Have you ever heard of the term social murder? Where someone dies an unnatural death as a result of societal conditions, but can’t be blamed on any single individual?
I would argue that it’s possible to murder someone through inaction.
I don’t think every unnatural death can be traced to a single individual but it can almost always be traced to the group that individual is part of. The collective individual actions of that group lead to the death of the individual.
For example someone sleeping on the street who dies of exposure. The cold killed them but the inaction of the group who was able to prevent that death can be held to blame.
My point though is that capitalism didn’t kill them. They could have survived within capitalism if the group had chosen to extend aid to that individual.
To be clear, I’m not saying we should place blame on capitalism, but we can’t stop there. We have to understand the root cause of the problem which is social more than political IMO.
Ok, but once you understand a social problem, sometimes the solution is political. Like, what if we as a group choose to extend aid by charging landlords a massive fee for letting homes go empty and unused. Or if we used the law to end housing as an investment vehicle.
I agree, my argument is just that we need to understand and address the core social problems in order to better understand how to construct political solutions than actually work.
That’s what Marxism-Leninism does. The term “scientific socialism” that came about with Marx and Engels was based on analysis of history and existing conditions, they explicitly rejected the “utopian” model that believed they just needed to find the right recipe.
Have you ever heard of the term social murder? Where someone dies an unnatural death as a result of societal conditions, but can’t be blamed on any single individual?
I would argue that it’s possible to murder someone through inaction.
I don’t think every unnatural death can be traced to a single individual but it can almost always be traced to the group that individual is part of. The collective individual actions of that group lead to the death of the individual.
For example someone sleeping on the street who dies of exposure. The cold killed them but the inaction of the group who was able to prevent that death can be held to blame.
My point though is that capitalism didn’t kill them. They could have survived within capitalism if the group had chosen to extend aid to that individual.
To be clear, I’m not saying we should place blame on capitalism, but we can’t stop there. We have to understand the root cause of the problem which is social more than political IMO.
Ok, but once you understand a social problem, sometimes the solution is political. Like, what if we as a group choose to extend aid by charging landlords a massive fee for letting homes go empty and unused. Or if we used the law to end housing as an investment vehicle.
I agree, my argument is just that we need to understand and address the core social problems in order to better understand how to construct political solutions than actually work.
You are talking to people who have done that
That’s what Marxism-Leninism does. The term “scientific socialism” that came about with Marx and Engels was based on analysis of history and existing conditions, they explicitly rejected the “utopian” model that believed they just needed to find the right recipe.