cocainesocialist:

if the right-libertarians of the world were right about capitalism being human nature, then, in the immediate aftermath of the manchester bombing people with cars would’ve become taxi drivers, haggling about price to fear ratios.

but what actually happened was that taxi drivers became simply people with cars- offering rides to safety for whoever needed one. crises aren’t times for price mechanisms and monetary exchanges. what we actually saw was human nature in retrograde, the

recrudescence of the species essence, reverting to an unthinking, natural logic of from each according to their abilities to each according to their needs. 

– it was base line communism.

this wasn’t reciprocity- the taxi drivers didn’t offer rides because they thought that they’d get something directly in return but because something within compelled them to do it. because it was the right thing to do. because we look after each other naturally and our instincts tend towards solidarity.

it’s the fact that this base line communism, of mutual support and solidarity is human nature that allows it to still exist in all of us, outside of the market and state and despite constant pressure to marketise every aspect of our lives, to consider everybody an evaluator or competitor- base line communism allows us to simply live.

it is humanity at its best, too often reduced to only appearing at the worst of times but one day it will win. it has to. and when it does we’ll see the best of ourselves all of the time.