The Individual and the Collective

The Individual and the Collective

Lebowitz's next section takes these same themes and shows how they are endorsed by the Venezuelan Constitution. I don't want to get too hung up on studying Venezuela here, although I do think looking at the Constitution (a link for which I've posted at the end) may be helpful in seeing at least what this government is about on paper.

What tends to confound Americans about socialized governments is that the government calls upon the individual to be responsible to the collective. Americans tend to think that means those people in socialized countires are not truly free. But there are at least two things to consider here. One, is that there is no such thing as an individual life that is not interdependent on social relationships--that's delusional or dysfunctional at best (and it could be argued the American character suffers greatly from such delusions and dysfunctions).

Second, which is the point Lebowitz is making, the flowering of the individual personality depends on social relationships and some form of social responsibility. Of course, Americans, in the main, believe this about our own society. But those of us in particular who find ourselves alienated by the system may grow very uncomfortable with any concept of the individual having her or his individuality dependent on a relationship with any governmental system.

The key to any kind of social revolution, I tend to think, has to do with people genuinely, subjectively, coming to understand that their freedom, their individual personalities and their desires are in fact dependent on a new relationship with one another and a new system. That's why articles like this are written, and even why we write Constitutions--to win people's minds as much as their hearts over to a new way of thinking.

I don't have any preset prompts for this one. I'll just paste this section below, and we might want to comment on how well Lebowitz and/or the writers of the Venezuelan Constitution make their case.

The common sense of the Bolivarian Revolution

5. Every Venezuelan should recognize these ideas—they are at the center of the Bolivarian Constitution of Venezuela. In its explicit recognition (in Article 299) that the goal of a human society must be that of “ensuring overall human development,” in the declaration of Article 20 that “everyone has the right to the free development of his or her own personality,” and in the focus of Article 102 upon “developing the creative potential of every human being and the full exercise of his or her personality in a democratic society”—the theme of human development pervades the Constitution.

6. Further, the Constitution also focuses upon the question of how people develop their capacities and capabilities—i.e., how overall human development occurs. Article 62 of the Constitution declares that participation by people in “forming, carrying out and controlling the management of public affairs is the necessary way of achieving the involvement to ensure their complete development, both individual and collective.” The necessary way—practice, protagonism.

7. And, the same emphasis upon a democratic, participatory, and protagonistic society is present in the economic sphere, which is why Article 70 stresses “self-management, co-management, cooperatives in all forms” and why the goal of Article 102, “developing the creative potential of every human being,” emphasizes “active, conscious and joint participation.”

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/constitution

Any thoughts?