- Capitalism and Alternatives -

What's wrong with Sprout's imagination

Posted by: Samuel Day Fassbinder ( Citizens for Mustard Greens, yes ) on December 05, 1997 at 10:26:00:

In Reply to: Whats wrong with communism II posted by Mike Sprout on December 04, 1997 at 20:22:47:

Sprout: As you admit, there has never been a succesful communist society. The flaw in your thinking is that these attempts at communism weren't the utopia you envision.

SDF: Since it never happened, it never will happen. Not a visionary idea, Sprout, and constitutive of an argumentative fallacy. Try again.

Sprout: Do you think they started out with the intention of failing? They started out thinking as you do, and had the inevitable result. Communism will always fail as it is human nature to try and get ahead. Always has been, always will be. There will always be someone who will sieze the opportunity to improve their position.

SDF: I wonder what would have become of Orville and Wilbur Wright if they had believed that "Human flight will always fail as it is human nature to walk on the ground." Would they have invented the airplane? At least in Sprout's message we have this arbitary notion of human nature as inherently "trying to get ahead." Trying to get ahead of what, Sprout? Death? Clarify.

Essay question for Sprout: Are human beings inherently capitalistic? Where would a "capitalism gene" be located in the human genotype?

Essay question for everyone else: Who wins, who loses, when people believe what Sprout believes?



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