be one Th! f~ ) (e.g. Melanesia). of soC;Ct( structure. if t ·;-ut:-}s very good ner~,d for us, because we can hope to work for a di f ferent so C~Q/ structure, whereas we cannot r e alistically hope to obtain a collective and arrow, the woo :1en \t-1()-(_ ' . return to the bow or the hunting-gath ering way of life• ; 35 The structural feature which makes possible th e combination of collectivity and individuality and the other >v,v'-( ,, attr active features of tribal life, is, we suggest, the fact that the dominant mod e of production in su ch societies is that the producer of an item is, in general, also the person or group who uses or consumes it. People produce for their own needs, It and not , in general, for other people or for exchaDg_~. - is this feature which makes it possible for tribal people to live in a collective framework which is nevertheless not ---- oppressive to · individuality, for while the structure is collect- ,..,,...-- , , - - -----··- i vely determined and '\::ollecti vely h e l ~ ~ land, for ~~~_p_le_-,) ·h•. ri 1 fr: 11n .~, ('... ·i ht., ; r (' \:: n. their own it is p ossible for individuals or groups 1.\ needs,set . I goo , s, and how best to pursue them. J(\I This featureApr~ t-~ -cons umer identitv ; is in fact a feature which i s closely associated with, or even necessary to, a hunting-gathering way of life, but it is not confined to such a of life (that is , it is not af s0 su ff icient f or it) . l1t{J I(. C'lt The condition of producer-consumer identity oJ the/\ ckn ..:.r~f\;-/, f, ·<. \S - dominant)mode of produ -~tion~ the condition upon which the , . socJ~ty which is self-managed at all levels can be obtained. When production and consumption become S'e/!).Jr. f .;_ ,L and production f o r other people's :n:eds becomes the dominant mode of production, the choice between private or individual control of the means of production,or collective contr~= l/is forced on us and we are back again to ec,t other th an the producer mvst r u npalatable choices. ~~n .?om~ody· control production, decide and organise what will be produced and used, and control ~ r,\~+-t (-1 ,ml;; l;.r c (' other people's labour. / Whether the 'somebody' is l an individual or group of individuals ( as in CC/< ·fl{ 1t ·1 ;,,l· ) Cc,rnintu1t,t j et , or class collectively deciding what will be produced and how, we have the situation where not all individ uals can a_. 36. determine their . ctol\. what it produces. distinct needs or control tried- CLC•\ Iv 110,,.r - and A. The separation of production CinrL consumptio n then forces the choices which underlie the reductions and distortion s of capitalism and Marxism, and the resulting split between the individua l as Hte separate and individua l 21.s a mQmbt:?.-t· of a community . Capitalism and Marxist socialism have in common a commitmen t to this separation o f production and consumpti on, di ,ht_,,,1 r•r \ fragmenta tion of lcJJc,lr which reac_h ~s its resulting; and to the highest pitch . in the production line sys tems of modern indu,stry. Such systems of production were of course devised ancl implement ed first by capitalis ts, but were, as we know f~m Marx's works, greatly admired by Marx, who saw them as necessary to lift humanity f rom its previous condition of rural i db cy. { ~~eals itself clearly In this respect the Marxist posi tio~·';I\ as accepting a great deal of the intellectu al and eronomic framework o f c ~pitalism . ) I I The positive Marxist attj tud~ \ to the fragmentat ~on of labour is not just an optional extra tacked onto the theory because of Marx's own personal prejudice s. It is a feature of the theory, which basically views proauction in a fragmented way. *The theory arose * The Marxist picture of the tota i h~torical l y arnong1 and was supported primarily byJ the labour forces engaged in fragmented production in capitalis t enterpris es, rather than among independe nt workers. dependenc e of each individua l element on the other elements of the whole obviously is closely connected with a model of pro- d(cf.;.:. ,~ b.,.l c ,1 7 37. ducers. The reduction positions appear in fact to be very closely connected with the way in which production l' IGH•; :/ is A andfupecia lly with the attitudes to the fragmenta tion for the Marxist reduction of individual to ~ of labour; of a class or collectivi~ C.:i . ._ ~- derives its motivation precisely from the acceptance of the capitalist production t f C sha r ed or goal of the whole group. k- But for those of us who regard the production line as a degraded and distorted form of labou~, to empl'?y ,-~~eh .·. _ ). __ (u.-1,~( c \.\ ' ,1 \-\~-1.. \ individual worker has (\ control - it is ,,the form in which he . ·1 ~ ~_:Sy,""s. ~has J...l..t..t..1..-~ ~r--=ne- control. The image of production, the non- reductionist position would employ would be that of a person or group of persons - making something f or hi .s 0UJ1L o. se. The work is purposeful and not undertaken for external re Lc,·cu l-L or exchange/the goals are inter l\t< producing a whole piece of work. ! I. The worker~ If he is working with a ?Np/,_ group of people, some differentAp1ay be doing different parts of the task, but all the work ers will share in the final product. _\,; . (. 39. In the non-reductionist position the intention or purpose of the work is ~ - that of the individual workers, that is~work is viewed in an intentional rather than in an mechanical way. Here is another important source of the reductionist positions which lies in the treatment of intensionality. cc,nJ1'cfL?,.r If WE\ work a:. s relation between the maker and the c.c made_, the three positions come out as follows: the relation between the individual 1. Capitalist: worker and the made object is not a ~®WHXfMi purposeful one, the purpose is someone else 's. In short the maker - made relation is rna.cl1r7t, n,\::o( , and extensional. The hired worker is an extension of the machine and th e purpose or int en tion '1--\l \ _.::,.·1 of the work is exter-te-€d to it. 2. Marxist: the relation between the individual worker and the made object is still seen as not purposeful, the purpose is in the w_tio l_s?. production line, the society. The maker - made relation, as such, is still viewed as extensional. 3. 3rd position: the relation between the maker and t he made is inteniional, it is purposeful, the goal is directly in the work itself. What differenh~t r work (e.g. under take n by a machine) mechanical and meaningful work is t he lack of intention in case of the former. The relation between t he creat iJe artist and what he makes - the only Ui!t- - sort o.fl\ in which capitalism admits this k1',1 cL of intentionality - is the ~ypical work A designs B _1 A case ♦ The model is: creates B. If the mechaniqal, extensional picture of the maker/ made relation is to be rejected, along with the unpalatable l reductionist choices which it creates, : it is essential to 4 0. i~fuse the individual worker back again into the picture as the creator and designer of whole objects, as the initiator anA. goal setter of h i s own work. This implies a theory which recognises irreducible individual life forms, and thus again, The fact that the a theory which is not Marxist in character . commitment to the fragmentation of l.a.bour cannot be dropped J.:.f h 1,;..,.. 1.,~t / from Marxist theory without ft eornplet~ reconstruction (so great as to render it no longer a Marxist theory) means that the Marxist position is, from the environmental point of view, At bottom it buys the same production apparatus a dead-- end. c..:,. an-a- capitalism, and therefore it can be expected that, even if the management of the firm is changed, it w i 11 turn . out essentially the same line of go~ds. y,,u~(! ,t ( l)J.Y l~-r b411c or ( Acl-1<1.:l; n· ·,!i'c.. the ,\ as Producer-consumer identity'>. O:' b~ Ii d, ,,rf) / mode of production does not of course mean that every individual produces everything he needs for himself entirely on his It means that people produce for their own needs, own. in the combinations they choose. Individuals could of course do so, and some harct-.Y soul s no doubt would want to; provided that they do not interfere with other people's equal entitlements or use more than their fair share of (';'{ IJ .,./.i (Lk,,1:.§ production-land or other commu~~( resources, there is no '\ reason why they should not. Many more pe o.ple, given free choice in the matter, would probably want to produce some I for their own or their households use~and some in common work with others for common needs or interests. /thittZ.-- S ince some activities are more bothAefficient and more enjoyably done with other people, and some are less r ,1 1 (Ji h~ so, it ee-e4-d be expected that most people would work in a mixed system of individual (I M c cllei: I , iN. or communal work ) perhaps varying the combintions at different stages of their lives. /\ 41. But there is a great deal of individual variation in the degree of contact with other people that is ~~~¥iN~ pleasing. Some people at the other end of the spectrum might want to do everything in conjunction with other people. What is essential however/ if the combinations are to be freely chosen, is that the individual option should be open. Freedom and independence is enhanced rather than destroyed by Choosing to work with others, b~t such a choice is free only if there is an option. People do not control their own lives if they cannot set their own goals and determine their own needs, choose what to work o n, with whom and when, how mu ch contact with other· people is op t imal, and so forth. Real control of one's life would be impossible .in a system which envisaged only most collective or communal production, as m0sxx~MiXMXX alternatives to capitalism do. The option o f individual ,, /I production, even if it should t urn out that it was not of t en ft;, ._,} used, is essential to ensure that people remained in control of their own lives ~~~~~i~~ in crucial respects. We have already suggested that a s oc iety in which DIY as the c/1.Cttiu._ (u; 1tic. n-: ode of production would have the conditions which are necessary for and wo uld tend to lead to a truly free s o ciety, one 1 all levels both the oellcctive and the which was self-managed at / and the principle individual ., To complete the conditions self management . ~ of DIY must of course extend a lso through the rest of the institutional Ivan Illich has made a substantial start on suggesting strudure. what some self-managed in'i hfv1.l,c'iir might be like, and on exposing the institutions they are to replace~ although structure of the existing ct.,_!\.- t-he seems to lack a f\ vision of how they fit into a larger framework. This is not the only area ill which DIY would appear to deliver a superior society; t h ere are many ot h ers, 1 d · . t o concen t ra t e but we 1nten At the production here on those relevant to environmental issues. level the basic features of such society have already been suggested A c ommuna/ly control l ed infrastructure would by a number of people. provi de t he basis for prod uction of common basic needs and make these available on a fair basis to any individuals or gro ups who ,, to use them to produce for their own needs. wished __,, We want to stress that DIY is not a proposal for a return to a primitive life-style, ,· 1r 1 1 abandonment of technology, endless hours of grinding labour as a ff /)J y fou ""e.~ eu>4..ld ;-i f1t.d- 6rL. ~ '/,""1TQ_ -fad>t(JtliJILCto/ .!'of>,U.d,c~t. k)<...ie.-J:J. It wo>1.h/ of course involve and subsi~te~c-~ _fa'.·1ne~>and so forth.). _ ,Jre.,·.:,,.J{..r- ,1c;.,__ /t!(i __,-!)._/ ,: L1,. t.J.l ~ , 7J,.,_,-J. if1..<- ifti ~------ ------------ - - ----- - - - d.,Pi-e.f""Tl11..-t result in a ·a ifferent life-styl~ a Akind of technolo gy1 and a different kind of ap proach to work. d ;l, ,,,'\ beneficial. Moit of these changes would appe3r to be / , f:. ( ~j !l e.( For example most peof~le could provide for theh- _l~c:l.__§_~c I /\ 1i·J1 '.7. standard in a more satisfqctory way than at present, with perhaps 1 li, f, ,· . l l -. ,-.,,,{_ 4 hours ..jk'V'{_l, .,-..i) 1 l· 1:,· ,:.:,./J /i..( f t, za•I I J ';,._.,• /-4.. per day of work, and probably 1-ers--S;,/as nt.Dre appropriate technology develops and for people wh o work in larger communal groups. 1 The typical feature of solutions to the problem in our society or Marxist soci ety is that~o nesolves one set of problems by creating a nother . oft~n more formR-ble , e. ._~· as one 'sol v:es' . the p~oblern of pciJt.:.r~ y . · in a rather inadequate way by utc,cdi 1-y cm environmental This £eatur~ is avoided to a reasonable probl~rns or some o t her problem. further problems created appear much the where system, DIY a in t ext e n that in the or y constructt_on parallels The situation less formibl e . thi~almost invariab~ ~ of kind t th eory th wrong where on~ has the or equally bad one hap!?3ns, a problem resolved in one area :r.eapr:ears as a worse B (2) A crucial question for a DIY society is: sort of s ub s titu t ion s of labour can be made? what A be ginnin g on answering this question is s u ggested by construin g sub s t i tut ion ·~ -.-the. __ s..ub s t i _t _1Jt,j__prl' as the s u b s t it i on of an ·~ equivale nt economic oroduct. Thus su bstitui on in ,f- economics parallels and reflects identity theory in logic. [Expla in ~it uation in identity theory and intensional lo g ic]. The DIY economic system will plainly re q uire much greater r estriction on substitutivity of identic als , j ust as i t s corresponding intensional logical counterpart does. In contrast the economic theory of the existing system can be seen as extensional, it allows un restricted substitutio n, and the same way it leaves a hu~e range of important factors out of acc ount which are taken account of without diff i culty in a n in tensional system. Unrestricted exchange (or substitution) and the associated division of labour c reates these difficulties , in part thr ou gh the (!f, t rans fer of costs of product i ~ and be n e Lit s from consumption onto different par t ies, and in part through the fact t hat equivalent products~ in the weaker sense of the standard economic theory may !:1~?_!;_ be eq uiv alent in social and environmental respects . 1V\ •·- c(; ~1 '-' Moves such as environmental t:.___, p ricin g are i G . ~ efforts to qualify such substituU.on. B. The most important de fections from pure DIY lie in qualLfied s ub stitutio ns, s ubs titut io n of on e pe r t:;on ' s labou r for a nother' s in particular. Labour exchan ge i s admissible provided it does not int erfere with o th er va lu es , e. g . does not dest r oy o r things the co mm unit y val ues. C 11 rrhe restrictions~ substitution may profitably be comp ,1,red with th ose in extens ional identity , whi ch excl ud e int e n sional conte~t-s as ille gi tima te for sub s titution.,e-x-tensimLo.i' i n d i..v i d-u.al--m-e-an-S I Such an estimate would presuppose retaining some limited kinds ,vI 1 J · / • •' it\) of lar :)J t · -· :,:tc./L. ','\ production, perhaps communally owned., and operated perhaps by those who would use the product~or by people working on a \storage' system, for example, the mass production of cheap durable Cc,-- NPl basic clothing and housing as proposed tn ._~topia. __Jro suggest that hi/J ,~ <.,,., <-l1u.,/r..(,{.:. -1(ft(c_, /""<.rlcv-.__ • e/ DI Y should be the\ v · mode o~ production is also not to suggest 1 1 Vil\ "" ~l ~-, ?- bLe__ that it should be the -~-- -- _,__ ·- - . mode of productioni the system ;: ,;,n J)} /t<.J<.. j can be liberalised, to allow for some limited kinds of exchange 1\ production and some limited kinds of free communal productio~without destroying its overall character, in the same way that the present system allows for certain limited kinds of DIY - 'Do-it-yourself' - product ion without lo..s.ing its overall character as a system of exchange f.rJJ .-· _ :;;) The'. Dr.'/ tf -~ fc,,11... /"""" l ~ 1f,; production. ~A could also/be extended to allow people who wished to concentrate heavily on some project and needed a lot of free !1·11,~J time to 'store' basic credits o ver a time period. For example,, u ,:,ii(:/\_ in 'Communita s' ; . ,"" A in the late 1940' s/'Paul Goodman estimated that ;;- +l.1. plant, equipment a n d technology avai lable were used efficiently ~ ~ people could provide for their basic needs for an entire lifetime in two years, ,:, and could then organise the rest of their time freel y~ _,,1 ----- -·- c ~~ce~t;ated - ~~0 That is a high tech_. picture,, even allowing for the increase in productivity since he wrote•but the basic idea is ,J adaptable to a lower tech. one, albei t with a larger time period. MX<'S Most people though would probably prefer to provide for their basic ne~~ by production outside the basic community ·~ - ~ontrolled A - _,,- mass-production system.,1as in Ecotopia, obtaining both more pleasing goods and more satisfying work in doing so; and even many of those \,v o.~......-ttQi who w-c • -:-Gl to have a large amount of time free for the pursuit of some project might find the production of part of their own food on a daily basis an enjoyable and satisfying form of relaxation. Production beyond that for basic needs is an optional extra which -,) people can pursue as and how they desi re. ( It will certainly be objected that such a system would not all ow sufficient leisure or free time. The sharp distinction between 'leisure' and 'work' is of course to a product of a system ' r-... where work is typically q l·1e,_;,_ nated tfl the sense that those who work on it do not control it and its gon./J are extetll(d. to to process in that the m6tivation for doing it is to obtain something other than the fina l product or the satisfaction of the work. working on wh at Someone who is he enjoys do ing and finds satisfying to do to produce for his own need~does not draw a sharp distinction between 'work' and 1 leisure 1 • Furthermore it would appear that such a society could allow for a great deal more 'leisure' in the sense of time not spe nt on the basic needs for living, than the present one and such leisure would be in principle avai lable to all, which is not the case in the present system. The price which would be _paid for free time would however be quite different. The price of free time for non-production Uc~ J ities e.g . intellectual or artistic projects, or just to contemplate the universe, would not be the price of inequalityJo f being able to rely on other peqie lower down the scale to do the basic need:; production in an alienated way. The pri ce would be simplicity of life. In the same way the price of indepen dence from other people is not a private income which enables one to made use of the labou r of others, but an \ {'.:. - :, ~:, I( ,c~,\ independent, self-reliant mode of ~roduction. The ob;,J e c tion that such I\ a society would extinguish the intel lectual and creative lights which are alleg edly fostered so well in this society does no t hold water, t but it is sure to be made much of because a major justification for 1,, equa lity and for production for exchange is that i s is supposed to \)t --? - release some specially gifted individuals w-~ \ sufficient full-time leisure to pursue such things.] /lcf. 1 ,,/J r. c , 1cf,1 rr,, A DIY system will of course be pronounced by economists to be 'inefficient' and therefore denounced as one which 'lowered living standards'~ t1c,1 It is fairly well known to Rconomists that efficiency is a relative and evaluative notion that is that if it is 4f measuredAthe total output of value per unit of imput then the term 'value' cannot be explicated in terms of the market as just 1'141 what the market deliver s without ernplOYJtt he J_ . t1Clfu--(Qi;111c fallacy. It is not sufficiently often realised that it is also a relatiV istic notion, that is, that it is relative to the socio-economic framework I adopted, and that appeal s to 'e ff iciency' ~n t err> i S of the present system are really appeals back to a fo~m of individual reductionism. It is not a question of abandoning the concept of efficiency, but of realisation of the dependenc e on a J·t 1 U1 f 1"") C; r - econonomic base. For some things which are efficient to produce in the present centralised structure based on a high degree of fragmentation of labour would be extremely inefficient to produce in a DIY system, and some things which are inefficient to produce in the present system would be efficient to produce in a DIY system. Centrai; \cftion depends upon fragmentation of labour, and therefore on the social and political choices which are forced by it. A DIY system would have a radical form of decentralisation as a natural consequence for people who have regai~ed control of their productive force would <""( ~ naturally combine in smaller decentralised groups a.n d suited their needs and interests. Th~s in a DIY system smaller scale or ga nic gardening, which makes use of local organic material instead of wasting them, would be more efficient than gardening which depended upon imputs from a high energy, cf11fr4./,· ru/ fertilise,·-plant, for instance,.If the people who wanted to use something hcttl time producing it, then anything requiring a large measure of transport or manufacture elsewh ere away from the in effi cient compared with a n (, .te of use would tend to be Q/~rnat ive way of doing something which could be produced or made locally from local materials and which did t unpleasan t work processes . materials would then be t>l i{( t\ )i,f U-/ ."", f l <( In general ' 1 available loc al -i lt (') L }·n ore efficient to use thar, which /\ required a high level of manufactu re, low technical processes would 1 usua lly tend to be more efficient than high level ones, and .so on. These chan ges are strengths· pre· c;seiy the sources of its environme nt; and other and to suggest that such a system can sim; 1J be written off as 'inefficie nt' to try to wri te a social framework into economics and absolute in a quite invalid way. A DIY society would be as naturally decentral ised as ours is natural l y c entralised ~ The role of this kind of radical decentral isation in reducing enviro nment al impact through encouragem ent of a decentralised small- S,cE)_/e;. low impact technology has o ften been pointed o ut. Another consequen ce which i s not so often remarked on but is equally important is the role of s uch decentral isation in enabling a natural accounting of many sorts ~f environme ntal costs occ urin g as a result of productio n. Local production for local needs means that normally the environme ntal costs associated with production are borne by the local population whic h uses and produces the items concerned . There is thus a strong natural basis for taking such costs as the destructio n of local ame nity into account as part of the perceived cost of producing that destructiv e sort of item. Accounting of costs which takes account of environme ntal values is extremely difficult to do in a n a tural way in a system which spreads costs around in a widesprea d 1 The dividing line between self-manag ed technology and the opposite does not however entirely coincide with the high tech/low tech For example, good two-way commun ications system coul~ ~ distinctio n. have an invaluable role in cre at ing a network of flexible cornrnuni t i,_ es, other than the spatially local community , in which individua ls could Computers could, as Illich points ou~be used to participa te. further and create such a network of communiti es and cit'-<__ invaluable aids in self-manag ed education medical and legal systems J IAJh...(l,t--(1_ they could be used to overcome the ~onoDolis ations of skills, knowledge , In ::,_ short some and informatio n by professio nalg and technocra ts. power, instead of of co uld serve decentral isation high-techn olo gJ being used to increase the concentra tion of power as in the present system . fashion as centralised integrated production - for example, the commonly encountered situation of concentrated major benefit going to a small numbf~r of people and s ma l ler but very widespread costs accruing to a very large number of people. This situation typifies the subtle way in which environmental degradation occurs in such systems. If the environmental costs of production occur in the same region as and accrue to the same people as the benefits, we could expect that the environment costs of producing certain destructive items would be much less easily overlooked or shrugged off. A DIY system would be 'pluralistic' in the sense that it could provide for a very large range of different diversity in gords and needs. life-styles and a great There are however a number of bu~lt-in .i. -n1.t' ;,· : •. ..,/f features which would work strongly against environmen~llyAdestructive life-styles .. It is important to realise that these features are the result of DIY and are not obtained simply by the feature of comr:u.mo..l control of the means of production. 1 , , Consume. rism and Waste~ --·-· ·--, ... ~ ~ I] feature of DIY _,..,. rs a built-in defence against the complex of problems known as consumerism{ t ha~is 1 the taking o f satisfaction in accumulating unneeded goods). Consumerism arises primarily when people find little which they do not control, satisfaction in their work, and which is frequently, for most peopl~repetitious and boring a 1 iv, ~~J and undertaken only to mak:1 ., or for reward s mainly 12 1', t J. 111.)( Satisfaction must be found outside to the production process. the production process, in consuming the products of other people's labour . Such consumption is the reward of work, and the consumer society rewards its members for the unpleasantness of their work mainly in terms of opportunities for increased consumption . In lead to a situation where goals contrast, since DIY wc ,dd. were mostly internal to work, satisfaction in such a society would be obtained though the work process itself and not in a never-ending chase for satisfaction through consumption. Reward s would be through the production process I not !_rom work ·- lying just in the product. Work would be undertaken in part because it was satisfying itself, As any self- and not usually tu_st to obtain the final product. builder knows, even apparently mundane projects such as building o n e's own hous e can become,if the worker can control his own labour and match what he does to his needs, a source of great satisfaction and of self-expression. 1 In this situation people express themselves a nd their individuality through what they make, not through consumption of mass-produced items e.g. buying a new model car . of the make the individual thin'k fits his /n1ccge . 11 In a DIY system, these sorts of satisfactions are available to everyone, not just a few people selected and designated as ""gifted"" or ""creative 11 , and allowed to work creatively, as in capitalism. Secondly, there are in fact very substantial limits to the extent to which one could be an indiscriminate consumer in a DIY society Je cD~1Jone wanted to , lonsum e rism depends upon other people 's labour to If people have to make their g ood s themselves a crc;cial extent. (for example 1 if you have to go and work in a bicycle works for a while /1 ._,.,. t.' ' ,...., J'/ ;.. ;\). . . ~ -· .. ' 0-11""'. t: , rL. .... t ,.....___ \:: • _ 1 • •, • _• - , / ) ,:,..:_ .. ,, .... -t ~ l_ -~A. ,_\. \ 1. . • C /- 1 ·,._ ).•.•.•. 0\1 r . . tl ·'t-y \\ . _/_ if you want a bicycle), then there will be a serious trade -of f b e twe en work time and consumption, which would act as a built - in The more goods are accumulated, the less brake to overconsumpt ion. time one would have to use them . leisure would have fe~r~oods. People who want large amounts of Many people even in the present society , standard "" - ·fh,., ·t . givife) such a choice, might in fact prefer a ""lower l1vii1j /;(e i.r > tt n m1 h.-r The work situation in and more free time for their own pursuits. capitalism encourage consumerism in man_y ways, one of the most important being that people do !:""lot usually have a choice to obtain shorter work hours, have fewer consumer goods and more leAsure or more time for their own projects. They have to work certain hours, they h a ve a surplus, so they might as well use it to obtain the customary rewards. DIY would allow the 1wd,hi""J of work in a flexible way to needs, rff-' for more free time, which and e ncourage such a tradeAof fewer go ods could be spent on non-consumer pr ojec ts. \ Thirdly, a DIY society would be a noh-waste socie ty. No one would work to make things he did not really need when there were othe r I thi n gs he could be doing I ) ( instead. ' ', '--: ,. , - .,-, : , ' A.: ,◄ \ ) As Brian Martin has pointed ou~many presently environmenta ] y damaging systems, such as the private car system, would tend to disappear if people has to make their own, repair them, and help the roads. Buses, bicycles and horses, or other transport systems would b e more efficient in such a society. One cannot imagine people in a DIY society.work ing for a month a year, for example, in a packaging factory to make a lot o f unnecessary package s th~yhad to throw away as soon as the item was unwrapped/and then/fur ther had dispose of by their own efforts. The goods they / would manufacture for themselves would be as durable as they could be made, and would be made to be easily repaired. Materials would be made to go as far as they possibly could - technology would be developed which would do as much as possible with as little as possible "" could not be manufactured in a l~cal area would tend to be replaced [0, th ose which did not have these characteristics. Since high- ..~;.f . _ l ,_ \\/ technology materials eq\1aLly- have the characteristics, the y would t e nd to be replaced by low tech materials, with consequent benefit to the environment. fNlf The DIY society would Abe a low-consumption/low resource-use Since waste represents unnecessary and avoidable .1.. ·: u- (\J ,-.. r 1"": ·-:- l c, b,~ , ..,. k I uld avoid it. labour/wo own their controlled who people labour, no-waste society . ~ t c ,....t (A. I,._• .. •J - "" . • --- , • 2. Poverty a nd ~nequality . l t present the main capitalist argument for never-ending growth and the production of environmentally b,,f i.f ,1fl(}_ ( C Jj(~ damaging ~E:J~goods is that it is necess ary to help the poor. This is supposed to occur through ""Trickle Down"", a process whereby people at the top of t he must 3et far more than they need hcnp reach those at t he bottom of the he a p. so that a few drops can A more ;n.efficien t or envi6nmentally damaging system for providing ,{ for the poor can hardly be conceived. Different people have many different ab ili ties and capaci ~e_i but people who are not very young or very old and are in a norma! state (l, J '\ , ' ; / ; ' .,/ ;, -' f • ,' 1·, ,,· f ,· ( of health 1are basically fairly equal in their ability to provide I for themselves the basics they need for a g ood life. At present V poor p e o p ~ poverty and inequality come about primaril y are prevented from providing themselves with what they need in a s ati sfactory way. (Three cheers for Winstanley!) They are prevented b e cause the right to use the means of production is made scarce, ,I: (usually by private property), and the skills to use efficieJly are A also made scarce ( usually by the bureacra tic cJqfl-1) 1 Restriction in access to use of the means of production is also tt.t. ( I J1J l I Ji!. l( / {;J L , Rr 1( a main source of 1nequality throughAso on, since the restrictions are used to disadvantage thrue people not in certain favoured categories. 2 f \ ,_. h,_.• 2 ' • \ I >/- , The point is driven here in all of Il l ichs work especially Dese-Fe#trg Society /and 'Energy and Equity' and of course the older school of (\~ ,_',A.· . .._, , anarchist w_i ll also stres s ed it. ~l'..ti 'fhc,N,:~---- .1 --\ l·j ...,• _ '\ A syst em of comm unal con trol of the of prod ucti on tn:,[( 11.J with ~cces s r ig hts for all who wan t them a~:V in DIYJ 1 toge ther with the free disp,v ~~~1· of t ~{_ skil ls to use them pres entl y ""' wou ld remo ve this maJ· or sour ce of pov erty with out the need for was tefu l ,.I inef f i.cie nt and c: 1111 ,'rt-1111:~1tl&lj dam agin g econ omic grow th. The pure DIY society would 1 i t t 1 e r o o m f o r h :t e r a r c.1h yl and from a t he g uid e wou ld that division of to be sort e qual the of access social picture would hiera r chy and and fact that without allowin g the of pleasure, Such a position would be able th at but to not misse s th e presuppos e The mark. l evel allow for t o needs, or the ( , for f alse individual a bilities their a social dif fe rences differences, capacities, power it a nd be a s ociety. they 'level' in ability, that and people have th at this level objection does presupposes not only ,, /-,,, ( d i ffer e nces in ability of be t ween kind of capitalist ability d iversity and that framework a rea s; Such in present i n dicat e s pow e r a nd and and so in a bili ty on, an d as relie s a the inequality on areas. level the justification for on inequality a nd false dichotomy an absolute f ram ewo rk levels based on a needs. in oth e r inequality on justification for inequalities equal level of conservative premiss as of the in e q ua 1 r i g h t . a nd }a b·±--1-i.ty::=t:#> s take i n c on t r o 1. .,. , ·1 whatever at both indi vi dual as differences of this level, system could s oci e t i es , ability in all What pow e r people's typical i l legitimately uses level, equal source of pro f i t , The capitalist argument framework framework goals become a picture the provide goods is not required. to me e t Equality a t p eo ple have a n their own lives, can Equality on on. of power ·{-(, th a t social produc t i on, 'egalitarian' two equality o f th e d iffere nt on the ar i si ng p owe r soci e ty would provide. can allow a d e qua tely c apacit i es. account Exc el len ce in such a egalitarianism is based equal it differences so urc e do not so of problem of how to allow for in e qu a lities . an d of individual frame work people and people h a v e capitalist obj e ct i on such a elitism; thes e two-lev e l the means framework, without the The be equality on to resolve i nequ a1 i t i e s ot her equality individual production and a f or labour. r e quired would is, forming the ob vi o usly be one which had ver y false equalit y assumption :, /. 2. In practice equality on the social framework level would guarantee a reasonable level of equality on the individual level, since great differences lisation CJ r of in this the means of production, accumulation of other people's labour, would reduce differences area can arise only when monopo- are possible. Equality of that ex a mple Jane likes and asfemale Thorea u ) It is that it it should do can only be achieved if differences carpentry, household an especially fine house; universe , but in material goods or i t is of cour~e undesirable this kind equal i ty and Anne on the other hand Suppose builds herself and her (whom we may envisage likes to contemplate the and wants only a minimum level of basic needs i mpos s ible to obtain absolute equality without satisfied. either preventing Jane from doing work she likes and exercising her the benefit of hersel f for without in the demand ~_ ?c i..?-1__ or needs for to. equality, f r am e w o r k ... 1 e v e 1 , production and skills and others, or, what is equally undesirable forcing or pressing Anne than she wants no t to work more and consume more What is then, legitimate and necessary is ~q -~~it._y ___Q_f __ p_ o_w_e r:, e q ua 1i t y a t t he 1ev e 1 of at the i n d iv :i. d u a 1 consumption. Social Democracy often claims , 1 e v e 1 o f "" p u b 1 i. c ri 1i f e • to deliver equality at the This claim should be rejected however because:(1) i t does not provide equal access . product lo n , ( 1 . ·. .- .. to the common means treats th 1 s as an in di v id u a 1 mat t er ~------------·-- ---···'/ ra t her /I than as one for /· of . \--------,) m 1 s taken 1 y \. but so. in interests and needs are denied or discouraged. abilities, for and Social framework in people's living standards, would not guarantee absolute equality ac h ievem e nts, or employment social framework control ,., ;; } 3 /I . (2) the individua l isation of comm LJ. n c1 / life forms inequalities of power at (3) is only, and in fact opportunity is all' confusion. in though equality of opportunity such equality occurs in any case, the concept of to a equality this case defecti v e, S l:\ C.' .:"";) 1-- .r '/t,\/ -tp ~ j ) . _) -----s ~ ) ·•J I ',I :5 ' ...... j ' l j .J <,} .J ~ . . ~-i , ) . ..> . ...J ), j 4 ) ', -t) j \ l ~ ✓ , J_ . .{ ..) '1 l u) ·.;, r ? ' I', \~ .., ) "" ~ I (,> I I I . j - ) A ; '1 _( c..J\ JJ( ~ t C, _) ~ lJ 0 ) 'l .. ) ) ~) .J -~ ) 'J ) . -(7 I vj t } 1) •..J ,J f ) I > ) ) ) ,.. ' .,) ( :1 c..-i <+,) (_,) c) _.,. ) 'i _,.) .. L ) l I r' ·-(f r ... r-• :, d ..I ) } ~ •.J -; ) .) _j ,--,. -1 . I ·t j } ',) (1 ) j ( ·"" ·'},, ', ) -~ ~ "" ) t -· l ,'l; __l, ) -,! ... J ) ( ) ) L . J J ..J , ) _) ,,\ ~ ' ) I ...) ,.\ t~I $ ...) .) 7XJ J ) . ), -.), _.._ J ~ - ),,1 .J.. f) --r' ) ___,,,. J .,~ 'j < -- J (~ (-::; r j ,_, ~ ) l - .J t _) _.) '-..I ( ·~. _,,,, ) ~· ) .....l r' .1 r I -..,c7 \' 2 ' ~ I) ) '/ t-! f, \ \; r, l ~ \ I ·') · ""I ...,.. 1-=; ) 7 \, ( .1.-- "" .J .( '.J :~ 'f ~~ ) ""; :},..) ·,""-' \ (> -✓ ,.,,., ) ----... uJ 'i ~I 1, ) --.J~ ,J J ,.:' "" ·1 ':./ "") ) ~ ~ ·r '; -~ __.) tJ ,., ' J,, \ ~ ,_) ; .) J r: \ _c ) , - J 01 ,.. ) ...) < 1 ;_;, ( ).... 7 .. ,) 'l 1 )' t:: • - j '.'j ,!) I I J ' .J,) l .J I _) I ) 7 I ) • .J ) } ..:.) ,, _..) ') ~--.... ' ,) :( I 1 ? ··'I ·1 ..J J ~} ·1 ' ( • .> c-: :.,.._ ~ - \·· --< .J ' l I ) "" ) l / .. j r··s ~ \'\ ~ ~ \t I I ~ I cuts straight through the problem which plagued Anarchist thought - \ the problem of how production is to be organised , whether it was ... .., ·, , \ to be communist ic as Kro p otkin wanted wi t.h each person w, rt(l;-.,_1 to ,_ """"-' ;j \) 1 "" "" ........ ~ ...\) the best of his ability and taking according to his needs from the c01Tu11on store, or collecti \.,, i..st, as Bahu11, :1 ~ ~ . \) J ..._, , 'l ~ \ \I ' The adoption of a system I -~ . )( ·•·i·-.._ .\.. I I., \ ~ t r e mun e... ·""rat.ion in the fonn of wages according to the amount of .--------------= ~ DD1 r~~, £ ,~, ,:7 ,r-c-.jo r /'o ., 1'7 71 u [/ 7 ✓·~work done;41 , allows a pluralist ic and flexible approach;- and, is A A certainly ( ,'1Y1/?""1!,/41(i I / ruHl others wanted, with I [j/l,' t with the first, 1 and perhaps the second, as hU ,.·. the organisat ional 1\ of subgroups within the total society. Each of these systems has serious disadvanta ges ~f applied organising principles for the total society. system, as Kro;>d41'n pointed out, would restore wage-slave ~y, and lead to systems and kinds of work not greatly different from that in capitalis t society. The communist system Kropot1::. 1,1 proposed was an attempt to get away f·rom exc h ange pro d uction · l an d appears to h a ve b e en a n attempt to production and consumpti on, which in the collecti ·/ ist system remained split, thus Kropotl(,>1 writes ""Common possession of -,1,, the necessarie s for production implies the common eJoyment of the /\ fruits of the common productio n"". This seems to be an attempt to reunite production and consumptio n at the level of the total community 1 i.e. to a pply PCI at the community level. Unfortuna tely it cannot be effective at that leve l, because such common production and cons umption also, implies identical production goals a nd identical interests . But to a ssume this at the total community level is unr e asonable, and ult i mately 1~pressiv e. It ties e1d1 personfu production to every oth e r~ n e ed and g o ~~ a nd each person' s n ee d t o 1 rrhe term ""communis t"" cannot of course accurately be applied to the systems it is popularly applied to to-day. to everyone elsis production, in a way which would plainly not allow the sort of individual life control, the freedom to .~>1:eh one's i: work to one's godl ·i, and vice--versa, which a true.ly free socity rm s t 1\ allow. So for example, a person who wanted to work little and 1ri:·:,i,,f a si{( ple life with few gOl:cCs in order to have :free time for some 1 projec~would be unable to do so under this system, he would be pressured into working ""to the contribute to the common well-being to the fullest extent of his capacities"" He would in effect have to remove his own non-consumer gord to provide for someone else, desire to consume at a much higher level. I't c..>1'1··{- ·,_ ,-- ) 1 who also stressed the importance of individuals. ~ n ki nds of tribes ~-, , , 1 Often peo~hder (or gathered) as ina."":i-vj_duals, or t h e ri ght }yu=rt(-- ' ' ---~ ~ in col laborative ~ g r ~ of various sizes or were--~ ~ a_.,t:r::-itie were I .."" ><- [ '-,--~.•, 1;1ore · ~r less a~ t he occasi~anded ( H ~-~ 1 I t ~ f groups -or:,,tr ib al hunting procedure w o u l ~ be shared among the g - ~ of t ~ l tribe, but in ~ i v i d u a l c a se usually, a lthough some ~ ~ ' might be given regar~eing l. 6se who had mostly the resulting produce was -·1z__for the use of he veo obtained it as -~ k i.00-_(.s.e.eJT ow i t t far d ~i_J_s._in_ t b r=> A11 s t r a J ian_char.g.e..cLoneA- It seems that the non-reductionist position we have sketched is in fact the unde r lying philosophical base of most of the main stream of anarchist thought from Proudho.rr through to Ma kd-a-1.}1-✓.>_ _ ,, that part I ,,u 1 which was prepared to desc; ,?L itself as 'libertarian s61\ lism 1 • There was also of course, the so called 'individualist' position of and a number of Anarchists which is clearly an individuali s t reduction position, and to that extent quite distinct from the main tradition. 1 Footnote on 'News from Nowhere' (7. It is perhaps surp r ising that despite such a basic outlook traditiona l anarchist thought remained stuck with an entirely communist propos ed · for the organisation of production in which the personal 'intiati ve' and 'individual' autonomy and originality so stressed by anarchist thinkers would have to be directed ,n the Jji/1(~ ;---f.> of production entirely to commun.-~al or sh ared aims and needs as the Marist positions, so in practice in the area of production in this system despite its different th .eo;-i1:-~t~_::.cr/ base ;}om Marxism _. ,n //J>,r ,, i >1-::i;•d~;1, at any rate individual expression woul be confined to communal life forms. The positi on c onlVl. be said therefore to have worked out a consistent position en the issue of the control of individual life and in lifl king i t _.i theory of production with its overall view of the individual and the cormnuni ty. have resolved . There seem to be several reasons why traditional an a rchist thought problem . This part of problem a DIY system could ~A~~ arrived at a convincing reso lution of this First)anarchisrn never developed its philosophical foundations and philosophical identity property in the way t hat Marxism was able to do, and hence was always subject to corrupt ion by the influe nc e of that position. As Mai:a:kxx fltk11'--r.·Jhc_ puts is (quote) Second, tr aditional anarchism was unable to resolve the problem of individual production in a convin cing way because it brought the capit a list production machine and the fragmentation of labour it invol~d, 1\ ,jA as well as nearly all the associated Enl;?tenment values of Modernity !) 3-1,• c/c; ,h ;._f-) j, ., Science, Progress, Profess ·.1c-rd ,\i,,, the Conquest of Natu.~ re and so on. . , 'v' This is espei $ally clear in Kropotk1n· 's work. Although anarchism advocated regional decentralisation and was f 3 r more critical of the division of labour than the Marxist school( see Kropot~1 ,1 's remat~s on the rnanu f acture of r; ""' h0cu,/ S i ) it s till held that the fragmentation i of labour (which Kropoth' u; describes as 'our modern integrated system of prod~ction')was politically neutral and held the key to progress and the good life for all. The sort of critique of this method of production and of its associated values are encounters today seemed 1 to be entirely absent from anarchist thought. Given such assumptions the possibility of individuals and groups freely determining the production gou ls and needs and achieving them for themselves as in DIY disappears. The capitalist production app /:nrh1 s is not of course as we now realise only to well, neutral with respect to social structur~and the sort of social options it rules out are precisely the ones needed to resolve the anarchist dilemma of the freedom of the individual in the sphere of production. The result of failing to resolve the problem in a convincing way was always a serious source of conflict within anarchist ranks. (.'., It is clear from Malatsta's writing that by the early decade of the '\ century it had reached substantial proportions, and considerable effort was dirtcted towards resolving it. 2 To as certain extent the failure to resolve the problem may have contributed to the decline of anarchism, since the position then lost much of its appeal for peasants and the independent workers who formed a major part of its constituency. 1 Although it is not missing from some contemporary anarchist thought, see Brown 'Smallcreep's Day'. 2 M~latesta thought that individual production from the producer's own needs was theoretically admissible provided the producer had only He thought however that no an equal share of communal resources. one would be able to produce entirely for themselves at a reasonable The obvious option standard,an assumption which seems to be false. o f partially individual and politicaly communal production was for He also believed that it would be impossible some reason overlooked. to get an equal division of land because not all was equally This problem is readily overcome using modern watered and so on. land system assessment techniques in which scores are allote~ for different characteris~-t.ics. 57.2 Nonetheless in outlining features a DIY society there is much that can be taken from anarchist and near. t so urces. 1 a n arc h is For instance, the details of the cooperation of network$ of communities in main,~ tTaining .__. _.. such infrastructure or railway systems, quarantine arrangements, and such like 1 can be taken over largely intact. What cannot be extracted, however, from traditional anarchist sources i s much that is satisfactory concerning the attitudes to the natural world that a DIY society would find appropriate, 2 1 What need not be taken are some of the more controv ersi al features of anar chism , in particular the usual proposals for the (Tion) administration of justice. There is no reason in a DIY framework why a community, or set of communities j _n co:opara t ion, sho uld not evo 1 ve their own ( deprofe s s ional--- i sed) legal forms. What wil l vanish, as in anarchism.are rulers, nations and I' states, and more gene rally, hierar chial power structures. However, a community will have an organisational structure, and its political organisation may include components of what would not inappropriately be called ' government' . 2 The us u a 1 an arch i s t view , e s p e c i a 11 y s t ro n g in Kr op o t k i rt , was one of transformation of nature for human end.s. view was quite exceptional. ~orris ' ",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Australian National University Office,Australian National University Office > Far Bookcase > Second Bay > Second Shelf > Pile 4,Box 89: Older Green - GAIA - Greenhouse",https://antipodean-antinuclearism.org/files/original/70406ef7cfc803de88ef9fd9cea0686d.pdf,Text,"Draft Papers",1,0