One of the great scientific minds of the century and look what a modest man he is. Compare this American to Trump.
I always enjoy listening to Carl Sagan. When asked if he was a socialist by a major US capitalist he pauses and says "I'm not really sure what a socialist is". He is right about what society should provide and how badly US capitalism provides it. But he's wrong about the goal of government or the state.
Class societies are exploitative. A capitalist state operates in the interests of the capitalist class as a whole and maintains the exploitation of the worker as it also arbitrates the struggle between these two forces over the control of the wealth. It prevents this "class struggle" from getting out of control if possible.
Bourgeois or capitalist democracy, universal suffrage, this is preferable to the capitalist class but they will resort to military dictatorship if need be. The feudal state is the organization of the aristocracy a ruling class based on land wealth and blood line etc, social production mainly for consumption. Same a slave state, the same process where the human being is owned in total like a horse or cow. Athenian Democracy was a slaveowner's democracy, slaves didn't get to pick their masters. The government is not some sort of "divine" body. It has class content.
2 comments:
What an honest and civilised person. Clearer than many of those who do “know what socialism is”. I’d never known this aspect of his personality.
I've watched a number of these shorts on You Tube. What a wonderful man. I wish I'd met him, he popularized science. He died too young
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