I finally know the difference between pleasing and loving, obeying and respecting. It has taken me so many years to be okay with being different, and with being this alive, this intense. (xxvi)

Eve Ensler, I Am an Emotional Creature

There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.

Kate DiCamillo, Because of Winn-Dixie



r/communism101

d0ntstop7y

"Free Development of Each for the Free Development of All"

A question on my exam I am studying for is to explain the assertion of the last line of the communist manifesto. Here is what I thought:
I believe this statement is a full on critique of capitalism. The capitalist system focuses on the development of the individual. The development of this individual has led to classes and exploitation of these classes. Marx & Engels believe this profit seeking mentality does not serve the betterment from society. A communist system ensures that by sacrificing the development of the individual society as a whole will flourish. By focusing on the whole more people will have access to social services unattainable under the current capitalist system.
I know I am going to have to add more to this assertion. I feel this sentence summarizes communist thought is this true? Should I include the ten planks? Thanks Comrads!

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Steelbolt

Marxist-Leninist:hero:

7y

I believe this statement is a full on critique of capitalism.

Yes.

The capitalist system focuses on the development of the individual. The development of this individual has led to classes and exploitation of these classes.

The classes have developed from material conditions, not from individualist thinking. Capitalism rose out of feudalism, a very anti-individualist mode of production, as Marx says in paragraph 4 of chapter 1.

Marx & Engels believe this profit seeking mentality does not serve the betterment from society.

No. This system is necessary for the betterment of society. Capitalism creates a vast amount of surplus capital and innovation (along with settling old class contradictions) that pave the way for socialism, just like feudalism paved the way for capitalism. Paragraph 10 of chapter 1.

A communist system ensures that by sacrificing the development of the individual society as a whole will flourish.

Also no. The communist mode of production succeeds in both the production necessary for society and for the betterment of the individual. Each individual does work that fulfills them personally and helps them develop into a more human person. In capitalism, the worker is exploited for labor and is not cared for as an individual. Paragraph 17, chapter 2.

By focusing on the whole more people will have access to social services unattainable under the current capitalist system.
There was a question about this recently, here.

Also, the final line of the manifesto is "Workers of the world, unite!" You are thinking of the last line of Chapter 2, "free development of each is the condition for the free development of all."

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d0ntstop

7y

Thank you for your help !!

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TheSitarHero

Trotskyist

7y

Should I include the ten planks?

No, probably not. From how much the right pick up on the 'ten planks' (where they got the name from I don't know), you may be surprised to learn how little actual communists think about them, that is, basically never. They were historically specific and by 1872 (after the Paris Commune) Marx and Engels said they were outdated:

The practical application of the principles will depend, as the Manifesto itself states, everywhere and at all times, on the historical conditions for the time being existing, and, for that reason, no special stress is laid on the revolutionary measures proposed at the end of Section II. That passage would, in many respects, be very differently worded today. In view of the gigantic strides of Modern Industry since 1848, and of the accompanying improved and extended organization of the working class, in view of the practical experience gained, first in the February Revolution, and then, still more, in the Paris Commune, where the proletariat for the first time held political power for two whole months, this programme has in some details been antiquated. One thing especially was proved by the Commune, viz., that “the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes.” (See The Civil War in France: Address of the General Council of the International Workingmen’s Association, 1871, where this point is further developed.) Further, it is self-evident that the criticism of socialist literature is deficient in relation to the present time, because it comes down only to 1847; also that the remarks on the relation of the Communists to the various opposition parties (Section IV), although, in principle still correct, yet in practice are antiquated, because the political situation has been entirely changed, and the progress of history has swept from off the earth the greater portion of the political parties there enumerated.
But then, the Manifesto has become a historical document which we have no longer any right to alter. A subsequent edition may perhaps appear with an introduction bridging the gap from 1847 to the present day; but this reprint was too unexpected to leave us time for that.



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In the early 1920s, Martin Buber started advocating a binational Jewish-Arab state, stating that the Jewish people should proclaim "its desire to live in peace and brotherhood with the Arab people, and to develop the common homeland into a republic in which both peoples will have the possibility of free development

. “We cannot decide to love. We cannot compel anyone to love us. There's no secret recipe, only love itself. And we are at its mercy; there's nothing we can do.”
– Nina George

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise, we love only the reflection of ourselves we find it them.”
– Thomas Merton

When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.”
– Donald Miller

I live downtown

you are different Tammy there's only a few of us out there so stay that way we need each other

I like the way you think very insightful