Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Socialism and Play

On one formulation, the synthesis of a working class and an ownership class yields a Socialist concept of a class-less society in which everyone both works and owns the means of production.  But, entailed in that antithesis is another--leisure and drudgery.  So, likewise entailed in the concept of the Socialist synthesis is that of what can be called Play, i. e. Labor that is creative and enjoyable, as it is for a musician or an athlete.  Thus, while some of Marx-Engel's passages seem to suggest that in Socialism, Labor is eliminated, perhaps to be replaced completely by technology, in this concept of it, Socialism restores necessary activity to a dignity possibly experienced by pre-industrial artisans, a true Ethical or Moral elevation of human conduct.

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