Two ex-socialists go funny
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nor am I, as I have said, as ideologically attached to the opinions I write about as you are to yours. In some of my pieces, I give equal weight to two or more completely contradictory arguments.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::.Perhaps, then, Stuart you might want to give equal weight to the genuine socialist – not leftist, please – argument against capitalism in your next article rather than the obvious nonsense you spouted concerning the free market version of capitalism in your last article.
Incidentally, just curious but weren´t you briefly associated with some leftist organisation – Left Unity or something like that – before disappearing into the void and reemerging as a free-market supporter? What happened to that group?
Left Unity is still going, but I should imagine it’s much smaller than it was at its peak. It kind of lost its point when Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party, and many left then I believe. But I don’t pay much attention.
My underlying point is that for youse socialist ideas provide a source of Absolute Truth that you organise your life around. I don’t accept socialist ideas and am these days more liberal/conservative, but I don’t see in liberal or conservative or indeed any ideas a source of Absolute Truth, only relative truth, always subject to revision and ifs and buts and maybes. (Some of the pro-capitalists and conservatives I write about are making the equal and opposite mistake, true. The structure is the same, the specific content can always be changed.) The trouble with organising your life around socialism as a source of Absolute Truth is that in truth it is not a source of it at all, and it’s not up to the job. Ideology is the raft you are using to get you across the ocean of life, so it makes you edgy and angry when people start rocking it and undoing the ropes that hold it all together. The question of what kind of rafts might do a better job of getting us across the stormy seas of life I leave as an exercise for the reader.
Anyway, I’ll leave it there as I’d hate to outstay my welcome (if indeed one was ever offered!). If I ever get the opportunity to write a sympathetic but critical analysis of the SPGB’s position for any publication – something I might be happy to do, but I’m not sure what the angle could possibly be for the one I write for – I shall be sure to let you know.
Happy 120th birthday for June!
In connection with #249321 #249333 #249495 #249530 and #249536 above,
I would like to add into that sub-thead Robin Cox’s most recent relevant contribution: https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2020s/2024/no-1442-october-2024/material-world-non-market-socialism-is-feasible
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