re-market socialism

[MLuftmensch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Michael Luftmensch)]

LETTER FROM SCHWEICKARTVILLE

Greetings Comrades! - I am writing to you from the market socialist future in
order to correct the grave misapprehensions some of you seem to harbour about
what market socialism holds in store.

Understand that ours is a society wonderfully free of all conflict. The
pernicious aspects of the market economy have simply withered away.
Self-interest and competition - the bane of your existence - no longer thwart
cooperation. Exploitation has vanished along with all the other deadly sins
which plagued market society in the past. Our entrepreneurs are socialist
heroes - selfless in their devotion to the operation of the market. Our
workers are models of productivity, joyously oiling the market mechanism,
singing songs of praise to Schweickart as they toil. And our politicians are
models of decency, men of integrity who would never think of uttering the
dreaded P-word.

Contrast these happy times with your own unhappy era, and you will understand
the deep pity I feel for you. Your markets were arenas of conflict. Cut
throat competition was the order of the day. Your lives were never free of
fear and anxiety - for who could know whose throat would next be cut. In
those bleak times, it was, I suppose, perfectly understandable for you to be
obsessed by conflict and struggle.

All that has now become history. Harmony is the rule in Schweickartville, and
in those rare instances when discord rears its head - admittedly, few and far
between - we have recourse to the words of the Sage. It is to his writ we
turn for guidance, for Schweickart, all-seeing visionary that he was,
bequeathed to humanity a model. All that is required of us is to apply it.
What could be simpler?

No doubt, you will ask how all this came about, how out of the bowels of
market capitalism there emerged a golden egg. And indeed, we too would be
much preoccupied by this mystery, if not for our naturally lofty frame of
mind. There are turns and twists in the tide of history that simply defy
understanding. Long ago, our predecessors agreed not to inquire too deeply
into how the model was to be put into practice. We respect that decision and
advise you to do likewise.

Yours,
A. Comrade






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