Difference between revisions of "Socialism"

Revision as of 15:34, December 7, 2007

Socialism is the sensible and righteous antidote to the ignorance, bigotry and prejudice advocated by Conservatism.

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-[[Image:Backrdv12n2.jpg|right|400px|thumb|The caption reads, "Long live the great undefeatable flag of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin!"]]
+'''Socialism''' is the sensible and righteous antidote to the [[ignorance]], [[bigotry]] and [[prejudice]] advocated by [[Conservatism]].
-'''Socialism''' is an economic system where the means of production are seized and monopolized by the government without compensation to the builders of the [[capital]], and where investments, production, distribution, income, prices, and economic justice  are administered by a government [[nomenklatura]] that regulate the transfer of money, goods (including capital goods), and services primarily through taxation and regularized and institutionalized aggressive coercion.
-==Key elements==
-As a political ideology based on the expropriation of wealth, socialism stresses the privileges of the nomenklatura over the rights of workers and earners.  Many of the most notoriously oppressive dictatorships have been socialist, such as the [[Soviet Union]] and [[National Socialist]] Germany. As an economic theory, socialism calls for redistribution of wealth, through taxation of private wealth coupled with "[[Progressivism|progressive]]" social policy or directly via nationalization and public ownership of property without compensation to owners. Wage earners suffer under Socialism, as it is hard to get paid in a system that discourages private persons from accumulating income.
-Although socialist ideas such as the provision of unemployment benefit, state pensions, universal health care, and state control of key industries have been common throughout the developed world in the modern era, the [[United States]] has tended to reject socialism as an ideological position. In other parts of the world, such as Europe, Africa, Asia, and South and Central America, there has generally been more explicit support for socialism as a doctrine, and socialist parties have been among the most successful political forces of the last 100 years.
-While socialism has often been atheistic in character, and many leading socialists (most prominently Karl Marx) have been critical of the role of religion - and conservative religion in particular - which they criticize for lending support to an unjust social order, some Socialists have been Christians, and there has been considerable interplay between Christian and Socialist ideas. Christian socialists have noted that early Christian communities, in particular, displayed certain traits, such as the holding of possessions in common, the rejection of conventional sexual mores and gender roles, the provision for communal education, etc., that could be considered similar to socialism. See, for instance, Acts 2:44: "Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need." Arnold Toynbee, the British historian, has responded to this,
-:"the Marxian excerpt from a Christian Socialism is an experiment which is doomed to failure because it has denied itself the aid of the spiritual power which alone is capable of making Socialism a success. ….'Christianity', they say, 'is the opiate of the People'; and, in the [[Soviet Union]]… Christianity or of any other theistic religion have been debarred… from admission to membership of the All-Union Communist Party. In fact, Communism has been definitely and militantly anti-Christian.
-Thus the campaign against Christianity which is to-day an integral part of the propaganda of Marxian Socialism is a challenge to the living generation of Christians …we latter-day Christians may still turn a Marxian attack upon Christianity to good account … a re-awakening of the Christian social conscience has been the one great positive practical achievement of Karl Marx" <ref>Arnold Toynbee, ''A Study of History'', Annex II to Vol. V, Part C (i) (c) 2, p. 585-586, Marxism, Socialism, and Christianity.</ref>
-[[Marx, Karl|Karl Marx]] considered socialism to be a transitory stage between capitalism and communism. In his view, socialism is summed up by the expression: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." A major criticism of socialism is that it infringes individual rights in favor of the populace. In a very real sense, politics in the western world throughout the 20th century was shaped by the conflict between socialist and capitalist governmental policies.
-Although socialist parties are common in Europe, the leading examples all currently embrace some free enterprise, individual property rights and certain other aspects of capitalism although leading European Socialists are very critical of America. In many European countries socialism has been changing to [[Social democracy]].
-== Britain, the Labour Party and socialism ==
-At its inception, the Labour Party borrowed socialist ideas by committing itself to a program of nationalization under 'Clause 4' of their Consitution, but was always fundamentally committed to the British State and the Westminser model of British government. Clause 4 was formally dropped after the election of [[Tony Blair]] as Party leader, signaling the creation of 'New' Labour.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/21/newsid_2515000/2515825.stm</ref>  The British governments of 1945-1950 and 1950-1951 under Clement Atlee implemented the nationalization of several industries and utilities. The best known example is the nationalization of health care to create the National Health Service (NHS).  This made - literally overnight - health care free at the point of delivery for everybody in Britain.
-Today, Tony Blair's New Labour is virtually indistinguishable from the right-of-center Conservative Party, and is committed not to socialist economic planning but to the neo-liberal economics that characterised [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s premiership of the 1980s and [[John Major]]'s of the 1990s. Consequently, inequality overall has continued to increase under 'New' Labour since coming to power in 1997.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4989070.stm<ref>
-The 'New' Labour Prime Minister of the [[United Kingdom]], Tony Blair, is an avowed Christian, who has responded to criticism of the UK's involvement in the [[Iraq war]] by claiming that only [[God]] could judge him for his actions. <ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4772142.stm</ref>.
-==World socialism==
-US liberal politicians often echo the rhetoric of world socialism: <ref>Before Congress adjourned last week on another of its lengthy holidays, Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeated a phrase she has previously used about the war in Iraq. She again referred to it as "the Bush policy of unending war in Iraq." [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/CalThomas/2007/05/29/unending_war Cal Thomas] Tuesday, May 29, 2007] </ref>
-*"Because George W. Bush [is] among the most menacing and belligerent [presidents] in American history. [He has] outlined a program of limitless and perpetual warfare, on every continent, and against any regime that stands in the way of the rapacious American ruling class.... like Hitler and the Nazis, American militarism has embarked on a campaign of world conquest and world domination... [President Bush has issued] a declaration of the unbridled appetites of the military and of the most ruthless, corrupt and criminal sections of the American ruling elite ...Like Hitler, Bush presents an upside-down view of the world in which small and weak states are mortal threats to the most powerful and heavily armed..." (World Socialist Web Site, 31 January 2002)
-==Different strands of socialism==
-*[[Communism]]
-*[[Social democracy]]
-*[[National socialism]] (Nazism)
-*[[Fascism]]
-==References==
-<small><references/></small>
-==External links==
-*[http://www.mises.org/etexts/hayekintellectuals.pdf The Intellectuals and Socialism], By F.A. Hayek, ''The University of Chicago Law Review'', (Spring 1949), pp. 417-420, 421-423, 425-433.
-*[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9109587/socialism Socialism] Encyclopædia Britannica.
-[[Category:Politics]]

Difference between revisions of "Socialism"

Revision as of 15:34, December 7, 2007

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