Defending Marx 3: Whether Under Private Ownership or a Market Economy, "Socialism" Can Only Be Tortoise Hair and Rabbit Horns!
2006/9/5 14:13:50
In the game of concepts, it is not difficult to fabricate a concept like "socialism with private ownership." But Marx only discusses all questions on the basis of reality. The reason "socialism with private ownership" can only be a concept, can only be tortoise hair and rabbit horns, is not determined by any a priori premise. Rather, the real logical specification of real socialism, of Marxian socialism, has already been determined thus: socialism is the first social formation corresponding to the abolition of private ownership!
Even those currently playing the market game know the importance of property rights, but the property rights they discuss are nothing more than an abstract conceptualization of the real category of ownership. Marx long ago profoundly demonstrated that capitalism is the highest form of private ownership's development, and that the demise of capitalism necessarily accompanies the demise of private ownership. Any attempt to abolish capitalism while preserving private ownership, or to abolish private ownership while preserving capitalism, can only ever remain an attempt! As long as private ownership exists, it will ultimately evolve into capitalist social relations, and capitalism is necessarily based on private ownership!
Any real category possesses totality. A mixed condition of partial private ownership and partial non-private ownership can only be an accidental, unstable form, and must ultimately face this reality: either entirely private ownership or entirely non-private ownership. Of course, there can exist such tricks in history and reality: using virtual concepts to define certain forms of private ownership as non-private ownership, and then declaring the nonexistence of private ownership. But concepts will forever only be concepts, while reality is reality and tricks are tricks!
Likewise, any attempt to abolish the market economy while preserving private ownership, or to abolish private ownership while preserving the market economy, can only ever remain an attempt! As long as private ownership exists, it will ultimately evolve into market economy social relations, and a market economy is necessarily based on private ownership! "A non-private-ownership market economy," like "socialism with private ownership," is nothing but tortoise hair and rabbit horns! Any real category—including private ownership, capitalism, and the market economy—possesses a real logical specification that is independent of human will. Of course, anyone can call an apple a plum, but the apple remains an apple—the apple's real flavor will not become that of a plum just because it is called a plum!
Marx relies only on the real logical specifications of reality; Marx only cares about the apple's real flavor, not whether the apple is called an apple. In the real logical specifications that Marx relies on, "socialist private ownership" is just like "socialism with private ownership"—it can only be tortoise hair and rabbit horns. And the equivalence between capitalism and market economy also determines that "a socialist market economy" is identical to "market economy socialism"—both imply such concepts as "socialist capitalism" or "capitalist socialism." In the real logical specifications that Marx concerns himself with, "a socialist market economy" or "market economy socialism" is, like "socialist capitalism" or "capitalist socialism," necessarily and inevitably tortoise hair and rabbit horns!