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3. Do it differently from the Communist Party.

3.1. Commons' Convention as a revolutionary movement

As the name suggests, the communist revolution was conventionally thought to be carried out centered on the Communist Party, but that is no longer the case. The communist revolution by the people presented here is a direct revolution by the nonpartisan people, not by the Communist Party, but by any political party organization.

However, I am not so simple as to claim that the revolutionary business can be completed without any kind of organization. Organizing a revolutionary movement is also inevitable. What is that organization? 

It is the Commons' Convention. This concept has already been mentioned. While it appears as a new governing organization in a communist society where the state is abolished, the Commons' Convention also has the consistency of being formed and developed as a revolutionary movement organization before the revolution.

This "pre-revolutionary Commons' Convention" is an organization that is planned to become an official governing body after the revolution - a sort of chrysalis - so to speak. We have already discussed the structure of the Commons' Convention after the revolution in Chapter 4, so here we will look at the Commons' Convention before the revolution.

3.2. Outline of the pre-revolutionary Commons' Convention (1): World Commons' Convention

A communist revolution that abolishes the monetary economy and state system cannot be practiced by a single country alone; it must go through successive revolutions in each country and ultimately reach the creation of a transnational and global World Commonwealth.

To that end, the Commons' Convention needs to advance from its first step toward a globalist organization that transcends existing nations. That is, the formation of the World Commons' Convention.

The World Commons' Convention is the world center of the Commons' Convention movement, which is scheduled to function as the General Assembly of the World Commonwealth when it is established in the future. 　

However, even though it is called the world center, the relationship between the World Commons' Convention and each country's Commons' Convention is not a hierarchical relationship between headquarters and branch offices. It will be positioned as a forum with the pillars of information exchange and situation analysis. 

At the same time, it is also important to create a Commons' Convention at the grand-zonal level, which was touched on in Chapter 4. This will be formed for each of the five grand zones, which will be described again in the final chapter, and in the future it will be a representative body that will elect five representatives to constitute the Grand-zonal Representatives' Conference that will function as the executive body of the World Commonwealth. However, until then, it will serve as a temporary general council for the Commons' Convention of each country belonging to the large region that will constitute the grand zone in the future. 　

Supporting exiled Commons' Conventions in countries where domestic activities are particularly difficult because organizations such as the Commons' Convention are targets of repression and persecution domestically is an important mission of the grand-zonal Commons' Convention. As such, the  grand-zonal Commons' Convention will have a temporary base in a country where Commons' Convention activities are relatively free, if not entirely risk-free.

3.3. Outline of the pre-revolutionary Commons' Convention (2): Commons' Convention in each country

 When the World Commonwealth is established through successive revolutions, sovereign nations will be abandoned, but before the revolution, a Commons' Convention linked to the World Commons' Convention must be organized for each existing country for the time being. 　

At that time, in light of the nature of the consistency system mentioned above, each country's Commons' Convention organization was established at each level of communes, regional areas, and provincial areas (quasi-zones in the case of federal states) in accordance with the development after the revolution. If governing bodies corresponding to regional areas or provincial areas were not established before the revolution, provisional divisions will be applied. 　

However, even here, there is no hierarchical relationship between the Commons' Convention of zones and the Commons' Convention of each local area, and no centralized leadership body such as a central committee is placed in the Commons' Convention of zones.

Instead, a Central Liaison Committee(Federal Liaison Committee in the case of federal states) will be established as an organization that connects local networks. To avoid capital centered operations, the commission will be located in a city other than the capital. 　

In addition to holding regular meetings of its own, the Central Liaison Committee plans and hosts an annual general meeting. The general meeting is a forum for exchanging information and analyzing the situation, and unlike political party conventions, it does not pass binding resolutions. 　

On the other hand, the Commons' Convention of provincial areas (or quasi-zones) and regional areas will also have a Liaison Committee to act as a liaison body for each Commons' Convention. In addition, a small Liaison Committee will be set up in the Commons' Convention of communes and serves as a conduit to the Commons' Convention of regional areas. 　

In this way, unlike the Communist Party, the Commons' Convention does not have a central leadership—therefore, the Central Liaison Committee does not have a chairperson or equivalent general secretary. It will be operated as a decentralized network-type organization in which the Commons' Convention of zone and the Commons' Convention of each local area within it organically cooperate.

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Chapter 8: NEW REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT

2. There is another way of revolution.

2.1. Methodology of revolution

Speaking of revolution, the proletarian theory of revolution in the past assumed that the armed working class would stand armed. But Marx, who was basically an armed revolutionist, also suggested that revolution could be done by peaceful means. However, he never specified a specific methodology for a "peaceful revolution." 　

No matter how much you call a revolution, if you can't find a concrete way to put it into practice, it will end up as empty words. However, in the past, there was little tendency to think about revolutions in a methodological way, and even in an era when people could still feel a great deal of reality in revolutions, they tended to end up with vague images of armed revolutions. 　

However, precisely because the revolution is losing its reality today, it is necessary to thoroughly question the method of revolution - especially the method suitable for the plebeian revolution shown in the previous section. Through that, the reality of the revolution will be regained again.

2.2. Popular uprising

The popular uprising is the most symbolic image of the revolution due to its dramatic nature. The Russian Revolution (1917) is a representative example of a successful popular revolution since the 20th century, but the Cuban Revolution (1959), in which young people raised armed uprisings through guerrilla activities, can also be included in this category. 　

In this method, the people who participate in the revolution usually stand armed, but there are also unarmed popular uprisings. The large-scale demonstrations (1989) that dismantled the "Berlin Wall" and forced the extinguishment of the former East Germany, a loyal satellite of the former Soviet Union, symbolic of the Soviet-style collectivist system and Cold War. It can also be seen as an example of an unarmed popular uprising.

In any case, the opponent of a revolution caused by a popular uprising is always determined to be an autocratic repressive regime. This is because a large-scale popular uprising can only be realized when the people's antipathy and hatred toward the regime are used as energy. 　

In that sense, a revolution caused by a popular uprising would create a fierce confrontation with the regime. In addition to the inevitability of full-scale confrontation with the police and military mobilized by the regime to suppress it, as was the case with the Russian Revolution, counter-revolutionary maneuvers by the old regime may develop into civil war even after the revolution is completed. 　

On the other hand, in some cases, the regime itself may become as oppressive as the old regime. The oppression by the Communist Party after the Russian Revolution should be remembered as the most bitter example.

In general, revolutions caused by popular uprisings are often triggered by accidental demonstrations by the people, and it is difficult to predict the direction of their outbreak and development. 　

In any case, it can be said that the chances of witnessing a revolution by this method are also decreasing today, as blatant forms of tyrannical rule are gradually decreasing. A plebeian revolution in the form of such a popular uprising is still possible under repressive totalitarian regimes, but it will be relatively limited.

2.3. Collective non-voting　

In recent years, many countries have increasingly implemented "democratic" elections. There is something to be happy about in this trend, but on the other hand, In many countries, indirect representative politics through elections has become dysfunctional due to the alienation between professional politicians and the public, corrupted influence-peddling, etc., and is exposed to its ultimate limits.

However, it is practically difficult to overthrow a regime established through elections that satisfies "democratic" criteria with a popular uprising. Therefore, the method of collective non-voting is assumed. This is a method by which voters do not vote collectively in all public elections, both central and local, to prevent election candidates from being elected, and to establish neither parliaments nor governments (including those at the local government level).

In this way, after creating a "state of anarchy" by legally invalidating elections based on the provisions of the election law, the steps will be taken to peacefully transfer power through negotiations with the remaining former government. Therefore, this method is basically an unarmed, peaceful revolution, and also has the unique character of a "stay-at-home revolution," in which citizens do not have to go out into the streets to implement non-voting. 　

However, as far as I know, there have been no historical examples of revolutions using this method. The reason for this is the technical difficulty of the very means of collective non-voting. 　

In fact, in the electoral law, the minimum number of votes required for election is almost intentionally set low in preparation for situations such as mass non-voting, and in some countries, voting itself is mandated with penalties. Because of this, the establishment can also force the masses to vote with the threat of punishment.

Therefore, collective non-voting may not be successful in its purest form, unless it is implemented in combination with the popular uprising methods described above. Despite such technical difficulties, this method can be said to be suitable for the plebeian revolution as another method of revolution through a kind of civil disobedience.

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1. The leading actors of the revolution is the people.

1.4. Deconstruction of the "proletarian revolution"

Marxists, who once vigorously called the "proletarian revolution," now seem to abandon the difficult "proletarian revolution" and adapt to capitalism in a situation where the working class has almost has made capitalism part of itself. In fact, many of the remaining marxist parties in the world today (the marxist parties of various countries that have survived the dissolution of the Soviet Union) have either explicitly or implicitly tried to turn this line in the name of "pragmatism."

However, here I would like to avoid such self-abandoned "pragmatism" and explore the path to communism as far as possible. To that end, the "proletarian revolution" must be deconstructed using a different terminology and methodology.

1.5. Common sign "exploitation"

The first thing to confirm here is the iron rule that the latent central subject of the communist revolution is the working class. However, as mentioned above, today's working class is deeply divided. But there are signs that allow this to be reunified. This is the “exploitation” discussed in Chapter 3.

In this regard, capitalist terminology tries to minimize the meaning of "exploitation" and limit it to cases of extremely low-wage labor. But, in fact, people are forced into unpaid labor under various pretexts and are "exploited."

In terms of being exploited, there is no essential difference between the general worker class and the senior worker class, the stable class and the unstable class in the general worker class, and even the private sector workers and the public service workers. If there is a difference, it is in the way exploitation is manifested. In other words, it is only the difference between low-wage exploitation and falling into poverty, or high-wage exploitation making a living but suffering from exhaustion and dying from overwork.

In addition, the difference between the stable and unstable classes will also become relative at once due to the relaxation of dismissal regulations for regular workers and the suppression of wages for regular workers - this has been the case for small and medium-sized enterprises with weak management foundations.

On the other hand, it is quite difficult to subdue the generational conflict between the incumbent workers and the retired workers. However, it seems that this can also be solved to a certain extent from the viewpoint of "deferred exploitation."

In other words, the amount of pension benefits for retired workers is calculated based on the wage level at the time of their current employment, along with the premiums paid, so if they are exploited at low wages during their current employment, their future pension benefits will remain at a low level. In this way, an old-age pension is nothing but a “deferred exploitation” that continues until old age. This will become even clearer if a self-responsible, income-proportioned pension system is introduced in which the relationship between benefits and contributions perfectly corresponds.

Therefore, the image of retirees living carelessly on pension income supported by pension premiums steadily paid by incumbent workers is not accurate. In reality, pensions alone are not enough, and many elderly people find themselves in financial difficulties. It could be you or me in the future.

I would like to call people who share the common indicator of being exploited, even if the form of exploitation varies, "exploitediat."

1.6. Perspective of the "global environment"

Even so, we live in an age where categorizing people as the "working class" no longer holds much reality. So let's add the perspective of the "global environment" to the label of "exploitation."

Naturally, if the foundation of survival, the global environment, is destroyed, survival itself becomes impossible, so ensuring the sustainability of the global environment is a common challenge for all people.

However, capitalism is based on "exploiting" the global environment as well. The exploitation here is on a different level from exploitation in labor; it is literally exploitation that squeezes the environment out of us. The result is a crisis for survival.

Let's call those people whose living environments are at risk of survival due to the deterioration of the global environment - most of whom would overlap with the working class and the middle-peasant and lower-middle peasant classes - "ecologiat" in particular.

If we expand the common indicator of "exploitation" to include the exploitation of the global environment, this indicator can break away from the traditional boundaries of class, and by adding "ecologiat," it can become a common indicator that enables cross-class solidarity that includes people other than the working class.

1.7. Possibility of the "plebeian revolution"

Therefore, I would like to present the new term plebs, or "the commons（the common people）," which encompasses the exploitediat and ecologiat who are unified under the expanded common label of "exploitation," as well as the middle class people who are in a similar position to them. The commons are the actor of the new communist revolution.

By the way, a synonym for "commons" is "masses", which may be more popular. But here we make a clear distinction between the commons and the masses. Masses are politically unawakened, free-floating, and therefore opportunistic and at the same time easily provoked into a mob of disjointed individuals who, at worst, are lured into fascism.

In contrast, the commons referred to here are agglomeration of individuals associated and united as a politically awakened revolutionary class. Wage laborers are at the core of this, but there are also poor farmers, small farmers, marginalized intellectuals, petty capitalists, and others who are suffering from the laws of capitalism and who are trying to find a way out for the realization of a communist society. The commons encompass the whole mentioned above.

And in each country, these commons make up the majority of the population. Therefore, it is the communist revolution that is carried out in the name of the true majority of the people - including the minority. In short, it can be summed up in the conception "plebeian revolution, by the commons, for the commons."

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Chapter 8: NEW REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT

In order not to end communism as a pipe dream, we need a new revolutionary movement with a new term and a new methodology that breaks the old revolutionary common sense, armed proletarian revolution. What could it be like?

1. The leading actors of revolution are the common people.

1.1. Political enterprise called "revolution"

Up until the previous chapter, the reality of communist society has been described quite concretely, but the big question of how communism is actually realized in the first place still remains. If this big problem cannot be solved, communism will be nothing more than an unreachable blue bird.

So, first, I would like to review what was discussed in Chapter 1. I argued there that capitalism is strong and incapable of self-destruction, but that this 'modern' economic system reveals serious limitations.

Therefore, if we do not simply object to capitalism, but rather give up on capitalism and truly desire the realization of a communist society - for those who do not wish to do so, this chapter and the next chapter are unnecessary -, we must artificially break away from capitalism through the political enterprise of "revolution." Who will lead the revolution? This section is about the answer to this question.

1.2. Marxist model answer

According to Marxist theory, which is considered "orthodox", the working class (proletariat) is the main subject of the communist revolution. This answer is still politically correct. This is because capitalism, no matter how much it changes its superficial form, cannot, at its fundamental level, subside the class antagonism between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

Today, the line of labor-management cooperation has taken root in developed capitalist countries. However, this is nothing more than a remnant of the honeymoon period, when total capital increased the share of labor in an era of soaring growth, and managed to achieve relatively high wages. Therefore, when faced with an economic crisis such as the Great Recession of the World, the harsh structure of wage slavery will immediately surface.

The fact that it is the wage workers who suffer the most from the logic of capitalism is a universal law of political economy almost all over the world. Indeed, it is the wage laborers, i.e. wage serfs, who have the strongest reason for the final end of capitalism, and the proletarian revolution aiming at the realization of a communist society is the uprising of wage serfs. 

1.3. A difficult "proletarian revolution"

However, the above is just a revolutionary subject theory based on political economic theory, and from a social dynamics point of view, a "proletarian revolution" is no longer possible. why? First and foremost, today's working class is so deeply divided that it cannot be brought together by a single class interest.

First of all, this division has arisen in the form of a polarization within the incumbent workers between the general worker class (blue-collar workers) and the senior worker class (white-collar workers). The former are mostly non-career workers in the operational sector, while the latter are career workers who are candidates for future management positions.

Even though they are the same workers, they are placed in different positions. Senior workers are generally well-educated and highly paid, and although they are wage workers, they are candidates for future management positions and have the logic of capital. It is an elite who is fully educated and walks the path of management. They can be superior and sometimes even hostile to the common working class.

This division of "blue vs. white" has a long history with the development of the joint-stock company system, but in recent years, a dichotomy between relatively stable and unstable classes has become noticeable even within the general worker class. The stable class joins a labor union and manages to maintain solidarity, but the unstable class consists of many unorganized and fragmented non-regular workers, and their interests tend to conflict.

Furthermore, in modern times, public authorities such as the national and local governments also employ many wage workers. These public workers (so-called civil servants) are in a position to supervise the activities of private capital, have relatively high educational backgrounds and wage levels, and wage workers are also divided by these public and private sectors. However, even within the public sector, there is a clearer class difference between general workers and senior workers than in the private sector.

In addition to this division within incumbent workers, the generational divide between incumbent workers and retired workers is deepening with the development of the old-age pension system. If the pension income of retired workers is guaranteed by the pension insurance premiums paid by incumbent workers, whose future pension benefits may decrease, a clear intergenerational conflict will surface.

The intra-class divisions described above have also succeeded in relativizing the class differences between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat to a considerable extent. Many of the corporate executives who represent today's bourgeoisie are promoted and selected from among the upper working class (in some cases, the general working class). In this way, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie are connected by a staircase - by no means a smooth one. Furthermore, retired workers who invest part of their savings can be considered to be subsumed by the bourgeoisie as a class of petty investors.

In this way, the confrontational scheme of "bourgeoisie vs. proletariat" has, in fact, liquefied considerably without being subdued in essence.

Moreover, assimilation to capitalism is progressing remarkably even within the consciousness of the working class itself. Marx once wrote in the first volume of Capital,  “As capitalist production progresses, the working class who accepts the demands of this mode of production as self-evident natural laws through education, tradition, and custom will appear.” Now it seems that the working class has almost has almost made capitalism part of itself.

As such, it cannot be said that a "proletarian revolution" is completely impossible, but it must be said that it has become a project with little feasibility in its literal form.

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Chapter 7: SKETCH OF COMMUNIST SOCIETY -- CULTURE

4. The culture of competition will decline.

4.1. Capitalist struggle for existence

Competition is as important as commercial value as a capitalist cultural value. This is closely related to the fact that commodities, which are the main characters of capitalist society, are competitive bets sold through the market, which is, so to speak, a playing field among producers.

This kind of competition is the principle of the market economy that is the cornerstone of capitalist society, and at the same time, it is also a cultural value that defines our lives.

In fact, in a capitalist society, in addition to economic competition between capitals, everything from exams, contests, competitions, competitions to elections is organized competitively. People born into capitalist society are exposed to the struggle for existence from the day they are born, and are screened out at each stage of the life cycle, and their lives are divided into winners and losers.

In such a competitive culture, it is a virtue not to feel guilty about knocking others down in competition. It is a triumph of my talent and hard work, and I am innocent of it.

If such a sense of values prevails, the trend of socially cooperating to accomplish a single project will disappear, and humans will become separate atoms in competitive relationships with each other. The local community is also dismantled, and the neighbors look like unknown foreigners.

People in a society with highly developed capitalism are lonely. They are further reduced to an indivisible individual-person, and in exchange for a rich consumer life, they are buried in a "huge collection of commodities." On the other hand, once they are defeated in the struggle for survival, it is difficult for them to start over, lose their place to belong, and become socially excluded and marginalized.

However, even those who survived the competition never seem to be truly satisfied, and it seems that there is a gaping empty hole in their hearts.

There are strong voices complaining about the "hardness of life", but this is a sociopathological symptom that the culture of competition produces on the side of the "losers" of the competition. On the other hand, the culture of competition causes pathological symptoms such as emptiness on the side of the  "winners'' of the competition.

4.2. Possibility of coexistence instinct

Contrary to the beliefs of competition supremacists, there is also evidence to speculate that humans are not necessarily competitive animals by nature. For example, the etymology of the word competition is "com: together" and "petere: pursue".

This original meaning does not have the nuance of kicking down other rivals, but rather it has the implication of encouraging and improving each other. When this competition falls into the hands of capitalism, it becomes a ruthless struggle for survival.

Another example is the cartel. Cartels are cracked down as illegal conspiracies between capitalists that impede capitalist competition, but they are cracked down with penalties because they will continue to exist if left unchecked.

Why does capital, which glorifies competition on the surface, tries to avoid it behind the scenes? The end result of purely pursuing capitalist competition, in which rivals are kicked and crushed, is that the winner of the competition takes everything, in other words, a monopoly without competition.

Competition results in non-competition. Here lies the self-contradiction of capitalist competition. The only way to avoid this contradiction is to form a cartel and coexist with competing capitals. This is also one of the coexistence instincts inherent in capital.

Such examples seem to suggest that humans, who appear to be competitive animals, have a nature that can be called an instinct for coexistence. In fact, recent behavioral economics has revealed that humans are endowed with not only selfishness but also altruism.

4.3. Competition as friendly rivalry

Some people criticize the communist society as a lukewarm society with no competition, but even in a communist society, competition = friendly rivalry in the sense just mentioned is not denied. Social cooperation, which is emphasized in communist society, is by no means lukewarm, but rather teaches people the value of friendly rivalry.

If that happens, the meaning of exams and competitions will surely change. Exams will not be a means of sifting out, but a measure for discovering each person's aptitude, and a means for teachers themselves to verify the results of their own teaching methods. It will change from a place of jealousy where rivals secretly anticipate hope for their rivals' missteps, to a place like a festival where they show off and evaluate each other's skills.

The meaning of competitions such as the Olympics may also change. It will no longer be a competition for medals between countries sending athletes, or a competition for profit and advertising between sponsorship companies, but will return to their roots as a sports festival where participating athletes and teams are purely immersed in the competition, and spectators are purely enjoying watching.

In the realm of production, as we saw in Chapter 2, the free production system will be adopted in fields where the planned economy is not applied, and in the communist economy, the concept of exchange value will disappear, and a world centered on use value will arrive. As a result, there remains a kind of competitive relationship over the true value of products, namely how to produce high-quality, easy-to-use, and long-lasting products.

In a communist society, competition will generally change into a "co-running."

4.4. Ultimate suicide prevention measures

With the decline of the culture of competition, it is predicted that there will be some important changes in terms of spiritual culture.

First of all, the number of people who lose the competition and choose death because they are unable to start over in life will decrease significantly. Of course, even in a communist society, the number of suicides will not be zero, but many of the causes of suicide will be limited to purely existential causes (such as illness and bereavement). In this respect, communism should be more effective in preventing suicide than any psychiatrist.

The other is that the number of people seeking salvation in religion may decrease. Since "relying on God when in trouble" is a common phenomenon throughout the world, people pray to God in societies with more problems.

Exhausted by capitalist competition, even if they do not commit suicide, there are many people who are attracted to spiritual things in search of "healing". So long as it actually heals the capitalist trauma--although here too there is always the danger of being caught by a counterfeit--religion is more than opium, despite Marx's famous proverb. The religious fervor of the Muslim world is the most bitter yet powerful illustration of this.

However, the culture of friendly rivalry and communist "co-running" will reduce social problems and limit the role of religion to that played by philosophy. It is in this sense that communism is atheistic, and it cannot imply religious oppression that deprives people of freedom of religion.

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Chapter 7: SKETCH OF COMMUNIST SOCIETY -- CULTURE

3. The mass media empire will be dismantled.

3.1. Diversification of media

As a device of speech in capitalist society, the dominance of the mass media today cannot be ignored. This remains essentially the same in the Internet age – albeit with some changes in the forms and influences of media domination.

The mass media themselves are commercial capital that sells information as commodities. At the same time, they are also the bearers of the cultural system of commodity value, as they are commissioned to advertise general commodities, and they are also the commercial sponsors of literature and the arts. As such, it also holds a part of market censorship. Indeed, the mass media is the empire of culture.

In a communist society, this imperial rule of the mass media will come to an end. This is not because the mass media will be under authoritative control, but because they will be diversified in terms of both their operation and content.

From the perspective of eliminating excessive concentration, the mass media in communist society would be dismantled and operated non-commercially through new organizational forms such as media cooperative. As a result, newspapers, which are currently being overwhelmed by television and the Internet, will be able to publish freely without being constrained by the number of sales.

Also, in the world of television, as a result of the abolition of the commercial line that that prioritized audience numbers under the pressure of sponsor capitalist companies, there is an increased possibility that serious programs that delve into social issues can be freely produced without being bound by ratings. On the contrary, it is predicted that the diversification of programs will progress.

By the way, the decline of radio, which was once an important medium as the origin of broadcasting media, is remarkable, but as a result of liberating all media from commercialism in communist society, the classic medium of radio might be unexpectedly rediscovered and revived. 

3.2. Making anyone a reporter

By dismantling the imperial rule of the mass media, the whole way of communication in society will be transformed. In other words, uniform mass communication will lose its weight, and a more diverse and direct world of communication will open up. This is different from the information backward world that relies on old-fashioned lore and word of mouth, and it is the advent of a world where anyone can become a journalist as a response to the situation where anyone can become a writer or artist.

In the world of the Internet, ordinary citizens are already carrying out a kind of journalistic activity, including the distribution of photos and videos, sometimes faster than the mass media. In a communist society, such activities of "citizen reporters" will become even more active, and such activities will be grouped together to form new media.

In that regard, thorough training in writing logical sentences in the basic education curriculum is expected to improve the writing skills of the general public and serve as a guarantee of the quality of citizen journalistic activities.

In this way, "freedom of the press" ceases to be a privilege of the mass media, and is handed over to the people as something that belongs to everyone. It can be said that this is also a manifestation of “communist freedom,” which is the exact opposite of media control.

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2. Anyone could be a writer/artist.

2.1. Censorship by the market

The cultural system of product value can also have the effect of suppressing freedom. The sacrificial influence is greatest in the world of creative activity. It is one-sided to judge the value of creation based solely on whether it sells or not, but the cultural system of product value does not allow rebellion against it.

In this way, literary and artistic production is also entwined with the logic of commercial value, and while imitations are rampant here, even if there is literary and artistic value, if the work does not sell, it cannot be released to the world, and it will not be recognized as a so-called professional writer/artist.

On the other hand, from the side of the cultural industrial capital that governs the cultural system of commercial value, it is possible that the evaluation criteria for whether or not it will sell, in other words, whether or not it will receive the support of the public, is more objective than the evaluation criteria for purely literary and artistic value.

However, this is putting the cart before the horse. If the cultural industry capital creates popular support through marketing techniques and then manipulates things to "sell," to use a bad analogy, it's like someone who has set the fire himself, pointing at the fire and commenting that the brightly burning fire is objective.

It is true that pure literary and artistic value is subjective, so for example, it is possible that there are only a few people in the world who appreciate a certain creator's work P. However, if there are even a few people who appreciate it, it can be said that work P has "value". However, from the point of view of a product, the work P, which is likely to have only a few buyers in the world, will not be recognized for its commercial value, so this work will not be released to the world.

This is the function that should be called "market censorship" in which the value of literary and artistic works is judged by the market. In this case, it is the publisher, the art dealer, or the music office that controls the censorship, depending on the field. In short, it is cultural industrial capital as a whole.

Here, some may argue that state censorship is far more frightening than market censorship. Indeed, state censorship is coercive, often arbitrary, and harmful.

In this regard, since communism does not have a state as a subject, state censorship is logically impossible. Moreover, since the production of literature and art as commodities will be abolished, the censorship of the market will also disappear. What does this do? Everyone could a writer and an artist.

2.2. Premonition of the Internet Commons

Boasting that anyone could become a writer or artist may be laughed at, but this phenomenon is already becoming a reality.

The spread of the Internet has given "unsold" writers and artists a way to send their works out into the world without commercializing them. Even if there are only a few people who appreciate the work, the opportunity to present it is not lost. The work is treated as a gratuitous common property. This is the reason why the Internet space is also called commons.

In this Internet commons world, the commons (= ordinary people) are beginning to develop their own expressive activities. Of course, since we are still living in a capitalist era, the majority of such free works in the commons are not recognized as having commercial value, and therefore the chances of creation being recognized as a "vocation" are rare. Yet the world of the Internet seems to partly foreshadow a communist future of creative activity.

2.3. Blooming freedom of expression

Of course, even in a communist society, it is inevitable that the creator's reputation and name recognition will differ depending on whether or not the work receives wide support from the public. This means that, at a fundamental level, freedom of expression will be established both in name and reality.

In today's "liberal" capitalist society, the national censorship system has been abolished, and freedom of expression is generally legally guaranteed. Freedom of expression would truly blossom in a communist society, although this may go against present common sense.

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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.