Why the Fear and Loathing of Socialism? Mention socialism and many people reach for the silver bullet, the garlic garland, the cross and the mirror. Their fear of socialism is the fear of a word as much as of a system – not so much the vampire in the flesh as the fear that such a thing exists and is coming for a bloody feast. The specter of France – great food and 200-mph trains – is never far away. Suggest something like reforming health care and howls of “socialism” will drown you out.The pathologies associated with socialism – or the idea that it has reached the Canadian border with an army of millions – is akin to believing that travelers can fall off the edge of the Earth, that there is a conspiracy to take away SUVs and that the horror of world government could be upon us any minute. A return of the black helicopters?The American concept of socialism is certainly strained, if not historically distorted. For one thing, socialism as a concept of government was around long before Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published Das Kapital in 1867 – and certainly before their more extreme socialism was perverted during and after the Russian Revolution of 1917.Understandably it was in France that socialism had its earliest adherents, flowing from the better ideas of the French Revolution of 1789 and the call for “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” – words and ideas that have echoed in democracies ever since.All of the intellectual centers of Europe pondered the socialist idea, not Marxism but its milder form, which had predated Marx and would outlive the Soviet Union and the damage it did to Marx and his ideas. There was a good reason for such pondering. Living conditions among the poor in London slums or in the industrial towns, like Birmingham and Manchester, were appalling (see Charles Dickens). On the continent, there was as much suffering in the countryside as in the cities. Generations were born into land slavery across Europe. Men could leave the farm where they were born to fight in endless wars, but there was very little other mobility.In Russia, things were worse yet. The plight of the serfs led to the extraordinary revolt of young officers in St. Petersburg in December 1825. The socialism that was discussed around the turn of the 19th Century – and earlier in the salons of Paris, London, St. Petersburg and Vienna – was not an aggressive philosophy, but a reaction to the wretched conditions that were everywhere apparent to those who would look.Increasingly free trade, made possible by better ships and the expansion of the railroads around the world, worsened conditions for farmers and those who left the land for industrial work in mills (the “dark Satanic mills” in William Blake’s poem “Jerusalem” come to mind).In Britain the socialist idea was championed by the Methodist Church, which supported the nascent trade union movement. By the end of the 19th Century, the intelligentsia claimed socialism for its own. Writers such as H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw championed it. Even Oscar Wilde was curious (The Soul of Man Under Socialism).European reforms in the 19th Century were informed by socialism, but it was not until 1924 that Britain, the major imperial power, produced a socialist government under Ramsay MacDonald. It was short lived, but it occurred.Fast forward to today. Much that can be called socialist is organically part of the social and political fabric of Europe – all of it, not just France or Holland.But in the United States, the Obama Administration is so afraid of being called socialist that it takes de facto ownership of American International Group but does not take a seat on the board. This is ridiculous and has no purpose except to avoid another dread word – nationalization. The result – a proven bad management is rewarding itself with bonuses because a new board, reflecting what is known as a “golden share” of government investment, has not been seated.People who are scared of words, scare me. Socialism is not an epithet. It is an organic part of Western culture.
Socialism: the idiotic idea that Godless, faceless bureaucrats should run your life for you , because on your own, are an incompetent boob.
MBTV
Forum Index
Help
Calendar
Contact Info
Register as a member
