Letter: Nothing left ? (1975)

Letter to the Editors from the September 1975 issue of the Socialist Standard

Nothing left ?

Has it ever occurred to any of your members that when Socialism is established Man will have reached the peak of his endeavours?

There will be nothing left to work for and we will be obliged to wreck our society every few years in order to build it up again.

The capitalists do the same thing now, but for different reasons.

I. Hunt

London W.1

Reply:

In the absence of real arguments against Socialism critics give silly reasons for not helping to achieve it.

In [a] Socialist society we human beings will need to grow and process food, build homes, make clothes, furniture, machinery, we will run transport and communications systems, produce heat and light, have a water supply, carry out research; then there will be books, music, sport, etc. Or did you imagine that all of society’s needs would be provided by magic?

Viewed as a stage in man’s social evolution Socialism will be a superior system to any previous one. A step up, if you like. All of the problems caused by capitalism will be solved but this does not mean that we will not have challenges to meet. The difference is that in solving problems human ingenuity will not be fettered by financial considerations.

The establishment of Socialism will not be the peak of man’s endeavour but will give him the opportunity to scale exciting new heights in social development.

Editors.

I. Donaldson (Fife): Correspondence now closed, but we are glad to note you prefer our views to Mr. Smith’s.