[Marxism] Critique of critique of communism?

[Sayan Bhattacharyya]

On 8/2/07, Lenin's Tomb <leninstombblog at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On 8/2/07, Sayan Bhattacharyya <ok.president+marxmail at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > "Communism, defined as maximum self-realization for all individuals,
> > is in itself a contradictory notion since my self-realization may
> > prevent you from realizing your creative abilities. For example, my
> > self-realization may depend upon the recognition of others. But such
> > recognition is by its nature a positional good in the sense that not
> > everybody can be equally famous."
> >
>
> Change the definition and the problem goes away.  If communism is instead
> 'defined' as the "maximum self-realization of all individuals commensurable
> with that of others", then you don't have a contradictory notion: instead
> you have one that adverts to a process of democratic negotiation.

True. I like this, because it also foregrounds the close relationship
between democracy and communism -- so close, indeed, that one will not
be possible without the other.