PCD AND SOCIALISM

The following quotes are taken from: Buber, Martin (1970) Paths of Utopia, Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

A.        Decentralization: Socialism’s Primary Objective:

·   “The prime cause of all disorders that visit society, of the oppression of the citizens and the decay of nations, lies in the single and hierarchical centralization of authority” (Proudhon, p. 27).

·   Always in history there exist, even if in varying degrees of strength, centralist and decentralist trends of development side by side; and it is vital importance in the long run for which of the two the conscious will, together with whatever power it may have acquired at the time, elects” (Buber, p. 115).

·   “At this point we are threatened by a danger greater than all the previous ones: the danger of a gigantic centralization of power covering the whole planet and devouring all free community” (Buber, p. 132).

·   “In both cases (Marx and Lenin) the decentralist element of restructure is displaced by the centralist element of revolutionary politics; in other words, there is the tendency to perpetuate centralist revolutionary politics at the cost of the decentralist needs of a nascent socialist community” (Buber, p. 99).

QUESTIONS:

·   Considering socialists overwhelmingly support decentralization of authority, how may they view PCD?

·   As suggested by the last quote by Buber, what separates the Marxist and socialist agendas?

B.        Creating Local Socialist Realities, Linking them, and Forming a National Whole:

·   “The transformation of Society must be accomplished in its total structure as well as in each of its cells: only a just ordering of the individual units can establish a just order in the totality. This is the foundation of socialism” (Owen, p. 24).

·   “Through the grouping of individual strengths and the interdependence of the groups the whole nation will become a body” (Proudhon, p. 3).

·   “The great socialist reality will be reached through the creation of small socialist realities which keep on expanding and confederating continually” (W. King, p. 64).

·   “In the evolution of mankind hitherto this is the line that predominates: the forming and reforming of communities on the basis of growing personal independence, their mutual recognition and collaboration on that basis” (Buber, p. 130).

QUESTION:

How may this process of forming whole socialist system relate to the PCD expanding process?

C.        The Need to be Trained to “Act in Union”:

 “Men have not yet been trained in principles that will permit them to act in union, except to defend themselves or to destroy others… A necessity, however, equally powerful, will now compel men to be trained to act together to create and conserve” (Owen, p. 22).

QUESTION:

Does the effective practice of PCD require training?

D.        The Call for “Revolution” or “Forcible Overthrow”:

·   “That a decisive transformation of the social order as a whole cannot ensue without revolution is self-evident” (Kropotkin, p. 44).

·   “They [Communists] openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions” (Marx, 1948).

QUESTION:

Consider the following: “For those of us, who for reasons of realism, pacifism, or cowardice, are not likely to engage in direct instigation of revolution, there must be some alternative to acceptance of a shamefully inequitable status quo” (Knippers, 1991). Can PCD provide that alternative to the status quo?

E.        Socialist Principles that Relate to PCD:

·   “One day it will be realized that socialism is not the invention of anything new but the discovery of something actually present, of something that has grown” (Landauer, p. 46).

·   “Socialism is possible and impossible at all times; it is possible when the right people are there to will and do it; it is impossible when people either don’t will it or supposedly will it, but are not capable of doing it” (Landauer, p. 47).

·   “The workers must first create, on the basis of their common spirit—which is the capital of socialism—as much socialist reality, and exemplify it, as is possible at any time in proportion to their numbers and their energy” (Landauer, p. 55).

QUESTION:

How do the above socialist principles relate to PCD?