Ok I found an excellent
website on socialism with some quotes that may help explain what socialism is really about.
I'll post the move relevant questions/statements.
From the FAQ:
Isn't socialism at odds with human nature?Isn't socialism contrary to human nature? Aren't people inherently selfish?
To my mind socialism is more in line with human nature than capitalism. Part of our human nature is the possession of needs that can only be met through cooperation and reciprocal relations with others. These include both emotional needs and the need to self-actualise or achieve. So 'enlightened selfishness' requires cooperation and mutual regard.
It is certainly true that socialism would be impossible if people were to continue behaving in the anti-social ways that they do at the moment. However, this behaviour is mainly driven by conditions that are far from permanent and would be eliminated under socialism. These include the following:
Capitalism generates dog eat dog behavior. Your interests are set unnecessarily at odds with others. You have to be a bastard to get ahead in your career or business. Your success is someone else's failure. Because socialism is based on cooperation rather than competition, it removes much of the conflict between our needs and those of others.
Socialism not only removes the incentives to act against the common good, it generates the motivation to actively serve it. Work is transformed into a desirable activity performed for its own sake and people feel part of society rather than alienated from it.
In developed countries it is now possible for everyone to live a reasonably affluent life and be free of long hours of routine toil. As discussed [below] this creates a better basis for cooperation and mutual regard. Historically, where equality would have meant shared misery, scarcity made a necessity out of the plunder, enslavement and exploitation of others. And there was no room for an 'enlightened' attitude. If you were not on the delivering end, you were on the receiving end. Freed slaves felt no compunction about enslaving others.
Any desire to harm others is not part of human nature but rather something neurotic and self-destructive. The same goes for the complementary desire of some people to be treated as door mats. Such disordered behaviour is fostered by capitalism. Firstly there is the direct effect of the dog-eat-dog workings of the system and the alienated nature of labor. Then there is the indirect effect through the impact of other people's neurotic behaviour, particularly that of parents, who have been deformed by the system.
Doesn't socialism suppress individuality and economic freedom?If socialism suppresses individuality and economic freedom it is only the individuality and freedom of capitalists as they trample on the individuality and freedom of everybody else. They will no longer have the freedom to control and exploit others by monopolising the means of production.
Capitalism is premised on economic freedom being confined to a minority. Everyone else has to follow orders. If workers went to work tomorrow morning determined to show initiative and creativity, they would immediately see how the system gets in their way.
Capitalists want their cake and to eat it too. On the one hand they want workers to accept their subordinate position but at the same time to show a bit more initiative within their cramped area of responsibility. Success is limited because people who accept their subordination tend to lack initiative while those who don't accept their subordination are hard to motivate.
Certainly a worker under capitalism is freer than a serf under feudalism. They are not obliged to stick with one boss. And also, the capitalist is freer than the guild master bound by guild rules. However, you can't keep dining out on that for five hundred years. Being better than feudalism loses its power to impress. It's about as impressive as a middle aged couch potato outpacing an octogenarian with a walking frame.
Socialism in a nutshellIn a socialist society the means of production [1] are owned by the workers rather than by a rich minority of capitalists or functionaries. Such a system of ownership is both collective and individual in nature.
It is collective because society can control production unlike the economic anarchy of capitalism and because production is for the common good rather than for individual profit.
At the same time it is individual because workers are no longer a 'collective' mob of alienated non-owners employed by a minority of owners. Work becomes a free and self-affirming activity for each worker and they receive the full fruits of their labor. The capitalists and their servants no longer control production nor grow rich from other's toil. Everybody is an owner. Socialism is genuine free enterprise.
The personally empowering and cooperative nature of socialist ownership underpins similar changes in other aspects of life. Socialism means far healthier individuals and human relationships. It means full participation by each individual in the intellectual, cultural and political life of society.
Socialism requires a revolution with three main stages: firstly the emergence of a workers' movement committed to socialist revolution, secondly the achievement of political power and the expropriation of the capitalists and thirdly a period during which workers learn how to be owners and rulers and cast off the psychological and ideological dross of the past.
Socialism will not be an utopia simply created in people's minds. It will be the product of economic and social development. In developed countries it is now possible for everyone to live a reasonably affluent life and be free of long hours of routine toil. This creates a better basis for cooperation and mutual regard. Historically, where equality would have meant shared poverty, it was inevitable that a minority would plunder, enslave and exploit the majority. At the same time rank and file workers are progressively acquiring through their experiences, the abilities to do without an elite. Their general level of education and training has advanced significantly over the last couple of generations. The work they do, while still totally oppressive, has an increasingly mental and conceptual content. And they now have extensive access to cultural and intellectual resources and the diverse experiences of living in a modern society. So while socialism was impossible in the past, these emerging conditions make it inevitable in the future.
Footnote [1]. The means of production comprise everything, except labor, that is used in production, namely, factories, plant, equipment, offices, shops, raw materials, fuel and components.
[ March 16, 2003: Message edited by: Linux User #5225982375 ]
