In order to "coordinate" them, guild society would have to
gather together its strength, and fairly soon one would find, I think,
that the radicals under guild socialism would be asking for communes
strong enough to define the functions of the guilds.
But if you are going to have the government (commune) define
functions, the premise of the theory disappears. It had to suppose
that a scheme of functions was obvious in order that the concave shops
would voluntarily relate themselves to society. If there is no settled
scheme of functions in every voter's head, he has no better way under
guild socialism than under orthodox democracy of turning a
self-centered opinion into a social judgment. And, of course, there
can be no such settled scheme, because, even if Mr. Cole and his
friends devised a good one, the shop democracies from which all power
derives, would judge the scheme in operation by what they learn of it
and by what they can imagine. The guilds would see the same scheme
differently. And so instead of the scheme being the skeleton that
keeps guild society together, the attempt to define what the scheme
ought to be, would be under guild socialism as elsewhere, the main
business of politics. If we could allow Mr. Cole his scheme of
functions we could allow him almost everything. Unfortunately he has
inserted in his premise what he wishes a guild society to
deduce.
Pages:
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321