Socialism: a Q* and A^
(Disclaimer: These are my personal views and will not reflect the views of all socialists, as it’s a complex family of philosophies.)
*What’s socialism? A way of destroying market economies and centralizing everything, like Stalin and Mao, right?
^Wrong. That’s what our capitalist leaders want us to believe, to scare us from examining the ideas any closer.
*Okay, but I know it’s about ending social classes and giving everyone the same income…
^Wrong again. That’s communism, which — unlike what our head capitalists want us to believe — is OBVIOUSLY distinct from socialism.
*Please just get to the point.
^Socialism is a way of reorganizing our societal frameworks and cultural mindsets to change who works for who. (SCARY, i know…)
Under capitalism, the poor work for the wealthy.
Under socialism, both the poor (who no longer literally struggle to survive) and the wealthy (who no longer own everything) work for the good of SOCIETY as a whole.
*Bullshit. Capitalism already works for the good of society, by encouraging competition for the most benevolent innovations.
^Perhaps that’s the ideal, but in practice, capitalism allows the wealthy to destroy ecosystems and subject workers to horrible conditions to extract the most profit possible.
Our culture rewards antisocial behavior. We reward the people who have the least empathy, who are the most ruthless in dehumanizing people and bulldozing forests.
*Okay, but why can’t we just have more regulation? Why do we need to change the structure of society itself?
^Because, even with greater regulation, we would still have as our basic economic framework: nonstop growth. If you examine that idea closer, you find that nonstop growth is called cancer… and it’s not a good thing. It’s unsustainable, and it ultimately destroys the organism (in this case the entire Earth) in which it has developed.
*Fine, but explain to me how socialism wouldn’t lead to total centralization of our economy.
^Because there is no need for it to be a top-down system. Democratic socialism starts at the local level, with every company that operates in a given locale co-managed by a democratic body of workers and community members which assesses the environmental and social impact of the company’s operations. It doesn’t have to be about deleting corporations from existence, but rather putting worker/community bodies on equal footing with the corporate leaders.
*Yeah, but in practice, this would halt innovation because the communities would protest any new proposals.
^While this is a valid concern, there are multiple reasons it is not overly worrisome.
Socialism would not remove ALL wealth from private individuals/companies. It would indeed create caps on individual wealth (preventing it from rising above a certain ratio against the median; for example, I’m sorry to say Jeff Bezos would not be allowed to remain a $100 billionaire, and likely not a billionaire at all); but today’s wealthy people would still remain wealthy, in comparison to the average person, under socialism. So they would still have extra money to devote to innovation, but would no longer be rewarded for exploiting people and ecosystems, and instead would be only rewarded for innovations that genuinely help communities as a whole.
Most people are not anti-technology neo-Luddites. Yes, some are, and yes, some communities are; and in certain places innovators will have trouble getting proposals approved even if they would in fact help the whole community, since certain places are culturally terrified of technology. But in the grand scale, most people recognize that technology can be highly beneficial, and would not be opposed to innovation. For instance, genetically modified foods would be allowed to be developed under STRINGENT, community-approved guidelines and EXTENSIVE, community-approved testing regimens; but what agrochemical companies like Monsanto are currently doing — testing their foods minimally and using the public as lab rats by mass producing herbicide-resistant crops and attacking the organic industry merely for the sake of profits — would be prohibited.
*Whatever… but why do you think socialism is so necessary?
^Because capitalism is destroying the planet. Sure, call me a tree-hugging hippie all you want, but it’s really unquestionable. Even the paranoid conspiracy theorists who think climate change is a government hoax cannot deny the deforestation, the plastic in the ocean, the pollution of our air, the lead-contaminated drinking water. These are all natural consequences of an economic system owned by the wealthy, where government just becomes a bribery-filled extension of the antisocial capitalists themselves. If you want to live in a world with unbreathable air, unswimmable oceans, undrinkable water and nonexistent forests, suit yourself, but I sure don’t. And you can call me melodramatic, but that is truly where our current trajectory is pointing us.
*If that’s true… why are capitalists so aggressive towards socialists?
^Well, part of them knows that the current system is unsustainable… but our evolutionary instincts of self-preservation make us consider terrifying the idea of ceding power to the larger community. Who wants to give up their personal power? No one does, even if deep down they know it’s in the best interests of our species as a whole. So, as often happens in cases of cognitive dissonance, they run away from their fears; they throw the socialists in jail, start wars in their countries, drop cluster bombs on poor farmers… anything to retain their power.
Why are capitalists so afraid of socialists? Because, ultimately, they know we’re right.
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