What means socialism?

Contrary to popular belief socialism is far from dead. Even now the left is feeling it’s oats and gearing up for the fight of their lives. The communal/socialist/communitarian meme is evident in the activities, proposals, and propaganda of MoveOn.org, DailyKos, Nancy Pelosi, and other left leaning groups, politicians, and agitators.

Hillary Clinton proposes outright buying of votes with baby bonds. All of the Democratic candidates for President offer their plans for socialized medicine/National Healthcare. Virtually every liberal policy follows a socialist vein. Scratch the philosophy of liberalism and you find the golden utopian gleam of socialism underneath.

When confronted with this charge many who call themselves liberals will deny their socialist roots because of the stigma attached to the word but when you talk specifics many will admit that socialism is the ideal. Or they will say instead that, “true socialism,” has never been tried. That somehow every practioner of socialism thus far has gotten it all wrong. (Obviously bringing, “true” socialism from theory to practice is virtually impossible if not improbable.)

Two fascinating facts about socialism that I think invalidates it are 1) that it’s an all or nothing proposition and 2) it only exists in opposition to capitalism.

We reject the idea that socialism has been tried in countries sometimes referred to as socialist. Look below at our definition of socialism and ask yourself if this in any way describes the state capitalist, police states of modern China and Cuba or the old regimes in Russia and eastern Europe, or the past and present “social-democratic” governments in many countries.

We reject the idea of socialism in one country. National socialism equals non-socialism. The capitalist system is global and so must the system which will replace it.  ~worldsocialism.org/canada

Obviously socialism has been ‘tried’ in all these countries. The agreed fact is that they all failed. The question is does the failure of every ‘national’ socialist experiment prove that socialism can’t work or is it proof that it must be tried globally in order to bring the promised utopia.

If socialism were a miracle working powerhouse of peace, prosperity, and equality why can’t it be replicated? Why can’t we create test cases to prove how well it works? Why has every test case in fact proved the opposite? That socialism, rather than bringing out the best in people, brings out the worst. That the wild claims of socialists are entirely untrue. In fact, if we were to assume the opposite of everything they claim we would be entirely accurate.

Society will take all the productive forces and means of commerce, as well as the exchange and distribution of products, out of the hands of private capitalists and will administer them in accordance with a plan based on the available resources and on the needs of the whole society. In this way, most important of all, the evil consequences which are now associated with the conduct of large-scale industry will be abolished.  ~newyouth.com

Naomi Klein, Alternet, and other progressives are in fact advocating wholehearted socialism with all it’s false promises and anti-capitalist moralizing.

Shoved into the internet 'tubes' on September 29, 2007, by Hegemonic Pundit, under the following categories: 21st century socialism, anti-capitalism, hegemony, leftists, liberal agenda, liberals, the left

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