Society as an Organic Body
by Tibor R. Machan
Karl Marx, in his posthumously published work Grundrisse, identified his view of humanity very clearly. Humanity is an organic whole (or body). People aren’t individuals but the cells of this organic entity whose development and maturation Marx tried to chronicle in his works.
When you have an organic body you are looking out for, if some part of this body is faltering, another part may need to be called upon or sacrificed so as to help mend it. Just as with human beings, sometime a part of their bodies are utilized to fix another part, so with humanity--or society, if that is all you have available to manipulate.
Mr. Obama was educated and raised as at least a crypto communist, someone who holds this Marxian view. As he expresses it now, “We are all in it together.” We are like a hive or colony of tiny critters and so none of us can have any rights that give us the sphere of independence that an individualist view of society aims to establish and protect for each citizen.
This is a serious position, not something frivolous. Mr. Obama is not perhaps a card carrying member of the communist movement but shares its central tenets. The idea that individuals matter as individuals is very far from his worldview. At most it is classes that count but not individuals. If some segment or part of society--or the country--is in need of support, another may be imposed upon to supply it.
I recall when Welsh actor Richard Harris injured his nose doctors took bones from his hip so as to repair it. It all went swimmingly.
Political leaders--rulers--in collectivist regimes see themselves as assigned the job of keeping the body politic intact. So if some element of society needs to be contracted or even cut out so as to remedy or mend another part, they see themselves as obligated to carry out the job. They cannot be bothered by what they regard as the fiction of individual rights!
A matter like this needs to be kept in mind when politicians are evaluated. It needs to be kept in mind in the current presidential election, too.
Discuss this Article (13 messages)
|
