Example research essay topic: Affect Their Lives Decisions That Affect Their Lives Freedom - 633 words

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Now that we have all been exposed to the Western view of their own system, which is highly optimistic and very blinded to the real fact, let us examine what capitalism really is, in practice, not in rhetoric. For libertarian communists, freedom means both "freedom from" and "freedom to. "Freedom from" signifies not being subject to domination, exploitation, coercive authority, repression, or other forms of degradation and humiliation. "Freedom to" means being able to develop and express one's abilities, talents, and potentials to the fullest possible extent compatible with the maximum freedom of others. Both kinds of freedom imply the need for self-management, responsibility, and independence, which basically means that people have a say in the decisions that affect their lives. And since individuals do not exist in a social vacuum, it also means that freedom must take on a collective aspect, with the associations that individuals form with each other (e. g. communities, work groups, social groups) being run in a manner which allows the individual to participate in the decisions that the group makes.

Thus freedom for libertarian communists requires participatory democracy, which means face-to-face discussion and voting on issues by the people affected by them. Are these conditions of freedom met in the capitalist system? Obviously not. Despite all their rhetoric about "democracy, " most of the "advanced" capitalist states remain only superficially democratic -- and this because the majority of their citizens are employees who spend about half their waking hours under the thumb of capitalist dictators (bosses) who allow them no voice in the crucial economic decisions that affect their lives most profoundly and require them to work under conditions inimical to independent thinking. If the most basic freedom, namely freedom to think for oneself, is denied, then freedom itself is denied.

The capitalist workplace is profoundly undemocratic. Indeed, as Noam Chomsky points out, the oppressive authority relations in the typical corporate hierarchy would be called fascist or totalitarian if we were referring to a political system. In his words: "There's nothing individualistic about corporations. These are big conglomerate institutions, essentially totalitarian in character, but hardly individualistic. There are few institutions in human society that have such strict hierarchy and top-down control as a business organization. Nothing there about 'don't tread on me'.

You " re being trade on all the time. " [Keeping the Rabble in Line, p. 28 Far from being "based on freedom, " then, capitalism actually destroys freedom. In this regard, Robert E. Wood, the chief executive officer of Sears, spoke plainly when he said "[w]e stress the advantages of the free enterprise system, we complain about the totalitarian state, but... we have created more or less of a totalitarian system in industry, particularly in large industry. " Or, as Chomsky puts it, supporters of capitalism do not understand "the fundamental doctrine, that you should be free from domination and control, including the control of the manager and the owner" Under corporate authoritarianism, the psychological traits deemed most desirable for average citizens to possess are efficiency, conformity, emotional detachment, insensitivity, and unquestioning obedience to authority -- traits that allow people to survive and even prosper as employees in the company hierarchy. And of course, for "non-average" citizens, i. e. , bosses, managers, administrators, etc. , authoritarian traits are needed, the most important being the ability and willingness to dominate others.

But all such master / slave traits are inimical to the functioning of real (i. e. participatory / libertarian communistic) democracy, which requires that citizens have qualities like flexibility, creativity, sensitivity, understanding, emotional honesty, directness, warmth, realism, and the ability to mediate, communicate, negotiate, integrate and co-operate. Therefore, capitalism is not only undemocratic, it is anti-democratic, because it promotes the development of traits that make real democracy (and so a libertarian communistic society) impossible.

Research essay sample on Affect Their Lives Decisions That Affect Their Lives Freedom