[Socialist Revolution] What Socialism Really Is
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by Major Lee Hung
I have been intending to write this article for about a month now. We play with many RL Westerners who still believe Socialism, as an ideology, is inherently evil. Much like right-wing ideologies, there are of course break-away sects to Socialism that have tarnished the roots of socialism. This has fueled propaganda created in the Cold War era that still exists strongly in today's society.
Many end up looking foolish when they use Stalinist regimes to judge the whole of the Socialist spectrum. I'd recommend doing reading before accusing things of being 'evil'. The Communist Party Manifesto by Karl Marx is a good place to start for the fundamentals of socialism.
This article is a short summary of what socialism is, and mostly, how it integrates with today's society.
Socialism
In a nutshell, Socialism is just an economical system revolving around social ownership. State ownership, civil ownership, collective ownership - anything that basically puts the means of production in the hands of the people.
It was created to counter the effects that capitalist industrialisation and private ownership of important property had on society.
I'm not going to go in to too much detail about what Socialism is. If you're interested, there's thousands of works you can read to gain an insight in to it.
A Time Before Socialism
This is a short description of a time before socialism began to take an impact on society - it's based on true facts during Industrial-era Britain.
In England during the industrialisation of major English cities, factories and mills began to appear everywhere. In the clothing industry in particular, patenting of machinery was at the very top of the chain, then mill owners, then the managers of those mills, and the workers at the very bottom. Individuals would often own numerous mills and factories, and people flocked to the cities as their countryside life was becoming increasingly obsolete. They heard of a new wealth to be found working in factories.
Little did they know that these factories would exploit them. The owner would rake in huge profits from their misery. It was common to find factory workers toiling away in hot, dirty factory floors for 14 - 16 hours a day, with no daily rest break to ensure the owner earns his money. These workers had no chance of ever progressing, as the market quickly became saturated. They were sucked in to a way of life that nobody deserves.
In Liverpool, the life-expentency of males was in the 20s during the height of the industrial revolution. Families of 10 would live in small, 2-3 bedroom cottages living off little food, with very poor access to water & sanitation.
When workers were in short supply, factory owners didn't compete on wages as they would today. They recruited what amounted to slaves. These 'slaves' were infact orphans recruited from London churches, who would work 16 hour days and rarely live past 20. By the time they were 18, their bodies had become completely crippled as a result of their work.
The factory owners lived in high-end areas and enjoyed all of the luxuries that life back then had to offer.
Workers were completely powerless.
How Socialism Changed This
-Collectivism: Workers united to demand better pay & conditions.
-Public Ownership: Workers, under this idea, would no longer be at the whim of private individuals whose only goal is to turn a profit, with no other accountability.
-Revolution: In some countries, workers completely overthrew the imperialist regimes when they couldn't take any more.
-Life Quality: Healthcare, labour laws, public ownership all contributed to a better quality of life.
Ultimately, socialism recognised them as humans. The capitalists just saw them as gears of the profit-making machine.
The Inevitibility of Socialism
When people are treated in such a way, the feelings of hatred and anger build up collectively within communities. These communities then rise to change things for the better - we've seen this throughout history and continue to see it today.
Socialism isn't an evil political system - It's just the name given to the ideologies behind this revolution.
There's no hidden agenda behind socialism, no evil policies. These negativities come from abstract offshoots from the ideas of socialism. (which I'll go in to detail on below later) It amounts to a name given to the innevitable change in the imperialistic rule of capitalists, to a world where the workers are equal.
The workers often make up the bottom of the pyramid. If they're treated badly, they'll all unite. They can make up for up to 90% of this theoretical pyramid. In the middle, you have the 9% who manage the workers. They can be swung either way depending on how the injustice affects them. The top 1% are the owners of the factories, the controllers of production, the source of the workers' misery.
When these workers have had enough of poor treatment, they do what any human (or even animal) would do - they unite with others in their position and retaliate for a better life.
This revolution was socialism. Workers taking control of their fate.
As you can see, there's nothing evil about socialism!
What has Socialism brought us?
Things owned by the state, owned by the people for the people. The list is endless, but here are some:
-Healthcare
-Police, Fire
-Military
-Pensions
-Social Housing
-Unemployment/Low Income Subsidies
-Museums, Parks, Libraries
-Public Schools
Socialism is the reason these things are available to everybody in the majority of western countries.
Austerity in recent times targets solely these social things - it's been proven that income disparity only grows. The poor get poorer, the rich get richer. Haven't we already seen that before in history?...
Why Socialism has a Bad Name
Walk around New York - tell people you're a socialist. Watch in amusement how a significant percentage will assume you're evil or something similar. Why does it send such a shiver down the spines of so many?
National Socialism
This was an abstract form of socialism - it used the theories behind socialism to fuel what amounted to a war machine. While it did bring universal healthcare, it also brought the deaths of many.
It often brings socialism, a positive, with a very distorted & irrational view on something. A certain German worker's party is a prime example of why insane people with messed up views on humanity should never be given power.
This dark offshoot of socialism is referred to mostly as fascism, or Nazism.
Stalinism
Stalinism was merely taking advantage of a worker's revolution. While it adopted some socialist policies, it's repressive and totalitarian policies made it possibly the most deadly economic-political system in history. Tens of millions died during the rapid industrialisation of the Soviet Union.
This is another lesson to humanity: Why totalitarian government's cannot work. The power drove Stalin to become extremely paranoid and manipulative over the Soviet people, and the overly powerful control of workers made whether this was socialism towards it's end questionable. Were the workers benefiting, or was Stalin benefiting?
This is one of the more prevalent forms of Communism. The result of political hatred after a war, much like Fascism.
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
References to communism were removed from North Korea's constitution in 1972, when it tried to break away from Marxism-Leninism.
It has universal education with a literacy rate of 99%, along with many of prime examples of a successful socially funded programs.
Unfortunately, they now have leaders who believe the propoganda they made themselves over the last 3 decades. They worship a man who is long since dead, and regularly air footage of North Korea destroying USA in some war.
Another example of a country being used to fund one man's military crusade against the world due to strange ideologies.
The Future
Following a recession caused by capitalism being taken to extremes, socialism is back on the rise around the world. Bankers have caused millions around the world to lose their jobs, and possibly destroyed a generation. Unfortunately, current governments continue to prop this level of greed up to paper over a failing system instead of reforming it in favour of something better for everybody. Individuals in USA now have more money than entire countries in Asia, Africa and even Europe.
The result? Collectivism is back on the rise, socialist party membership is back on the rise, revolutions are taking place. The wheels are in motion for socialism to sweep the world once more.
This proves socialism is the way forward to rescuing the world - the masses being at least semi-equal to those at the top. Everybody needs to be on board to finally bring about the Socialist Utopia, where we're all free to live our own lives. This obsession with acquiring as much money as possible, often more than you can ever spend, is crippling humanity.
An interesting 20 years await us...
Thanks for Reading!
In the end, socialism isn't bad - an unfortunate bunch of offshoots has been the fuel to capitalist propoganda by people strictly against those below them having their basic human rights.
In the end, it's about us all finally being equal - we're all humans after all.
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Comments
first! 😉
"The result? Collectivism is back on the rise, socialist party membership is back on the rise, revolutions are taking place. The wheels are in motion for socialism to sweep the world once more."
What a load of crap.
Trade union membership in Europe began growing again in the stronger economies towards the end of 2012.
I am glad to see another example of somebody who utilises the 'attack before research' tactic. 😃
It happens every time austerity is on the rise. It will fall like it has and rise. Ideologues do this often.
TL😉R
I remember reading something that went like this;
A Socialist was asked 'why is socialism good?' He replied, "Socialism is good, because i think it is."
IMO, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, etc etc all have something good about it. Sadly the other 85% is just garbage. Obviously if i was a factory owner i would go with what is best for me and my money, as money in human society overrides morals.
Now if i was a factory worker, i would go whats best for me at that position.
However keep in mind if their was no capitalism, who is to say we would have inventions and factory's we have today? If i worked my ass off to come up with an idea and a company to employ workers knowing that at the end my investment would take me 100 years to get back would i still be motivated to go threw with it?
If the answer is no, then those 1000 workers that where about to get a job can go back to starving.
Wow, a good post from Icetek?!
I agree with some points - though we always alternate between the extremes of political left and right. We need to go through some sort of left-wing change before slowly moving back towards the centre to create balance one more.
Most of those controlling money haven't worked for their money - they inherit it or are bankers who have likely obtained some of it illegally and will never be punished.
Well, i do not think anyone understands what banks really do besides stealing money. I have studied this for over a year as a hobby.... What you guys need to understand is banks is what causes economy's to grow. Debt is needed to keep money flowing, i know it sounds far fetched but its the truth. The problem however how the banks fck us, is threw their fee's (aka intrest rates).
All this left, right center talk is non-sense. We just need a complete overhaul take the best out of them all and make them work. I for one think the only way we can acquire 100% globalization and 1 currency is if we make 3 different laws for 3 different classes. Tax the rich more, keep it fair for the middle and help out the poor.
I am a big believer that the only way we as as a species can evolve to higher levels is if we are all considered country Earth, instead of label yourself otherwise.
Public owned banks or heavily regulated banks are the only way to keep them under control if we must have them. Currently we live under a system where money is made out of thin-air to be sold for even more money... Anybody with sense right now would invest in precious metals, not companies. Most currencies are just a big bubble waiting to burst. Thatcher's reign in Britain has also been an example of why banks can't replace industry. They need to co-exist, not be mutually exclusive in an economy.
Your ideas on globalisation are what everybody who lives in the real-world wants, but most governments are controlled by the rich. (I guess I should say 'lobbied', as that's how they dress it up in Europe at least...)
And I feel the only way to evolve is to look at a way to leave the planet we've now ruined. Look at colonising moons like Europa, use our nuclear technologies to begin making an atmosphere on Mars or the moon, we've damaged Earth beyond repair in the short-term. In the long-term the Earth will recover as it always does, but humans will have been wiped out by then. Investing in war with neighbours over a global effort to prolong the human race is halting evolution.
It would be better if it went from right to left as appose to left to right. As Australia did and the UK did etc. But if you go left to right there is a high chance that it will be to uneducated and dictatorial to turn to a democracy
Money has to be printed out of thin air. Imagine you owned a country with 10 people and you had 10$. A year later you population is 300 people, meanwhile you had no policy in place to keep up with demand. Your currency gets stronger and your exports get way expensive to compete with currency manipulators like China. China wins and gets your 5$....So now not only are you expensive because you had 300 people fighting over 10$ but China owns 5$ out of that.
2nd, Money has to be printed because of interest rates. The global debt today passes the amount of money in the world. Lets say their is 10 billion floating around from every country, their is like 20billion owed in debt.
Meaning there is not enough paper money to fill in the holes. What America is doing is what every country hates and envies, but then again America has the power and GDPto afford it, while other countries can not. America wants higher inflation because it will eat at its debt.
Also keep in mind China owns that 5$, in real life China owns 3 trillion USD, but can not touch it....Why? Because if they just took 5% of it, that would cause their own currency to unpeg from the USD, causing their Rembi to become stronger, causing heavy debt and instability in their countries as cost of living would sky rocket.
They would destroy the USD currency, causing havoc across the world, and bringing down them self's. They over-lend to America and now its their problem, while America has no plans to ever pay back that debt.