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To: PatrickHenry; CarolinaGuitarman; Alamo-Girl; marron; hosepipe; Lindykim; balrog666
The answer is simple: Darwin's work is incompatible with communism. Slam dunk.

And Darwin's work is also incompatible with capitalism -- to the extent that capitalism involves a system of voluntary cooperation, which goes entirely out of the schema of "natural" behavior. Which even Marx acknowledges: Marx thinks that cooperation subverts and distorts the natural interests of the human person, and that if there are any "battles to be won," they are to be won -- as Darwin suggests -- through "the war of all against all." That is, by means of conflict.

What a happy worldview!

150 posted on 02/18/2006 3:30:24 PM PST by betty boop (Often the deepest cause of suffering is the very absence of God. -- Pope Benedict XVI)
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To: betty boop
" And Darwin's work is also incompatible with capitalism -- to the extent that capitalism involves a system of voluntary cooperation, which goes entirely out of the schema of "natural" behavior."

Voluntary cooperation is natural. It happens all the time in the animal world, and it happens all the time with humans.

"as Darwin suggests -- through "the war of all against all."

You mean as Hobbes said. As I already posted, Hobbes is the originator of this phrase. It is the basis of his Leviathan, and was well known by political theorists in the 19th century. Also, when Marx used it, he was describing capitalism, not how things would be under communism. Lastly, the fact that there is a severe struggle within nature for survival is a true statement. The fact that Darwin quoted this (from De Condolle, who got it from Hobbes) only means he was describing biological reality. Do you disagree that there is a severe struggle for existence in nature?

151 posted on 02/18/2006 3:39:22 PM PST by CarolinaGuitarman ("There is grandeur in this view of life...")
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To: betty boop

What a load!

152 posted on 02/18/2006 3:48:35 PM PST by balrog666 (Irrational beliefs inspire irrational acts.)
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To: betty boop

capitalism involves a system of voluntary cooperation, which goes entirely out of the schema of "natural" behavior.

I don't remember Adam Smith ever saying anything like that. In fact, quite the contrary.

153 posted on 02/18/2006 4:00:19 PM PST by ml1954 (NOT the disruptive troll seen frequently on CREVO threads)
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To: betty boop; CarolinaGuitarman
BB, I fear that you are wasting your considerable talents on this truly hopeless task of trying to show that Marxism depends on and is compatible with Darwin's work. Hopeless.
1. Marx formed his main ideas before 1859, when Darwin published Origins. For example, Marx wrote:
Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844
Wage-Labour and Capital (1847)
Manifesto of the Communist Party [with Engels] (1847-48)
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859)
(Okay, that last one was 1859, but Origins was published in November of that year, so I doubt that Marx read Darwin, then wrote a book and got it published in the same year.)

2. The concepts don't mesh: Marxism's "to each according to his needs" is the opposite of natural selection. You've never responded to this point, but I think it's an insurmountable barrier to your project.

3. The Institute for Creation Research blames Darwin for the "evils" of capitalism -- not communism. He can't be responsible for both, can he?

The systems of Marx and Darwin are truly in conflict. The world of evolving species is strikingly similar to the free enterprise system, and it's just as strikingly dis-similar to any form of communism. They're just different.

What in the world are you trying to accomplish? And why?

155 posted on 02/18/2006 4:23:11 PM PST by PatrickHenry (Virtual Ignore for trolls, lunatics, dotards, scolds, & incurable ignoramuses.)
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