Transition Are Something Simple

Accurate and active email list for marketing.
Post Reply
66chandona
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2023 10:25 am

Transition Are Something Simple

Post by 66chandona »

Democracy does not always work for the common good. Contemporary socialists spend a lot of energy denying the relevance of the self-styled socialist states or capitalist welfare states of Western Europe: they say they weren't really socialist. But if those countries were not socialist, what does that say about the socialist idea itself? At best, one can show moments and flashes: the "sewer socialism" of Milwaukee and Wisconsin, that of Red Vienna and Bologna, that of Kerala in India. Perhaps socialism is a bit like Christianity, whose believers attribute to it all the good it has done and whose detractors blame it for all the bad, while no one can really point to a society that embodies it.

It is clear that capitalism plunges us into many kinds of disasters, most notably global warming. It is difficult to see how a system based on profit and increasing consumption can safeguard natural resources while needing to exploit them to the full. People are right to reject a system based on that contradiction, and to demand an end to extreme and special data inequality; to the poorly paid work of millions of workers, especially immigrants; and unrecognized and unpaid work and the subjugation of women. They are also right to be disenchanted with an electoral system that gives inordinate power to big donors and caters to the interests of the rich and near-rich, Without the urgent development of some kind of mass movement, it is hard to see how we are going to get out of the hole that is being dug for us. And to develop a mass movement you need hope.

Image

I don't feel particularly hopeful these days, but socialism is my name for the hope I still feel sometimes that we can share wealth and power and knowledge, be less selfish and cruel, and let everyone, not just lucky few, develop your talents and have a good life. Perhaps individual freedom and the common good do not have to be opposed. How can that happen? Someone will have to find out.2020 will not be a year to be forgotten.
Post Reply