Except he didn't. Engels describes authority as an intrinsic property of any complex social organization, including socialized production. Basically, to make any kind of decision involving a bunch of people coordinating with one other for some common goal, like in a factory, the individuals' wills have to be subordinated by some other will. That will could be the will of an owner or a tyrant, or it could be the collective will of the workers. Direct democracy is still imposing a will on every individual in the decision making process, since everyone is bound by the result of every vote. The only way to abolish all authority would be to abolish socialized production altogether:
Wanting to abolish authority in large-scale industry is tantamount to wanting to abolish industry itself, to destroy the power loom in order to return to the spinning wheel.
What differentiates the communist mode of production from others vis a vis authority isn't the presence or absence of authority but the nature of that authority, i.e. the workers as opposed to a separate ruling class.
Authority isn't inherently good or bad, and "authoritarianism" isn't real.
Hence it is absurd to speak of the principle of authority as being absolutely evil, and of the principle of autonomy as being absolutely good. Authority and autonomy are relative things whose spheres vary with the various phases of the development of society. If the autonomists confined themselves to saying that the social organisation of the future would restrict authority solely to the limits within which the conditions of production render it inevitable, we could understand each other; but they are blind to all facts that make the thing necessary and they passionately fight the world.
I agree that authoritarianism isn't "real", but liberals will still describe the things we (MLs) want to do as authoritarian, and we should stand by those goals no matter what label they apply to them.
Wojak: You want to make the bourgeoisie subservient to the workers?
This is a bad idea, because it'll produce all sorts of "look, they're openly authoritarian!" takes. A much better approach is "authority isn't inherently good or bad, and using it to do stuff like give everyone healthcare is good."
most libs will initially, but they can be persuaded to become gradually more ambivalent to the concept IF we don't immediately do something dumb like purposely misrepresent our own position in order to set them off. As I'm sure you experienced with your radicalisation too, no-one gets radicalised and changes all their views immediately just because they saw one person give some examples of how socialism has succeeded - rather they will get nudged on bit by bit by various people, and given time to acclimatise to the ideas that maybe some of the things that have been drilled into them with decades of propaganda aren't actually true.
saying 'AUTHORITY GOOD!' will seem like a complete confirmation to them that every proponent of socialism is a braindead, dictator-worshipping, propaganda-consuming tanky.
no-one gets radicalised and changes all their views immediately just because they saw one person give some examples of how socialism has succeeded - rather they will get nudged on bit by bit by various people, and given time to acclimatise
We really need to talk more on here about how radicalization works (and it works exactly as you describe for most people). It's a conversion funnel, not a revelation.
A non-negotiable component of any path to socialism is convincing (at least) tens of millions of more people to become socialists. Where are you going to get all those new socialists if you write off every single lib?
We're going to need a lot more popular support before we can appreciably change material conditions. Speaking as a former lib who used to be scared of the word authoritarianism.
It's not easy, and no, it doesn't work every time. Plenty of people who see their material conditions improve do not become socialists (or even properly credit whoever caused their improved conditions), just like plenty of people who see their material conditions deteriorate do not become socialists. You have apolitical folks and reactionaries at all economic strata. Material conditions play a large part in people's political beliefs, but framing things in political terms and convincing them your politics are right plays an enormous role, too.
Except he didn't. Engels describes authority as an intrinsic property of any complex social organization, including socialized production. Basically, to make any kind of decision involving a bunch of people coordinating with one other for some common goal, like in a factory, the individuals' wills have to be subordinated by some other will. That will could be the will of an owner or a tyrant, or it could be the collective will of the workers. Direct democracy is still imposing a will on every individual in the decision making process, since everyone is bound by the result of every vote. The only way to abolish all authority would be to abolish socialized production altogether:
What differentiates the communist mode of production from others vis a vis authority isn't the presence or absence of authority but the nature of that authority, i.e. the workers as opposed to a separate ruling class.
Authority isn't inherently good or bad, and "authoritarianism" isn't real.
I agree that authoritarianism isn't "real", but liberals will still describe the things we (MLs) want to do as authoritarian, and we should stand by those goals no matter what label they apply to them.
This is a bad idea, because it'll produce all sorts of "look, they're openly authoritarian!" takes. A much better approach is "authority isn't inherently good or bad, and using it to do stuff like give everyone healthcare is good."
They're already gonna do that when they find out we're Communists
most libs will initially, but they can be persuaded to become gradually more ambivalent to the concept IF we don't immediately do something dumb like purposely misrepresent our own position in order to set them off. As I'm sure you experienced with your radicalisation too, no-one gets radicalised and changes all their views immediately just because they saw one person give some examples of how socialism has succeeded - rather they will get nudged on bit by bit by various people, and given time to acclimatise to the ideas that maybe some of the things that have been drilled into them with decades of propaganda aren't actually true.
saying 'AUTHORITY GOOD!' will seem like a complete confirmation to them that every proponent of socialism is a braindead, dictator-worshipping, propaganda-consuming tanky.
We really need to talk more on here about how radicalization works (and it works exactly as you describe for most people). It's a conversion funnel, not a revelation.
You think explaining yourself to libs is gonna get you anywhere?
A non-negotiable component of any path to socialism is convincing (at least) tens of millions of more people to become socialists. Where are you going to get all those new socialists if you write off every single lib?
Easy, you just change their material conditions, that convinces then every time.
We're going to need a lot more popular support before we can appreciably change material conditions. Speaking as a former lib who used to be scared of the word authoritarianism.
It's not easy, and no, it doesn't work every time. Plenty of people who see their material conditions improve do not become socialists (or even properly credit whoever caused their improved conditions), just like plenty of people who see their material conditions deteriorate do not become socialists. You have apolitical folks and reactionaries at all economic strata. Material conditions play a large part in people's political beliefs, but framing things in political terms and convincing them your politics are right plays an enormous role, too.
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It doesnt matter that much, not doing it will produce "Look, they're covertly authoritarian!".
One is a harder sell on persuadable people.
They already say this.
What they say =/= what people will actually believe
Yeah you mean authoritarianism is just a semantic argument