“People who design machines and airplanes {or buildings}, no matter how much they believe that what they do is good, the winds of time eventually turn them into tools of industrial civilization. They’re cursed dreams. Animation, too. Beautiful yet cursed dreams.”
― Hayao Miyazaki
Whenever I seriously consider the possibility that anprims are right, my gut twists.
Ultimately, the joys and passions of my life - computer programming, video game design, tabletop roleplaying, science fiction - are products of industrial society. What do I have without them? What am I without them? Even at the times when I can believe that the anti-civ view of how society should be organized is necessary for the greatest good, I can't imagine myself thriving in such a society. I can't imagine myself feeling like my life in such a society is worthwhile. I can't imagine I feel like I would have a reason to continue living, or passions to drive me, or meaningful ways to express myself, or any reason to keep going beyond the fear of death. Believe me, I've tried, but I can't.
What does it mean if I can only properly exist in a society that shouldn't?
Maybe my own life is incompatible with the world as it should be. Maybe the proper world is one without me. Frankly, the thought scares the shit out of me.
And this is why they are wrong. The objective of Communism is the building of man's natural habitat. We don't have that, it was lost under the Eemian ice. Even if we did, we can't go back.
So now we need to build the most flourishing world for everyone. For some that's a Culture Orbital or a Starship lighting out for Tau Ceti, for others Rural Arcadia or the Nomadic Steppes, and for some a Hunter Gatherer Utopia. And that's fine.
Everyone deserves to live in the place they will find the most happy and the most flourishing. We probably will not live to see it but we can make a start.
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I'm making some assumptions here, admittedly. Tabletop roleplaying didn't really come about until the mid-20th century, so I figured that the material conditions to support it never really arose before then.