[Peace-discuss] Socialism & human nature

[C. G. Estabrook]

Q: How far does the success of libertarian socialism or anarchism really depend on a fundamental change in the nature of man, both in his motivation, his altruism, and also his knowledge and sophistication?

[Noam Chomsky] I think it not only depends on it but in fact the whole purpose of libertarian socialism is that it will contribute to it.  It will contribute to a spiritual transformation - precisely that kind of great transformation in the way humans conceive of themselves and their ability to act, to decide, to create, to produce, to enquire - precisely that spiritual transformation that social thinkers from the left-Marxist traditions, from Luxemburg say, through anarcho-syndicalists, have always emphasized.  So on the one hand it requires that spiritual transformation.  On the other hand, its purpose is to create institutions which will contribute to that transformation in the nature of work, the nature of creative activity, simply in social bonds among people, and through this interaction of creating institutions which permit new aspects of human nature to flourish.  And then the building of still further libertarian institutions to which these liberated human beings can contribute: this is the evolution of socialism as I understand it.

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