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Llewellyn
King
Read Llewellyn's bio and previous columns
March 19, 2009
Why the Fear and
Loathing of Socialism?
Mention socialism and many people reach for the silver bullet, the
garlic garland, the cross and the mirror. Their fear of socialism is the
fear of a word as much as of a system – not so much the vampire in the
flesh as the fear that such a thing exists and is coming for a bloody
feast. The specter of France – great food and 200-mph trains – is never
far away. Suggest something like reforming health care and howls of
“socialism” will drown you out.
The pathologies associated with socialism – or the idea that it has
reached the Canadian border with an army of millions – is akin to
believing that travelers can fall off the edge of the Earth, that there
is a conspiracy to take away SUVs and that the horror of world
government could be upon us any minute. A return of the black
helicopters?
The American concept of socialism is certainly strained, if not
historically distorted. For one thing, socialism as a concept of
government was around long before Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
published Das Kapital in 1867 – and certainly before their more
extreme socialism was perverted during and after the Russian Revolution
of 1917.
Understandably it was in France that socialism had its earliest
adherents, flowing from the better ideas of the French Revolution of
1789 and the call for “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” – words and ideas
that have echoed in democracies ever since.
All of the intellectual centers of Europe pondered the socialist idea,
not Marxism but its milder form, which had predated Marx and would
outlive the Soviet Union and the damage it did to Marx and his ideas.
There was a good reason for such pondering. Living conditions among the
poor in London slums or in the industrial towns, like Birmingham and
Manchester, were appalling (see Charles Dickens). On the continent,
there was as much suffering in the countryside as in the cities.
Generations were born into land slavery across Europe. Men could leave
the farm where they were born to fight in endless wars, but there was
very little other mobility.
In
Russia, things were worse yet. The plight of the serfs led to the
extraordinary revolt of young officers in St. Petersburg in December
1825. The socialism that was discussed around the turn of the 19th
Century – and earlier in the salons of Paris, London, St. Petersburg and
Vienna – was not an aggressive philosophy, but a reaction to the
wretched conditions that were everywhere apparent to those who would
look.
Increasingly free trade, made possible by better ships and the expansion
of the railroads around the world, worsened conditions for farmers and
those who left the land for industrial work in mills (the “dark Satanic
mills” in William Blake’s poem “Jerusalem” come to mind).
In
Britain the socialist idea was championed by the Methodist Church, which
supported the nascent trade union movement. By the end of the 19th
Century, the intelligentsia claimed socialism for its own. Writers such
as H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw championed it. Even Oscar Wilde
was curious (The Soul of Man Under Socialism).
European reforms in the 19th Century were informed by
socialism, but it was not until 1924 that Britain, the major imperial
power, produced a socialist government under Ramsay MacDonald. It was
short lived, but it occurred.
Fast forward to today. Much that can be called socialist is organically
part of the social and political fabric of Europe – all of it, not just
France or Holland.
But in the United States, the Obama Administration is so afraid of being
called socialist that it takes de facto ownership of American
International Group but does not take a seat on the board. This is
ridiculous and has no purpose except to avoid another dread word –
nationalization. The result – a proven bad management is rewarding
itself with bonuses because a new board, reflecting what is known as a
“golden share” of government investment, has not been seated.
People who are scared of words, scare me. Socialism is not an epithet.
It is an organic part of Western culture.
© 2009 North Star
Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
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