KuraFire: Albert Einstein on capitalism and democracy
“Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition amongst the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division…
This is an interesting debate primarily because it demonstrates how many people take the existing state of affairs as the essence of human relations.
All societies are defined by their system of rights, their system of property relations. This determines productive activity and, in essence, who gets what within a social formation. Within a system of private property relations (capitalism) individuals are the embodiment of private property; we are whole unto ourselves, the exclusive individual owners of our bodies and possessions. Therefore, the notion that we don’t like to share is simply a reflection of our current system of private property relations.
If instead, we came into consciousness within a different system of property relations (say, shared) we would have entirely different conceptions of the self, individualism, and our mutual relations with others. We would instead see sharing, empathy, compassion as natural and essential human traits, and view selfishness, competition, and greed as things that are ‘unnatural’ and strange behaviours for human beings (indeed, they might even be pathologized).
(via joshuabizley)
