Many young people in the US are now attracted to socialism, an ideology that should have been left behind in the 20th century.
What makes you say this? The word “socialism” is so overloaded, I can’t tell which specific interpretation of it you dislike and why. I support some ideologies that describe themselves as socialist, but repudiate others.
… the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the country’s largest socialist group, is seeing its membership explode from 6,000 in summer 2016 to more than 45,000 today.…
I’m a staff writer at the socialist magazine Jacobin and a member of DSA, and here’s the truth: In the long run, democratic socialists want to end capitalism.
The problem here seems to be that these “democratic” socialists still believe in the legitimacy of the state, which is a mistake. What would actually happen if they get what they want is the center of elite power moving from the capitalist-controlled market to the equally capitalist-controlled government; in practice nothing would change, as corporate lobbyists and networks of cronyism already determine who gets elected and all the regulatory agencies are quickly captured by the industries they regulate. I think these people are well-intentioned, but nowhere near radical enough.
Also, as is typical for liberals, they confuse the market for capitalism, when in reality a capitalist market is only one possible kind of market, and a quite degenerate and unfree one at that—characterized by rampant wage slavery, not because markets intrinsically result in inequality (they don’t), but due to the existence of a state with a monopoly on violence, which is used by the capitalist class to back up their claims to “own” the means of production (i.e. to steal the products of workers’ labor out of their hands and give them a pittance in return); an anticapitalist market, freed from excessive rents, interest, and profits, along the lines of what mutualists envision creating, seems to me like it would be much more conducive to human flourishing.
I’m not an expert on it, but I’d encourage you to read about anarchist economic theories, particularly mutualism. Capitalism versus thinly-disguised state communism is a false dichotomy; the way I see it, the state, even if supposedly democratic in nature (as if the ability of a majority to coerce a minority is a sign of moral advancement rather than yet another example of the brutality of the natural state! and we all know most Western countries are only apparently democratic anyway—in reality controlled by corrupt elites who manipulate the public’s perception of reality to maintain their position), is not only unnecessary, but actively harmful to human freedom, and the ideals of the Enlightenment can only be attained when it, and capitalism, are both abolished in favor of local direct democracy (involving communes and worker cooperatives) and freed markets.
Also, check out the history of anarcho-communism. Everywhere it’s been tried, it has succeeded, or at least not decayed into totalitarianism—though it’s unfortunately always managed to get tried only in dangerous areas and times in the world like the Spanish civil war and (if democratic confederalism is considered an offshoot) the autonomous cities of northeast Syria today. State communism a la Soviet Russia and China is the one that should be left behind in the 20th century, along with states generally. Anarchism, in all its forms, deserves a closer look.
What makes you say this? The word “socialism” is so overloaded, I can’t tell which specific interpretation of it you dislike and why. I support some ideologies that describe themselves as socialist, but repudiate others.
Here’s an example:
https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/8/1/17637028/bernie-sanders-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-cynthia-nixon-democratic-socialism-jacobin-dsa
Why is that automatically bad? The word “capitalism” is overloaded as well. It’s a two dimensional problem, at least.
The problem here seems to be that these “democratic” socialists still believe in the legitimacy of the state, which is a mistake. What would actually happen if they get what they want is the center of elite power moving from the capitalist-controlled market to the equally capitalist-controlled government; in practice nothing would change, as corporate lobbyists and networks of cronyism already determine who gets elected and all the regulatory agencies are quickly captured by the industries they regulate. I think these people are well-intentioned, but nowhere near radical enough.
Also, as is typical for liberals, they confuse the market for capitalism, when in reality a capitalist market is only one possible kind of market, and a quite degenerate and unfree one at that—characterized by rampant wage slavery, not because markets intrinsically result in inequality (they don’t), but due to the existence of a state with a monopoly on violence, which is used by the capitalist class to back up their claims to “own” the means of production (i.e. to steal the products of workers’ labor out of their hands and give them a pittance in return); an anticapitalist market, freed from excessive rents, interest, and profits, along the lines of what mutualists envision creating, seems to me like it would be much more conducive to human flourishing.
I’m not an expert on it, but I’d encourage you to read about anarchist economic theories, particularly mutualism. Capitalism versus thinly-disguised state communism is a false dichotomy; the way I see it, the state, even if supposedly democratic in nature (as if the ability of a majority to coerce a minority is a sign of moral advancement rather than yet another example of the brutality of the natural state! and we all know most Western countries are only apparently democratic anyway—in reality controlled by corrupt elites who manipulate the public’s perception of reality to maintain their position), is not only unnecessary, but actively harmful to human freedom, and the ideals of the Enlightenment can only be attained when it, and capitalism, are both abolished in favor of local direct democracy (involving communes and worker cooperatives) and freed markets.
Also, check out the history of anarcho-communism. Everywhere it’s been tried, it has succeeded, or at least not decayed into totalitarianism—though it’s unfortunately always managed to get tried only in dangerous areas and times in the world like the Spanish civil war and (if democratic confederalism is considered an offshoot) the autonomous cities of northeast Syria today. State communism a la Soviet Russia and China is the one that should be left behind in the 20th century, along with states generally. Anarchism, in all its forms, deserves a closer look.