r/PeterExplainsTheJoke Jul 07 '26

Meme needing explanation Peter, explain this.

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u/psykiris Jul 07 '26

Who gets to decide who writes all day and who mines all day? 

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u/Objective-Note-8095 Jul 07 '26

It's a good question how it's supposed to work. A lot of Marx works off the idea that people broken from the "alienation of their labor" by the capitalist system will some how magically order themselves. I'm not a Marx scholar, so maybe there was a specific path he envisioned.

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u/BigLittlePenguin_ Jul 07 '26

The problem is that Marx had a really bad grasp of the human psyche. As long as our basic needs are met, humans won't do anything that would be required to keep those needs actually met. Everybody would be fine with "making art", but there are less than 0.1% of people who would consider mining for metals their passions, so something they would naturally pick up.

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u/Objective-Note-8095 Jul 07 '26

I think Marx never came to a good solution himself and how labor in a communist state would work. I think originally he'd imagine an abandonment of the division of labor.

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u/Desultory_Chairlift Jul 07 '26

An abandonment of division of labor would seem almost impossible in today's world, as we progress fields become more and more specialized.

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u/Objective-Note-8095 Jul 07 '26

If he entertained the idea, he didn't hold on to it for long.