Marx Kant into eRep: A Continuation
Chihiroh
This article lies in continuation of Konrad’s article : Marx Kant into eRep…But Hegel Can, which was well received overall. In his article, Konrad successfully argues that the writings of Marx cannot be translated into eRepublik because the game lacks the essential materialistic aspect of RL. He concludes that Marx cannot be translated into eMarx further than its Hegelian premise, and that if one would really want to use RL political philosophy in eRep, one might be more successful with another system such as Social Contract Theory. Despite Konrad’s clear presentation, he was met with a response from an antagonist who is clearly unaware of the fact that he bases himself on the same theoretical basis Konrad had just debunked. This is why I write this article; Konrad has started the project of pointing out the flaws in the impossible bridge some people think to have built mentally between Marx and a silly 21th century browser game. Here I will continue where he stopped, and will point out how many things go wrong if one persists in stepping from Marx to eMarx while ignoring the critical pitfalls Konrad demonstrated. I will argue that the project of the self-labelled Marxists in eBelgium fails and does a U-turn so drastically that a real Marxist would prefer the « eBelgian Elite » over what the pseudoMarxists strive for. Please note that while Konrad’s article is relevant for any movement in eRep that calls itself Marxist, I will focus on eBelgium. The consequence is that this article is only relevant to other countries insofar the « Marxist » parties have the same political aims as those in eBelgium.
As a quick summary, the « Marxist opposition » in eBe demands an unregulated Immigration policy and the end of any additional political developments out of the eRepublik domain (read : end forum-based government).
1. The « eBelgian elite » is not at all an elite in Marxian terms.
My first point is quite simple. While the « eBelgian Elite » can certainly be called like this in a few other definitions of the word « elite », it is not comparable to the elites Marx wrote about in his works. Marxian elites are those who decide on the relations of production and the organizational structure (in RL it is by owning the means of production). This power in eRepublik is almost entirely in the hands of the eRepublik admins. Plato decides how much money you’re getting, what you need to do to get X amount, how much your medal is worth, when you will be able to build that factory, … The structure is set by Plato with very little flexibility left, and the players are just there to fill in and be the content. In Marx’ words, Plato controls the infrastructure from which the superstructure originates. The forum is an example of such superstructure, and can be seen as the attempt of the players to use any flexibility left in Plato’s design to its full potential to the service of their community’s needs. This is why the « eBelgian Elite » is certainly not the elite Marx had in mind in his books, and this can be clearly seen in practice : the « elite » in eBelgium outnumbers the so called « proletariat », instead of the 1% versus 99% which is often depicted in RL.
2. Not all eCitizens are equal.
Equality is certainly one of Marx’ most important drive. The idea that no one can be morally superior to another, that everybody deserves the same treatment and privileges and thus that equality of outcome is the final goal. While I’m certainly not intending to criticize this for RL aspects, it becomes irrelevant once you play into the three modules of this browser game. Here, eCitizens (which are not necessarily played by humans) start out equally in all modules. The military module is relatively anciennity-based, while the economic module would almost be meritocratic if it wasn’t for the meddling of the military module (BH gold) and, of course, the VISA-factor. However, the political module is probably the most critical to anyone who would read this very article until here. That is because one of the few still entertaining aspects of eRepublik is community. Community is kept alive by activity, which requires effort and is quite heavily shaped by the simplistic democracy simulation that is the Political Module. Yet it is the unfair truth that someone heavily implicated in eRep community affairs, giving his time and effort, will always have as much say (1 vote) as a voting account or a multi. While equality is a strong element of justice in RL, it is certainly not in this case and I challenge anyone to successfully argue how voting accounts being able to overpower active players is ever fair. This point is important to remember for my last point.
3. The True Consequences of Unregulated Immigration.
In point 1, I already indirectly demonstrated that no intellectually honest Marxist would prefer the non-existence of forum-based government over its existence. Now I will demonstrate that their second demand in fact more akin to Mussolini than Che. It is self-evident that unregulated immigration as an eBelgium-only measure is unsound in all aspects. It would only drastically our risk of being invaded and turned into a satellite country of some bigger nation through Immigration. The only other way to argue that Unregulated Immigration is the good and Marxist political aim is through a positive result to the country variant of a Kantian Universality test : « Would a world where every country adopts Unregulated Immigration be better than the one we have now ? ».
It is this part that I want to look at more closely.
Country populations in countries would probably fluctuate more heavily. eBelgium would probably result in having a higher population because of how few we currently are, we could expect Unregulated Immigration to have a sort of osmosis effect. The more, the merrier? Think again. Ironically enough, such a world would mean the creation of an eInternational « Immigration free market », one where every actor (CMs) would use their pass according to their own social or political interests. And that’s one thing the Marxist tradition from Marx all the way to Piketty is clear on : a free-for-all organisational structure (=the Immigration free market) leads to a concentration of power, with more and more power being in the hands of fewer and fewer individuals. That’s the way Marx explained how capitalism led to a class conflict between the wealthy 1% and the proletariat in the first place. That’s where point 2 also comes into play. An active player and a voting account sadly have an equal say in the Political Module, and the former being far less easily found than the latter in this game for obvious reasons, it would mean that the eWorld would tend to be ruled by individuals who can gather voting accounts or multies to hold them in power, thus actually confirming that Marxist hypothesis!
The result would be a more Totalitarian eWorld and one killing activity. It is clearly worse than our actual eWorld and thus fails the Universality Test. I would also note that in this light you could compare the forum to RL labour unions in a certain aspect : a forum is a collectivized effort of active players to get an advantage in a system which, deregulated, would give multilords or voting account gatherers the upper hand. What is clear is that an intellectually honest Marxist would find the label of « Totalitarianism » to be a more appropriate label for the eBelgian movement calling themselves « Marxist » at this moment. And he would certainly side with the eBelgian Elite for being closer to a just distribution of power, at least until a better alternative system comes up (which what DEMOS and The Force strive for obviously isn’t). It is in that irony that I will close the circle and come back to this comment. Acting like a Che or striving towards an equivalent of the events he mentioned in eRep would certainly place him in an « eMarxist » alignment, but that isn’t the case. Those who call themselves Leninist anarchists in eBe actually strive towards something that would make the eWorld more totalitarian, and Stalin or Mao are probably better candidates to draw comparisons with their current actions.
This article contains 1372 words. (Hi Konnie
😃)
Congratz to everybody who made it this far, as a reward I’ll give you this. Perhaps some of you will guess what series I’ve been watching lately.
🙂
Take care,
Chihiroh
Comments
I'll read it tomorrow, but the beginning seems to be cool, so you got the vote! 😃
A very interesting and entertaining read. I started the trend of Wall of Text in eBE. I am happy 🙂
One day people will write walls of text so high it would shy the Wall from Game of Thrones itself. It is on that day that we will look back and realize what you have done 😛
Very interesting. You've made the arguments accessible for those not as well-read as you and Konrad. My chief criticism is that your link doesn't work. Try putting it into a tiny.url link.
It should be fixed now 🙂
Thank you. Now I know the series. 😉 It seems rather appropriate to the discussion.
\o/
Really good work... nice sequel to konrads article.
I doubt it can be said in a more clear way.
Good lord, even during my vacation I am constantly reminded of university, jeez. fine, guess I'll take some time to read through everything this weekend.
tl;dr 😛
voted 😁
excellent
What an impressive article...I really enjoyed reading it.
We are back again in to the Philosophic Theories mode of action, I see.
Are you trying to challenge me somehow? By putting screenie’s with my statements.
What should I say, so you don't invert my words upside down and I don't end up like I said something .which I really didn't say or I didn't mean.
You see, in the good old days of the Socialism; we've had a subject in our secondary schools calle😛
The Theory and The Practice of Self-Governing Socialism.
The point is: The Theory and The Practice - these are two key words to uphold.
The Theory - is a contemplative and rational type of abstract or generalizing thinking, or the results of such thinking. Depending on the context, the results might for example include generalized explanations of how nature works
The Practice - is condition arrived at by experience or exercise.
You, Konrad and some other people who are hanging on the Phorum (like lin0leum likes to say) are the representatives of the Theory - Theoreticians.
I myself am more fan of the Practice - I am the Practitioner. The man of action.
We are two completely different and opposed tribes in our opinions and our way of thinking.
Although I can't deny significance of the Theory as it is the base of everything. It's the base of Human knowledge.
My way of thinking and acting is based on in-deep preparation by gathering information, analyzing it (pro-contra), starting concrete action and leading it to fruitful ending.
Theories are nice, but they are just dead letter on the paper and they don't mean much without the real application through practice.
I hope you do realize that invoking Practice without explaining what valuability that "practice" actually brings forth of value to the argument makes it a mere Appeal to Authority, which is a logical fallacy.
You're not a "man of action", you're a man who doesn't understand Marx but still claims to act according to his theories.
It is possible I don't understand Marx completely. As I really didn't study him very detailed and in to the point.
And it is also fact, that I've had also subject calle😛 "Marxism" during my studies, for which I doubt you ever heard of.
As for The Theory and The Practice, I've used it just as a example to show the difference between our political standpoints, without going into the logical fallacies and the philosophical context of it.
I am not going to discuss anything anymore with you. You know everything better than me.
Lolz
My lunch is burning
Over and out
😛
As I see it, your theory/practice dichotomy is closely akin to what older players labeled role play vs. game mechanics. In point of fact, it is my belief that most eMarxist movements lean heavily toward the role play/theory side. As Konrad pointed out in his article, it is not really practical to try to put RL theories into practice in this game. That is why a large part of the older and more successful players, and that includes those who use meta-game sites like various fora and IRC, lean more to game mechanics. You have to know how the game works and use what Plato has given you in order to succeed. At the same time, a large number of these players do use communes to run their MUs and support social programs of various sorts to hep lower level players. Unfortunately, it is difficult, maybe impossible, to organize these things strictly in game. I am intrigued by this debate, however, and hope to see it developed further.
And sorry, but I am not going to buy you votes like I did for Princess Rapunzel aka cika Nikola
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/ebe-is-ptoed-2376454/1/20
I showed my good will and my good spirit already.
Lolz
Ok so I read the article, and I agree with what you point out. I would be endorsing you however, that would make you more equal than the people so:
Suck it Nitzsche.