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Chapter 7: SKETCH OF COMMUNIST SOCIETY -- CULTURE

Simplicity is the hallmark of communist culture. It is not a fierce "competition"  but a relaxed "collaboration" culture. Freedom of expression flourishes there. Why?

1. People are freed from commodity worship.

1.1. Capitalism where people are also commodities

What are the cultural values inherent in communism? Such questions may bring to mind the "Cultural Revolution," which once plunged Chinese society into terror and chaos, but historically the "Cultural Revolution" is merely synonymous with the fierce power struggles within the Chinese Communist Party. "Culture" here is literal culture apart from political struggle.

First of all, by way of comparison, if you think about what capitalist cultural values are, the greatest of them is undoubtedly product value. In a capitalist society based on the production of commodities, commodity value is not only economic value but also cultural value itself. Commodities are the main characters in society, and almost all things cannot appear in the world unless they take the form of exchange value as commodities.

Humans themselves are also considered commodities. This is not classic human trafficking. Overall evaluation criteria for human beings are more focused than before on superficial "skills" and more superficial "appearance" (human exchange value) rather than "personality" (human use value, so to speak). This is also one proof of the phenomenon of human = commodification.

This kind of commercial value as cultural value is a universal cultural value because it is deeply held by the public. The masses themselves feel as if the commodity has some special power. That is commodity worship.

The characteristic of this capitalist animism is that it exalts the superficial price tag of exchange value. The mass distribution of counterfeit brand products is a symbol of this. We are outraged when we are offered a counterfeit, but we are dazzled by the counterfeit price tag until it turns out to be a counterfeit.

In this way, the cult of commodities lends a helping hand to the prevalence of imitations, including human "counterfeits". Proudhon, a former opponent of Marx, exclaimed, "Possession is theft!", but he should have exclaimed, "Commerce is fraud!" However, merchants are not swindlers—literal swindlers are rampant, but they are not the main players in capitalism—and the public's admiration and demand for commodities increases the probability of being a victim of fraud.

1.2. To the world of authenticity and essence

On the other hand, in a communist society, the abolition of commodity production puts an end to the cult of commodities. Things are stripped of their product forms and come to be evaluated as "things themselves", so to speak. As I argued earlier, communism is a world centered on use values.

Communism is a world where everything, be it people or things, is genuine and essence is a game, so in a sense it can be said to be a harsh world where the essence is tested.

However, even though we are accustomed to living in a world of commodity illusion, don't we, deep down, yearn for a world of real substance? There are probably not many people who want to continue living in a society where we are sold counterfeit goods, ruled by counterfeit people, and judged based on the value of people as commodities.

If there is a "Great Cultural Revolution" in the true sense of the word in a communist society, it will be a complete overthrow of the cultural system of commodity values. Such a "Great Cultural Revolution" would save us from the trap of commodity worship instead of leading us to fear and confusion.

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Chapter 6: SKETCH OF COMMUNIST SOCIETY -- EDUCATION

6. True lifelong education is guaranteed.

6.1. Education systems for life reset

The slogan "lifelong learning" is often heard, but what is said about it is that ordinary citizens go to cultural centers and learn about their hobbies. On the other hand, "lifelong education" refers to a system of reset education that makes it possible to restart one's life at any time.

In a capitalist society built around the mobilization of human labor for production activities, there are many life stage restrictions such as having to complete certain things by a certain age. It is very difficult for those who have finished their studies but failed in life for some reason and have dropped out of social life to make a fresh start. In addition, the life plans of people with disabilities, whether congenital or acquired, are greatly restricted.

In general, capitalist companies do not like a non-standard labor force that cannot apply the standard model wage system, so it tends to be difficult to redo life plans. On the other hand, in a communist society where the wage labor system is abolished, it will be possible to support job seekers in re-starting their lives at any time and to distribute suitable jobs to job seekers, regardless of age or experience.

6.2. Multi-purpose college and technical school

In order to make it possible to start a new life at any time, everyone must be equally guaranteed the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and skills through appropriate continuing education and to learn again.

Multi-purpose colleges are established in various places to make this possible. This is an educational institution that has been prepared so that those who have already completed the course of the integrated compulsory education (basic education course) and have found a job can acquire knowledge and skills at a higher level or in a completely different field.

However, fundamentally different from the existing university system, there is no entrance examination or selection based on it, and a first-come, first-served admission system is adopted. Of course it's completely free. Moreover, it will offer more practical courses than existing universities, and will enable students to acquire the knowledge and skills that will enable them to rethink their life plans.

For those who have taken a long-term leave of absence from compulsory education and for people with disabilities who are slow to grow, there are programs that provide supplementary compulsory education content. It is truly a multi-purpose adult education institution that offers state-of-the-art academic courses in collaboration with the academic research center.

These adult education establishments are operated by provincial areas or quasi-zones and at least one college is established in each regional area. It is devised so that it can lead to employment and re-employment of graduates in cooperation with employment agencies.

At the same time, the establishment of technical schools that provide single-course instruction in various specialized skills will also be promoted. This is a school that, along with multi-purpose colleges, primarily offers re-education programs for adults, but unlike multi-purpose colleges, it is all private.

In a communist society where universities are being abolished, these multi-purpose colleges, specialized technical schools, and advanced professional schools described in the next section will constitute a more practical lifelong education system.

6.3. Advanced professional school　

As touched on last time, various advanced specialists are also selected and trained from among those with at least five years of work experience. This is another form of lifelong education. Therefore, for example, it will not be unusual for a person who has been working for a long time to become a doctor after reaching the age of 40.

On the other hand, qualifications and licenses for advanced professionals should not be a privilege that is valid for life once obtained, and should be renewed at least every 10 years or so through appropriate continuing education. This is also one way of lifelong education that corresponds to the social responsibility of highly skilled professionals.

The training of such highly skilled professionals is carried out by the above-mentioned medical school, law school, educational school, and other highly specialized schools. This selection process allows us to obtain professionals with a broader perspective and a spirit of public service, and would be a key to overcoming the problem of "spiritless professionals," which Weber pointed out as a scourge of modern society in general.

6.4. Towards a life-reset society

Finally, to summarize in a bold simplification, the broad definition of "modern" society, which includes capitalism and even socialism that still has capitalist elements, is a uniform life style that makes it difficult to start over. In contrast to the life-stage society, the communist society is a free life-reset society that makes it possible to start over at any time.

"Post-modern" has to mean not only the freedom of the mind, so to speak, the ideological freedom of the mind, which modernity has acquired, but also the realization of human possibilities—freedom in the true sense of the word—to the maximum extent possible. The reason modern communism pays so much attention to lifelong education is to ensure a realistic "post-modern" society in this sense.

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Chapter 6: SKETCH OF COMMUNIST SOCIETY -- EDUCATION

5. Consistent compulsory education begins.

5.1. Changing from sieving to scooping

The abolition of universities never means the decline of education in general. On the contrary, the abolition of universities will lead to the development of an entirely new system of compulsory education.

In contrast to the current capitalist education system, which is a system of sieving with the goal of advancing to a "first-class university," the communist education system after the abolition of universities maximizes the potential of individuals. It is a system of scooping.

Specifically, the division between elementary school and junior high school in compulsory education will be abolished and unified (consistent system), and then the entire curriculum will be reorganized into a basic education curriculum that can be connected without an entrance examination. In other words, it is a consistent education from the age of 6 to 18 (standard case) following the compulsory childcare system.

As we saw last time, basic education is provided as a correspondence system in principle, and there is no system such as grades or classes. Although there is a fixed age to start, there is no deadline for completing the course, and the course is completed when each of the 13 steps is completed in order.

Furthermore, unlike the existing education system, the basic curriculum in communist education is based on integrated education that does not separate education for the able-bodied and disabled. This is because a communist society is based on equal participation in society, where people's social positions are not divided by the presence or absence of a disability.

The implementation body of this consistent compulsory education will be centralized not by municipalities, but by regional areas as intermediate municipalities. On the other hand, the operation of compulsory education by private schools is not permitted.

5.2. Overview of the seven basic subjects

In the new consistent compulsory education curriculum, the traditional learning of language, mathematics, science, and social studies will be abolished, and a more practical and hopefully enjoyable curriculum will be introduced. Let me give you a rough overview.

5.2.1. linguistic expression

This is a subject to acquire expressiveness in the official languages of each zone and Esperanto as a world language.

As will be discussed again in the final chapter, the World Commonwealth designates Esperanto as the provisional world official language, so Esperanto will be taught from the beginning in compulsory education in each zone.

Moreover, the purpose of the "linguistic expression" subject is to combine it with the official language of each zone, rather than separate it as a "foreign language." So, for example, the same sentence could be written in both the official language and Esperanto.

The content-specific feature of these "linguistic expression" subjects is the emphasis placed on writing rather than reading. Reading is the basis of the expressive act, and although it is part of the expressive act through the act of reading and interpreting, it is essentially a passive expressive act. In order to bring out children's imaginative power and originality, it is necessary to actively train them to logically write their own views on certain matters.

At the same time, this course includes education to acquire careful and critical reading comprehension of information via the media and the Internet - information prudence.

5.2.2. numerical thinking

Although this is a subject that corresponds to conventional mathematics, what is decisively different is that the concept of numbers itself is taught. Conventional mathematics education focused on computational problems and focused on training computational skills. This makes mathematics trivial to mere memorization of formulas and theorems, and is a factor in increasing dislike of mathematics.

However, mathematics is an act of logical expression using numbers, which are universal characters or using graphics. In that sense, mathematics is a kind of linguistic expression, and at the same time it is a powerful means of scientific thinking. It is truly a mathematical "thinking", and it is also a subject that connects the "linguistic expression" subject and the next "science basics" subject.

A "numerical thinking" course with such a character does not simply focus on being able to calculate 1 + 1 = 2, but strives to make students think about what kind of mathematical concept this formula expresses. The same is true for more complicated formulas and theorems.

5.2.3. science basics

Science basics is a subject for learning the basics of various sciences. "Science" here means not only the narrowest sense of natural science, but also a broad sense of "science" that extends over some social sciences. In that respect, it is broader than science as a traditional school subject.

In that respect, it can be said that the subject aims to cultivate a general knowledge of science that abolishes the formal distinction between the so-called humanities and sciences. Through this, we aim to cultivate scientific citizens who are not bound by superstitions and pseudo-scientific myths.

It consists of three fields: Specifically, "natural and life sciences" to learn the basics of biology, physics and chemistry, "social sciences" to learn the basics of geography and economics, and "earth and environmental science" to learn the basics of geophysics and environmental science. Since it is a field with a very wide range of contents, each field will be further subdivided.

5.2.4. history and society

History and Society is a subject to learn about history and existing society. In the field of history, education that separates national history (for example, American history) and world history like traditional history education will be transformed. National history, which is separated from world history, is at the forefront of nationalist education, a category that does not exist in a communist society where the state is abolished.

However, even under communism, the history of individual zones corresponding to present-day countries still remains, and education is carried out by positioning them in an integrated manner within world history.

At the same time, instead of comprehensively teaching from the prehistoric age to the present, it is enough to specialize in modern history (specifically, the history after the industrial revolution) and leave the history before that to self-study.

In the field of society, emphasis is placed on providing a comprehensive and objective understanding of the communist political and legal system as a historical goal. Its main purpose is to provide students with the basic understanding necessary to fulfill their important civic duties as delegates to the Commons' Convention.

5.2.5. life skills (some commuter courses)

In a communist society, the ability to make judgments based on each person's life experiences is emphasized, so life skill education, which teaches basic skills in daily life, is as important as general subjects.

In general, the technological innovation brought about by capitalism overemphasizes convenience, depriving children of the experience of making and repairing something with their own hands, and as a result, humans are seemingly losing their original creativity. On the other hand, it is impossible even for the communist revolution to push back the wave of mechanization and automation that promotes convenience.

In particular, in the future society, it is important not only to understand the structure and operation methods of information devices, including robots, but also to learn how to use information networks that have become a part of our lives safely and justly.

In addition to these adaptations to mechanization, the major pillar of this life skills course is to have all students acquire basic housework and childcare skills regardless of gender. This is because there is an increasing need today to learn these skills through compulsory education, which used to be taught at home.

5.2.6. health and physical education (commuter courses)

Conventional physical education is centered on competitive sports education that teaches various sports in a comprehensive manner, but this not only imposes sports that ignore the aptitude and interest of individual students, but also does not improve the skills of individual sports. It is a wasteful educational method.

In contrast, communist physical education focuses on gymnastics and training to prevent illness and injury, and is converted into health and physical education that is possible regardless of individual athletic ability. On the other hand, competitive sports education is entrusted to private sports clubs.

5.2.7. social ethics (commuter courses)

The focus of communist moral education is anti-discrimination education. As mentioned in the previous chapter, this stems from the fact that communist society is a society of social cooperation and mutual aid, and social customs in which people of different backgrounds cooperate with each other are indispensable.

Therefore, it is necessary to thoroughly teach the very simple moral code that "people should not be inferior because of their innately or acquired characteristics and attributes" throughout the entire compulsory education system.

This is also considered effective in preventing bullying. This is because serious bullying that leads to the suicide of the target student is none other than discrimination in the realm of children (many of which are related to appearance).

In the first half of compulsory education, this anti-discrimination education centers on experiential learning through interaction with students with disabilities and students from overseas. In the second half, it would be effective to adopt a thematic learning method in which guests from a wide range of discriminated groups (ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, appearance/body type minorities, etc.) are invited to talk about their experiences and participate in a question-and -answer session.

The seven basic subjects outlined above (linguistic expression, numerical thinking, basic science, historical society, life skills, health and physical education, social ethics) are compulsory subjects in the integrated compulsory education. They will be allocated iteratively and developmentally throughout the process.

In addition, since art-related subjects such as music and art (arts and crafts) are entirely dependent on individual tastes and aptitudes, they are excluded from the compulsory education curriculum and left to private instruction classes.

5.3. Vocational introductory education

In the consistent compulsory education, along with the above subject learning, emphasis is placed on vocational introduction education.

Introductory education for vocational education is experiential learning that exposes students to the workplace from the middle stage of compulsory education. If this makes it easier to have a career image from the teens and prepare for the future life plan, it will be possible to prevent the prolongation of the moratorium period such as the so-called NEET, and purely spontaneous as discussed in Chapter 3. We may be able to pave the way for the possibility of a labor system.

Specifically, in the middle of the integrated compulsory education, where introductory vocational education begins, students will directly observe various workplaces using the "social studies tour" method. In the final stage, in addition to vocational guidance for each representative occupational field, such as industry, information, general affairs, agriculture, fisheries, welfare, medical care, research, etc., an internship is introduced to engage in short-term work experience at the desired workplace.

In this way, at the stage of completing the compulsory education system, in principle, a system will be created for everyone to get a job for the time being. To this end, we will train and assign specialist teachers with knowledge of psychology and sociology, and establish a system that introduces students to jobs that match their aptitudes and aspirations in cooperation with employment agencies.

For highly qualified professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers, selection will be limited to employed individuals with at least five years of professional experience. Selection will be based primarily on their professional background, purpose, and personality, without the need for a selection test. After selecting them as such, they will be trained at the advanced professional schools mentioned last time. In a communist society without an intellectual class system, the pure elite culture of high-level professionals will be abolished.

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4. Distance learning will be the principle.

4.1. A concentration camp called a school

So far, we have discussed the outline of communist education. Speaking of education, it is a modern international common sense that it is done through the institution called school. As a result, various types of school systems have been prepared in each country, and in countries that claim to be developed countries, it is customary for most young people to be enrolled in some kind of school.

However, something strange is happening at that school. School refusal and bullying problems are central symbols of this. In the first place, a school is a kind of "child detention center" where students are forced to follow a predetermined curriculum and schedule, attend a certain facility called a school, are restricted for a certain period of time, and are prohibited from going out without permission.

The peculiar environment of the camp is known to cause strong stress to humans. The same is true for the camps called schools. Hierarchical relationships between teachers, who are on-site managers of schools, and students, hierarchical relationships between students based on age and grade, and caste relationships among students in the same class form the formation of class relationships within institutions are characteristics of the detention camp system, which is a stress factor for all parties, including faculty and staff.

The most serious of these is the problem of bullying. From the perpetrator's point of view, bullying can be interpreted as a kind of stress relief behavior. And bullying, which discriminates peers with specific characteristics within the school group and rejects them with malicious intent, is nothing but discrimination in the realm of children. It is collectivized schools, even more so than the home, that are the training grounds for this kind of discrimination.

On the other hand, regarding the point of intellectual training, which is emphasized as the utility of the school system, the methodology of school education, which teaches children with various intellectual interests and learning speeds collectively, is by no means effective. Rather, it will result in a continuous stream of "dropouts" who cannot keep up with the curriculum, year after year, for generations to come.

However, in fact, the school system is compatible with communist education, and it may be a leap of logic to lead the abolition of the school system directly from communism, but in modern communism, it can be said that the school system is no longer necessary.

4.2. Towards deschooling

Modern communism implements deschooling of education. In other words, communist education is, in principle, provided by distance communication. This bold educational revolution is by no means a pipe dream, and the technological foundation for it is guaranteed by the development of information and communication technology, which is already progressing under capitalism.

In fact, even in capitalist society, distance education has already started in many fields, but correspondence education is only meant to be complementary and supplementary to on-campus school education. The biggest reason for this is the material limitations of capitalist society, which makes it economically extremely difficult to build an inclusive educational communications network that covers all students without omission.

In contrast, in a communist society that does not rely on a monetary economy, the removal of such material limitations is the same as in other fields, and the path to de-schooling is practically opened. In principle, the course of integrated basic education (compulsory education), which will be described later, is also provided with correspondence materials, except for some subjects such as physical education, which are difficult to carry out by correspondence due to their nature. All communication equipment necessary for this purpose will be lent to the public free of charge.

In such a system, the teacher is no longer an instruction manager, but is refined to a learning advisor role. Teachers respond to questions and interviews according to the students' needs, but such face-to-face instruction can also be carried out through communication means such as videophones, so there is no need for either of them to visit.

Even in such a system, it is possible to imagine a "school" conceptually, and in public education, it would be efficient to provide educational services by treating a group of students in each region as a unit. However, this belongs to technical policy.

This kind of distance education is a rule, and there are some exceptions. One of these is the subject that is difficult to provide through the correspondence system mentioned above.

Education for children with disabilities, for which individualized education is indispensable, is also combined with home tutor-type education methods such as home-visit education by specialist teachers.

In addition, subjects offered by multipurpose college or technical school as lifelong education institutions (described later) that require practical instruction, as well as classes at highly specialized schools such as medical school, law school and education school, are based on a classroom system since practical education is essential by nature (however, subjects that can be offered by correspondence may be made into correspondence courses on an individual basis).

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3. Universities will be abolished and converted.

3.1. Universities – strongholds of the intellectual class system

Universities, which stand at the top of the higher education system in each country, are the strongholds of the intellectual class system that rise above the foundation of the knowledge capital system. Under capitalism, the university has become a stronghold of the intellectual class system because today a college degree is required for virtually all of the high-paying jobs that capitalist society offers.

Today, the executives of capital companies are selected from among the senior workers who are candidates for management executive positions, rather than the hereditary succession of the founding family. Most of the certification qualifications for these senior workers are also college graduates or higher graduate school completions.

In addition, in countries where there is a hierarchy between universities, obtaining a diploma from a higher-ranking university guarantees the path to becoming a top-class capital company executive. As a result, both parents and children are frantically competing to become a "first-class university."

At present, the most developed system of memory-reactive education toward the goal of a university is in Asian countries, where the university system was imported from Western Europe, rather than in Western Europe, where the university system originated.

There, the test system for testing memory and reactivity dominates, with the university entrance exam at the top. Passing the university entrance examination is the first big goal in the first half of life. If that is not achieved, unless you are very lucky, you must be prepared to end up as a general worker for the rest of your life. And children of the general working class, whose families cannot have enough investment in education, have no choice but to make such a decision at an early stage in their lives.

However, there are probably countries in the world where the intellectual class system based on educational background is not so clearly adhered to. Still, as long as universities are strongholds of the intellectual class system, this is not an essential difference. Universities are therefore prime targets for the communist educational revolution. Communism abolishes the university system.

3.2. Becoming an academic research center

If you hear about the abolishment of the university system, you may be wary of the return of the Khmer Rouge, which plots to kill intellectuals. Absolutely not. The abolishment of universities does not mean sending university professors to internment camps, but simply transforming universities into "academic research centers" (hereafter referred to simply as "research centers") as collections of research institutes.

Although the current university has the character of a research institution, its basic character is that of an educational institution. Because of this dual nature, some people lament the excessive burden on university teachers and the lack of research time. Converting universities into research centers will change this situation and provide an environment in which researchers can concentrate on their original research activities. In this case, far from being sent to a concentration camp, would it not be sent to paradise?

At the same time, it will also change the current situation in which universities are being subordinated to capital in the name of "industry-academia collaboration," and will enable more equal and mutual "academic-industry association." For example, there are hopes for collaboration between research centers and production sites in new academic fields such as environmental engineering, which supports the development of cutting-edge environmental technology, communist management studies, which examines management methods for new communist production organizations, and labor and human sciences, which reflect on the nature of work after the abolition of the wage labor system.

In addition, the basic science research field and the humanities field such as philosophy and literature, which tend to be weeded out due to capitalist industry-academia collaboration and the government's selection of research subsidies, may be revived by turning them into research centers at universities. Will. On the other hand, turning a university into a research center will encourage the holding of academic lectures and symposiums for the general public, expanding the scope for contributing to the general dissemination of science.

Universities, including private universities, will be turned into research centers all at once, and the former national and public universities will maintain their public character as socially owned corporation-type research centers.

Along with this, each research center will be responsible for training researchers, which was previously handled by universities and graduate schools. In other words, each research center recruits and employs trainees according to its own methods and conditions, and trains researchers through its own training process. This trainee selection is different from conventional admissions such as university entrance exams, and is a kind of "employment" for research applicants, and is a selection system purely specialized for researcher training.

Furthermore, by making universities (undergraduate) or graduate programs that have been responsible for training advanced professionals such as medicine, law, and education independent from research centers as “advanced professional academies” such as medical academies, law academies, and education academies, respectively, more practical professional training can be expected.

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2. Emphasis is placed on fostering of imagination and originality.

2.1. Removal of prejudiced image

The role of the formal education system is to nurture the citizens who will lead the future society. This is almost the same in capitalist societies.

However, if someone were to say the same thing from a communist standpoint, the prejudiced image of "brainwashing education" that tends to accompany communism might be superimposed on it. In other words, there is a suspicion that the students will be thoroughly instilled with communist ideas through school education, and will be trained to become "fanatic communists." 

Perhaps this is a criticism based on a caricature image of the ideological education actually practiced in collectivist countries such as the former Soviet Union. However, the same kind of brainwashing ideological education was actively carried out from the opposite standpoint in the "anti-communist" Nazi Germany and other anti-communist countries.

Communist education is essentially unrelated to uniform ideological education. A communist society is a society of social cooperation and mutual aid, but from the perspective of knowledge, it is a society in which the people gather their knowledge to create a society for the future. In other words, it is not a society that is guided by intellectuals and experts who are filled with existing knowledge. In such a society, uniform cramming education will not work under any pretext.

2.2. Capitalist intellectual class system

On the other hand, the reality of the developed capitalist society is that, on the premise of a high degree of knowledge division, various specialists are assigned to various fields, and such intellectuals and experts lead society on top of the general public. From this social structuire emerges a kind of intellectual hierarchy. In other words, those who survive the knowledge competition become the leading elite class of society, and those who lose become the class to be led.

In this respect, current capitalist society differs from modern bourgeois society, which still retained the legacy of the feudal status system, and seems to be a society dominated by ability rather than nature.

In such a society, the qualities required of the leadership elite are memory and responsiveness based on it. In other words, those who have memorized the established body of knowledge, and who have demonstrated accurate and prompt responses to questions with pre-determined correct answers in various tests based on that knowledge, are selected and certified as intellectual elites.

In short, capitalist education is nothing more than a series of administrative procedures separated by certification exams to select such memory-reactive intellectual elites - although there are some differences between countries. In this respect, can we not say that capitalist education is truly uniform?

However, it is desired in a capitalist society. This is because the capitalist economy is a profit-seeking system through the chain of commodity production and money exchange, and all social activities are incorporated somewhere in this system. Knowledge of this system and the ability to apply it are therefore necessary and sufficient to become an intellectual elite.

2.3. From knowledge capitalism to knowledge communism

In contrast, education in a communist society is not so simple. Since a communist society is centered on social cooperation with neither money nor a state, the activities of the whole society can stagnate without the collective wisdom of everyone. In a communist society, the existing body of knowledge is of little use, if not useless. Rather, it is supported by imagination rooted in each person's life experience and originality based on it.

The intellectual class system does not work in a communist society. Even the empirical knowledge of the manual worker will be useful in this society. A communist society cannot function if it is left to intellectuals and experts.

Of course, this does not mean fanaticism, such as that of Cambodian Khmer Rouge, who viewed intellectuals as hostile and purged them on a large scale. Intellectuals and specialists are, of course, indispensable in a communist society, and their training will continue, but their role will likely change from that of social leaders to that of advisors.

The contrast between capitalist education = memory - responsiveness and communist education = imagination - originality is not absolute. Even within the framework of capitalism, there are trends in educational reforms that reflect on the overemphasis on memory and reactivity and emphasize imagination and originality.

However, as long as capitalism remains capitalism, it cannot be expected that education on the memory-reactivity line will essentially be abolished. Under such capitalist education, knowledge itself turns into a kind of cultural capital. From there, an intellectual class system is established by being directly linked to each family's ability to invest in education and inheriting it from generation to generation. Naturally, this structure works favorably for the children of the property class, whose families have a high level of investment in education.

Thus, from an educational perspective, it is revealed that modern capitalist society, which appears to be a "meritocracy," is essentially a class society in which a person's life is largely determined by their birth.

In contrast, under the communist education of imagination and originality, knowledge is also communized, accumulated and released as "everyone's", so the intellectual class structure under the knowledge capital system will collapse.

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In a communist society, society raises children born into society. There, compulsory education that emphasizes imagination and originality and adult education that can be redone at any time throughout the life will be enhanced.

1. Children are raised by society.

1.1. Breaking away from parent-centrism

The German Constitution contains the following impressive article (Article 6, Paragraph 2).

The care and education of children are the natural rights of parents, and above all, the obligations of parents. Its implementation shall be supervised by the state community.

This provision is impressive because it clearly speaks to the state of education in a capitalist state, and at the same time points out the way out of it.

The first part of the provision privatizes child rearing by declaring that "child care and education", that is, child rearing in general, is the "natural" right and duty of parents. In extreme terms, this is equivalent to acknowledging that children are the personal property of their parents—just like "children that belong to me." Here, the notion of capitalist private ownership that extends to children is oozing out.

However, the latter part of the regulation is to check the child rearing, which is the private matter of the parents, in the form of "supervision of the state community."  The reason for such restraint is speculated as follows. No matter how much children are the property of their parents, if parents are allowed to do as they please, there is a danger that the function of reproducing the next-generation labor force that capitalism expects of married families will not work. So the "state community" must ensure that the parents raise their children to be industrious labourers--wage serfs.

The above is a somewhat poisonous super-interpretation, and I am sorry for the German people, but my true intention is not to ridicule the German constitution, but rather to refer to the latter part of the above provision as communist education. I would like to take it as a breakthrough.

In conclusion, a communist education assign the rights and responsibilities of the upbringing of all children born into society to the community, neither to the parents nor to the state—having said many times, there is no state in a communist society. In other words, society raises children.

Then what is the role of parents? As the "manufacturers" of individual children, they are responsible for cooperating in the upbringing of their children by the community, and to that extent have custody in the sense of the right to care for the children they created until they reach adulthood.

You may think that this structure is upside down, but it is impossible to impose full responsibility for raising children on parents who inherently vary in their ability to raise children. Child abuse and neglect, like over-interference and over-protection, are nothing but tragic manifestations of such unreasonableness.

There is no special training to become a parent, let alone a license exam. And the important thing is that no child is born choosing good parents.

If that is the case, it may be easy to understand that children born into society should basically be raised by society. However, in this case, society does not raise children as future labor force, but as future "citizens" who are equipped with the skills to be the bearers of society. 

1.2. Compulsory childcare system

The communist principle that children are raised by society first appears in the life course of the compulsory childcare system. Today, compulsory education is widespread even in capitalist countries, and insofar as it is, it can be said that "children are raised by society" is half-realized even under capitalism.

However, as in the analogy of "strike while the iron is hot", preschool childcare has an importance equal to that of education in terms of social development of human beings. Therefore, it is highly necessary to make not only education but also childcare an obligation for all children.

This compulsory childcare system applies to all infants from 6 months of age until they reach the school age (standard 6 years old) for the integrated basic education (compulsory education) described later. The contents of the childcare are different from mere day care and so-called "gifted education." "Gifted education" is nothing but the exploitation of the child's potential by the parents to satisfy the self-esteem of the parents, ignoring the child's inherent aptitude and preferences, and is an expression of treating children as the parents' personal property.

The obligatory childcare is, as mentioned above, early childhood preschooling with the aim of cultivating social human beings. Therefore, in terms of its contents, the focus is first on having children learn how to relate to others, which is the essence of sociality, that is, relationships to others, including negative relationships such as discord and confrontation.

However, because childcare also has welfare elements, it is the commune that is responsible for compulsory childcare. Communes must, of course, provide childcare facilities to accommodate all relevant infants within their jurisdiction. On that point, just like the “welfare without financial resources” that we saw in the previous chapter, in a communist society freed from financial resources, it is fully possible for communes to provide the necessary number of childcare facilities.

1.3. Children's Group activities

The principle that children are raised by society generally takes the form of education through public educational institutions. However, there is a limit to the training of people with social skills through such formal education alone. Therefore, as a more informal form of education, a community-based Children's Group will be introduced.

This is aimed at children from 7 to 15 years old, who are the most important in developing social skills. Mixed-age/gender-mixed boy groups are organized in the community, and under the guidance of instructors who have undergone prescribed training, weekends and This is an outdoor activity that takes place twice a month on national holidays (with or without overnight stays). The purpose is to provide social education, which is not covered by compulsory education, for children of the age when full-fledged social development should be promoted.

The declining birthrate, which is also a correlated phenomenon of the nuclear family--the basic line of which will not change in the coming communist society-has generally fewer siblings or an increase in the number of children who are only children. In light of the fact that opportunities to acquire social skills through sibling relationships are greatly reduced, Children's Groups can be thought of as forming a "pseudo-sibling relationship" based on the community.

For that purpose, all children of the relevant age are obliged to participate, unless it is difficult for them to participate for medical reasons. The content of the activities is not schoolwork or sports, but a form of free play in the natural environment through nature observation, etc., which is informal but also serves as environmental education.

The implementation body is the same as childcare, the commune. In the commune, a Children's Group is organized in each district, and instructors are trained and assigned. As mentioned in Chapter 4 and touched upon again in this chapter, basic education courses are managed at the level of regional areas as intermediate municipalities, so communes can focus on such informal education in addition to compulsory childcare.

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6. Efficient and equitable medical care is provided.

6.1. Community-centered medical system

Along with the pension anxiety, the medical crisis that worsens access to medical care symbolizes the fluctuations of the capitalist welfare state. Medical shortages are a common cause of concern for countries with a high public burden of medical expenses. On the other hand, in underdeveloped countries with poor public finances, it is impossible to spread public medical care in the first place, and the absence of medical care is the norm.

Putting aside various technical factors, medical difficulties and lack of medical care are fundamentally medical finances, or in other words, money problems. The only way to recover from the medical difficulties is to keep low-income and poor people away from medical care by raising the patient burden rate of public medical care (in other words, shifting to self-pay medical care) and increasing medical insurance premiums. As such, it becomes equivalent to no medical care.

In contrast, a communist society freed from the destabilizing factor of financial resources would provide a more efficient and fair medical system. Various systems are conceivable for communist medical care. For example:

First of all, the front line of regional medical care, which is the pillar of medical care, will be handled not by the commune, but by the regional area, which is a wider intermediate municipality, so as not to place an excessive burden on the commune. At this level, in addition to operating public hospitals that serve as regional medical bases, public clinics will also be opened in depopulated areas.

On the other hand, conventional private hospitals and clinics will also conduct medical care under public supervision as registered medical institutions at the regional level. However, the qualifications of practitioners and the oversight of the quality of care in private hospitals will be more stringent.

In the field of emergency care, it is also possible to set up emergency departments with well-staffed staff at all base hospitals in the region, without worrying about financial resources, and are capable of accurate triage. 

On the other hand, more advanced treatment for specific diseases and treatment and research for intractable diseases that cannot be handled by ordinary hospitals are the role of specialized hospitals in provincial areas, quasi-zones, or zones.

6.2. Planned allocation of doctors

On the other hand, communism should greatly solve the problem of the uneven distribution of doctors, which is both the cause and the result of the lack of medical care. This is because in communist medicine, the planned placement of doctors is a very natural measure.

In other words, excluding specific specialists with particularly advanced knowledge and skills, general physicians are first registered for each provincial area, and then, in order to avoid excess or deficiency,  they will be placed in each hospital in a well-balanced manner according to the medical needs of each regional area.

In principle, in addition to doctors from private hospitals, private practitioners who are approved after undergoing extremely strict qualifications will also be part-time or part-time regional medical public servants, and will be included in regional physician placement plans as necessary. In a communist society, private hospitals and practitioners are no longer profitable businesses, but become volunteers. Therefore, the difference from public hospitals and clinics will become relative, and their public character will become clearer and more sophisticated.

6.3. Role of Public Health Centers and Pharmacies

In a communist society where the monetized economy has been abolished, patients would not be required to pay medical expenses at any medical institution (including private hospitals and clinics).  As a result, there will be no need for a subsidy system such as public medical insurance. If this were to happen, conservative Americans who disapprove of public health insurance would surely be delighted.

This free supply principle is the same as for all other goods and services. However, if such a "medical paradise" is realized, there may be concerns that hospitals may be overwhelmed with patients.

In that regard, in communist medical care, public health centers provide comprehensive preventive services from the perspective of disease prevention, such as initial diagnosis through health consultations and advice on lifestyle habits. It will serve as a bulwark to prevent hospitals from flooding with mildly ill patients.

In addition, pharmacies will also function as drug therapy stations, not drug supermarkets like those under capitalism, but facilities for certain diagnoses and prescriptions for mild cases. This will be achieved by reestablishing pharmacists as pharmacy experts independent of physicians.

6.4. Scientific and fair pharmaceutical production

Here I would like to touch on the issue of drug development, which is inseparably linked to the medical system. It is a well-known global phenomenon that drug development is held in the hands of huge pharmaceutical capital under a capitalist economy. What is happening as a result?

One is the control of medical care by pharmaceutical capital. In other words, they are forcing treatment with new drugs on the medical community through human experiments called clinical trials.

Originally, drug clinical trials should be conducted neutrally, scientifically, and humanely, but in reality, medical scientists who receive research funding from pharmaceutical capital cooperate in a substantial way. As such, the conclusions are often even manipulated in favor of pharmaceutical capital. Even worse, it goes as far as putting the cart before the horse, creating a new disease name for new drug development.

As a result, even well-meaning general doctors who are unaware of the circumstances will prescribe drugs of dubious efficacy or even harmful drugs. Even if serious drug hazards arise from that, the pharmaceutical capital will not take legal responsibility easily. 　

In contrast, under communism, as mentioned in Chapter 2, pharmaceuticals are handled collectively by the Pharmaceutical Organization, one of the production business organizations, which are socially owned enterprises, and are managed separately from the general economic plan. Clinical trials are conducted in a scientifically rigorous and humane manner by a testing institution that is completely independent of the business organization. In addition, a drug monitoring agency will be established to check side effects of all drugs and have strong regulatory authority, such as discontinuing manufacturing.

Eventually, the pharmaceutical industry would be integrated at the global level, and world-class pharmaceuticals and drug distribution – free of charge, of course – would be controlled under the oversight of specialized agencies such as today's World Health Organization (WHO). By doing so, we will see a solution to the problem that low-cost distribution of AIDS treatment drugs in less developed countries such as African countries suffering from the AIDS epidemic is hindered by the patent barrier of pharmaceutical capital.

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5. Environmental welfare housing will be realized.

5.1. Release from rent or loan

In capitalist society, housing is not recognized as a welfare issue, and has been treated exclusively as an issue of ownership, or even status.

As a result, the housing problem is the most blatant class disparity between the haves = homeowners/landlords, and the have-nots = tenants/homeless. In this housing class structure, not only do the have-nots struggle to pay rent, but the haves often struggle to pay their mortgages. Both the haves and the have-nots are groaning as they are placed in the passive position of debtors over the fundamental part of human existence, which is "living."

In particular, the status of tenants is subordinate. The tenants' survival is controlled by the landlord, and their social position is weak, so they cannot acquire a dominant position in the local community. Therefore, the increase in rental housing has led to the weakening and dissolution of such local communities themselves.

On that point, as already mentioned in Chapter 2, in a communist society where the monetary economy is abolished, there is no room for the system of rental housing that pays rent with money. This will free millions of people around the world from the precarious status of renters. This, too, could be called a great social revolution.

At the same time, the abolition of the monetary economy will also put an end to bad systems such as mortgages. Isn't this another piece of good news?

5.2. Enhancement of public housing supply

So what is communist housing policy? First, the commune, which is the base of administration related to daily life, will become the main body for the supply of public housing.

Under capitalism, public housing is mainly low-rent rental housing for low-income earners, but communist public housing is more for the general public, with no particular restrictions on occupancy conditions and unlimited occupancy periods. Inheritance is also permitted in principle. In addition to such ordinary housing, the supply of housing with care for the elderly and housing with support for the disabled, as seen in the previous section, will also be promoted. 

In the case of large-scale extended communes, it may be worth considering entrusting the day-to-day management and operation of these public housing to a section, which is the smallest autonomous unit, for decentralized operation.

As we saw in Chapter 2, individual home ownership is permitted even in a communist society. However, in a communist society, owner-occupied houses will no longer be supplied as off-the-shelf products by housing developers, but will change to a custom-made system in which each individual asks a professional architect to design. (Of course, you can also build your own house). House construction will also be handled by carpenter craftsmen's unions, and we will surely see the revival of the traditional world of craftsmen.

5.3. Intersection of environment and welfare

By the way, the housing issue is also a field where the environment and welfare intersect. In that sense, the ideal housing is a combination of design that considers environmental sustainability (including the surrounding environment of the housing) and universal design that makes it easy for the elderly and people with disabilities to live. It can be called "environmental welfare housing".

In capitalist housing, where efficiency and high functionality tend to be prioritized, this kind of thing would remain a slogan and would not be easily realized. Communism highly promotes the construction of such environmental welfare housing.

For example, for public housing, standard universal  design is applied without exception, regardless of the condition of the residents. This is also a physical condition for the deinstitutionalization of dismantling nursing homes and facilities for the disabled. At the same time, the supply of energy-saving housing, especially the energy-saving renovation of existing public housing will be implemented as a major project, and the green parks surrounding the housing will also be promoted.

In addition, the rise of high-rise housing, which is often regarded as a symbol of capitalist modernization, tends to harm the cultural environment of the historical landscape. Therefore, the communist housing policy would aim for medium- and low-rise buildings as much as possible in the case of new construction.

In order to make this possible, the newly required housing lands will be covered by residential land development that reuses former commercial lands that have been transferred to the management of the Land Management Agency and idle lands that were owned by former capitalist companies.

In this way, communism can easily realize environmental welfare housing projects that require huge financial resources under capitalism, but it can be said that this is also a feat unique to "welfare without financial resources".

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4. Universal design advances in both name and reality.

4.1. Deinstitutionalization

In recent years, even in capitalist society, barrier-free society has become popular as a philosophy, but the financial resources are still a bottleneck in achieving complete barrier-free society, and progress has been slow. Communism, which is not financially constrained and is not tied to financial resources, would solve this problem without much difficulty.

In the first place, communist urban planning internalizes universal access, obliges all public places and buildings to be universal design, and promotes the construction of universal design housing. However, no matter how much physical universal design progress is made, it is meaningless if people with disabilities are housed in facilities and chained with invisible chains that prevent them from going out into the city.

In that respect, in capitalist society, where there is a strong idea that people with disabilities who are considered inefficient as a labor force should be "protected" in facilities, in addition to various facilities for the disabled, psychiatric hospitals, which are closer to concentration camps than hospitals have been developed. However, communist societies are highly capable of abolishing such facilities.

In order to promote advanced deinstitutionalization (demolition of facilities), it is necessary to develop home community care as a prerequisite for it, as is the case with the elderly. In this respect, care for the disabled has much in common with care for the elderly. Therefore, who can be cared for at the public care stations mentioned in the previous section can be cared for there, and those who cannot (e.g., the mentally challenged) can be cared for at specialized services for the disabled.

4.2. Disabled-led production entities

In the case of persons with disabilities, it is necessary not only to care for them, but also to guarantee their social participation, especially to secure a place to work. Currently, people with disabilities need to engage in wage labor if they want to make a living independently, but the barriers are thick. It is difficult for people with disabilities to be exploited as wage serfs in the same way as ordinary workers, for whom various considerations are essential according to their characteristics.

In contrast, communist labor, as we saw in detail in Chapter 3, is unpaid labor. Since it is labor as social cooperation, it becomes much easier for people with disabilities to find a place to work at their own capacity and pace.

In addition, business entities such as vocational training facilities for people with disabilities who cannot survive the profit-seeking competition will be able to go beyond mere "vocational training" and become independent production entities led by people with disabilities.

In this respect as well, a communist society that is centered not on exchange value but on use value can essentially be a "disabled-friendly" economic system. Production cooperatives, which are small and medium-sized mainstream production organizations in a communist society, are more suitable than joint-stock companies for developing production projects by persons with disabilities themselves because they are not profitable.

4.3. Anti-discrimination and barrier-free minds

Physical barrier-freeness is also important as a foundation for universal design policies, but what is more fundamentally important is the elimination of mental barriers that are latent in general society and exclude people with disabilities. Without it, deinstitutionalization would end up as an illusion.

This barrier-free mind may seem to be a universal issue for human society that is no longer directly related to communism. However, this is not necessarily the case.

The pillar of communist social morality is "anti-discrimination". As we have already seen, communist society is based on social cooperation and mutual aid, so it goes against the fundamental morality of society to exclude and isolate people of different backgrounds.

Therefore, as will be described in the next chapter, from the early stage of basic education (compulsory education), active promotion of interaction and integrated education between children with disabilities and non-disabled children will be promoted, and the awareness of welcoming persons with disabilities as equal members of society will be promoted at an early stage.