A real hero of the people

[Onhell]

I know what they DID. I'm speaking THEORETICALLY here. Individuality is in fact what each person thinks. However do you find individual thinking in tribes? in villiges? Hardly. They think and act as one, Durkheim called it MECHANICAL Solidarity because it is automatic, done WITHOUT much thought.
Marx didn't want to supress individuality, he wanted to reverse or fix the ills brought on by Capitalism. His theory is from the point of view of the oppressed, not the oppressor. After the USSR colapsed however all "marxist" went into hiding and now such school of thought is called "conflict theory" and still serves some purpose. In other words, whether you call it Communism or Conflict Theory it is as relevant today as it was in the 19th century.

 

[Anonymous]

However do you find individual thinking in tribes? in villiges? Hardly. They think and act as one, Durkheim called it MECHANICAL Solidarity because it is automatic, done WITHOUT much thought.

Whoever Durkheim may be, (s)he is/was completely wrong there. It seems to me that (s)he took the classical savage clichées and made a theory out of it. Individual thinking occurs everywhere where you have people. Even the most primitive society comes up with them. The warrior who wants to prove his manliness to his peers. The artist whose totem poles look better than those of others. It is true that in such a society, the character traits of most members are very similar, but it is impossible for them to all be alike. The reason is that, no matter how much you try to avoid it, everybody makes different experiences. One adolescent of the tribe is sent to the woods to sleep there for three nights and sees a deer; the other one has to run away from a bear. Occurences like this are what create individuality in the first place. And think of it: If there hadn't been some particularly bright, open minded or thoughtful individuals, would there ever have been inventions like the wheel, the lever or even pottery? Would art ever have come to existence or evolved? How can you ever have any progress without single individuals breaking new ground?