*clip*
What you call "libertarian socialism" is certainly a worthy ideal, but I would rather get rid of the whole libertarian part. But that's not the crucial issue here: What bothers me is that I'm forced to use the term
ideal, because that's what every non-capitalist ideology has been reduced to in public discourse. Every leftist proposal, be it libertarian or authoritarian, is instantly shot down by the chanting clergy of Capital, who see absolutely nothing wrong with the unholy alliance of Market Forces and Realpolitik. Only the current system is feasible, everything else is categorically unfeasible.
The ones within the hegemonic bubble can no longer comprehend external criticism, and the same pattern keeps repeating itself in their responses to attempts to burst their bubble:
"Immaterial commodities are worthless! Let's abolish fetishism and establish a real-value economy!"
"But Money
is the real thing in our society! People and ordinary things are transient and illusory, but Money is
objective and
eternal it is
who you are, and
what others are to you. Money is your real self, embrace it!"
There's no question that capitalism reaches much deeper than the superficial organization of society: We are obscenely
turned on by the commodity-form, and it feels awfully
natural to replace all real societal relationships with mediated, imaginary ones.
...but that's all on the ideological level; there are also practical obstacles that are created by globalization, and reinforced by our hedonism. Let's say, for example, that an organic microbrewery in northern Indiana is producing
the best damn beer in the entire universe, and I want to have a glass of that, no matter what. Without money and market economy, no-one is going to export that stuff halfway across the globe just so that I could drink it I'd have to directly contact the brewer and try to strike up some kind of a deal, but what could I offer in exchange for his products, and their transportation? It's not possible to send material goods over the internet, and in any case, it really
is kind of unfeasible to build a personal relationship with each and every person on the global production chain if that chain exists on the enormous, present scale.
As people keep saying over and over again, the feasible solution is the
commune not a planet-wide, digital marketplace of immaterial goods and services, but a closely knit physical community with enough resources and production capacity to manufacture everything its members could (reasonably) need. An organized, democratic state formed by such self-sufficient units would be an ideal society, in my opinion.