Skeptic Project

As a communist, I find the needless attacks on socialists and communists in the films completely absurd. I support communism because I believe in the same views, that we can use automation to relieve the work burden on all and abolish the private monopolisation of the Earth's resources and the effective slavery it produces.

Many people seem to think that socialism and communism do not favour automation, but this is not the case at all. In fact many books and essays discuss this very subject.

For example, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1910), one of my favourite books:

...the absurd and unnecessary state of affairs that exists today--millions of people living and dying in wretchedness and poverty in an age when science and machinery have made it possible to produce such an abundance of everything that everyone might enjoy plenty and comfort.

Or Bertrand Russell in In Praise Of Idleness (1932):

Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish forever.

Or Albert Einstein in Why Socialism? (1949):

There is no provision that all those able and willing to work will always be in a position to find employment; an army of unemployed'' almost always exists. The worker is constantly in fear of losing his job. Since unemployed and poorly paid workers do not provide a profitable market, the production of consumers' goods is restricted, and great hardship is the consequence. Technological progress frequently results in more unemployment rather than in an easing of the burden of work for all.

And Einstein again, supporting a planned economy in Society and Personality in The World As I See It (1931):

But the development of machinery means that less and less work is needed from the individual for the satisfaction of the community's needs. A planned division of labour is becoming more and more of a crying necessity, and this division will lead to the material security of the individual. This security and the spare time and energy which the individual will have at his command can be made to further his development. In this way the community may regain its health, and we will hope that future historians will explain the morbid symptoms of present-day society as the childhood ailments of an aspiring humanity, due entirely to the excessive speed at which civilization was advancing.

Marx even recognised the problem of automation increasing the supply of labour in the Grundrisse (1857):

The most developed machinery thus forces the worker to work longer than the savage does, or than he himself did with the simplest, crudest tools.

Communism is about the abolition of all force. Really the force to work to obtain access to the necessities of life which have been hoarded by some through the nature of private property, is no different for the force to work at the threat of execution.

As Marx wrote in The Communist Manifesto (1848):

Communism deprives no man of the ability to appropriate the fruits of his labour. The only thing it deprives him of is the ability to enslave others by means of such appropriations.

I understand the attraction of distancing the movement from communism to avoid the label of the "Red Terror" in the United States, but you have to understand that trying to win over some republicans by attacking communism entails the loss of support of the socialists and communists, who are largely responsible for the protests, etc. in Europe. And it's pointless anyway, since all those who will attack it as communism will do so regardless of what you say, we'd be better off to quote Marx and Einstein and show that we shouldn't mix the failed attempts at communism with communism itself.

Comparing Marx to Hitler is laughable, and means that I cannot now promote the films, I mean, how am I meant to show it to the Socialist society or the anti-cuts alliance here without being laughed at?

You must see the absurd situation this puts people like me in. Where I became a socialist because I support the same ideas, and yet now cannot support the films because they are needlessly attacking socialism and communism. This is particularly bad with relation to the recent protests, as we have the opportunity to spread it to a lot more people now, but the anti-socialist parts may well make people take opposition to it.

http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=99999&func=view&catid=230&id=314272#314272

James, i totally agree with you. Your every point is in place. Even on this forum, when the terms socialism and communism are mentioned there is some paranoia: "no its not that!" Instead of trying to unite with the ppl who think alike and who truly understand the idea of RBE(world socialism/pure global communism), and those are socialists and communists, we distance from them. Instead we are magnet for conspiracy theorists, mystics, and what not... I just want to see how far will this denying of the communist/socialist nature of RBE last and where it will go... Ppl are not that stupid.

http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=99999&func=view&catid=230&id=314272#314282

I think Zeitgeist ideology has significant similarities to Marxism, as well as differences, but their ideology is so incoherent that judging it alongside a genuine, well-thought-out system of political or economic philosophy is like judging apples and oranges. Basically, yeah, it's conspiracy theories plus a magical utopia plus robots.