Flavio's notes & aphorisms
1917
A friend writes, on occasion of the centenary of the October Revolution: “it brings the only kind of freedom worth having: freedom from exploitation (…) freedom that is not only inscribed in the law, but in the very relations of production, and therefore, in real life.”
I agree wholeheartedly with the premise that bourgeois freedom is a mere spectre, a veil of illusion. But I also know that where there is advanced technology, there will be division of labour, and therefore bureaucracy. And wherever bureaucracy reigns, freedom remains a rhetorical ploy, materialised in the same repetitive tasks, the same living death, the same ideological spooks.
The October Revolution has done much for humanity’s progress, and it has taught us many lessons, in what should be done and what should not be done. In my opinion, it has also taught us that the genie cannot be forced back into the bottle: division of labour leads to a double tyranny, one external and one internal: the tyranny of the mode of production, and the tyranny of dependence on technological comforts. And finally, that death of the spirit that overtakes Man when he no is no longer in control of his own destiny.