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How do you raise a child to be a Good Communist?
Laura and I were at a restaurant today and the usual 2 year-old shenanigans were going on:
grabbing salt-shaker "MINE!!!!"
grabbing salt-shaker "No, Sophie."
unthwarted, grabs pepper shaker "MINE, DADA! MIINE!!!"
grabbing pepper-shaker "Sophie, No!"
grabs menu "Dis is mine, Dada. Pweeee?"
resigned "OK, Sophie, the menu is yours."
So, do this for about 20 straight minutes and you start to wonder (well, I do, anyway): How can any person argue that Communism can be a natural state of man? Given that even a 2 year old knows that something must be hers before it can fully benefit her, how can 22 year olds not understand this?
In short: how would've Marx handled the above scene?
grabbing salt-shaker "MINE!!!!"
grabbing salt-shaker "Child, the acceptance of the ideology of private property just plays in the hands of the capitalist oppressors."
unthwarted, grabs pepper shaker "MINE, DADA! MIINE!!!"
grabbing pepper-shaker "There is no property but what society allows you to have. The society I wish to raise my child in is just, one that has no property. Rather than it being *your* pepper shaker, Sophia, you'd be better off saying "Mine, Dada, by the good graces of the Neighborhood Soviet of pepper shaker manufacturers."
grabs menu "Dis is mine, Dada. Pweeee?"
resigned "Sophie, due to the fact that you seem to accept the communal role of property, you may play with the menu until a needier child comes along."
The point is that children are greedy, needful things who don't like to be thwarted. But Communism is all about the denial of personal wants and the unacceptability of private property, programs your child will not care for. Loudly. Vocally. For years.
So, how do you raise a kid to be a "natural" Communist? How do you get rid of the instinct of private property, of ownership? Assuming that the rest of the world is with you (so you can't counterargue that "society will screw with 'em"), how exactly can you eliminate the "need" to have?
grabbing salt-shaker "MINE!!!!"
grabbing salt-shaker "No, Sophie."
unthwarted, grabs pepper shaker "MINE, DADA! MIINE!!!"
grabbing pepper-shaker "Sophie, No!"
grabs menu "Dis is mine, Dada. Pweeee?"
resigned "OK, Sophie, the menu is yours."
So, do this for about 20 straight minutes and you start to wonder (well, I do, anyway): How can any person argue that Communism can be a natural state of man? Given that even a 2 year old knows that something must be hers before it can fully benefit her, how can 22 year olds not understand this?
In short: how would've Marx handled the above scene?
grabbing salt-shaker "MINE!!!!"
grabbing salt-shaker "Child, the acceptance of the ideology of private property just plays in the hands of the capitalist oppressors."
unthwarted, grabs pepper shaker "MINE, DADA! MIINE!!!"
grabbing pepper-shaker "There is no property but what society allows you to have. The society I wish to raise my child in is just, one that has no property. Rather than it being *your* pepper shaker, Sophia, you'd be better off saying "Mine, Dada, by the good graces of the Neighborhood Soviet of pepper shaker manufacturers."
grabs menu "Dis is mine, Dada. Pweeee?"
resigned "Sophie, due to the fact that you seem to accept the communal role of property, you may play with the menu until a needier child comes along."
The point is that children are greedy, needful things who don't like to be thwarted. But Communism is all about the denial of personal wants and the unacceptability of private property, programs your child will not care for. Loudly. Vocally. For years.
So, how do you raise a kid to be a "natural" Communist? How do you get rid of the instinct of private property, of ownership? Assuming that the rest of the world is with you (so you can't counterargue that "society will screw with 'em"), how exactly can you eliminate the "need" to have?
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