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Space05us
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Write an essay telling me what socialism is, or give me a link to a good website that gives an in depth explination.
I ask because the only things I can tell you about socialism is that I grew up with my parents telling me "its good in theory but bad in practice" and that its a political ideology that tries to put everyone in the same standard of living (which is porbably wrong, right?). My dad also said/says Communists [Russians] are Evil, dont worry I ignored him most of the time.
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yavoon
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socialism is spending other ppl's money
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lord of the mark
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FUKCOV - Former United Kingdom Colony of Virginia
Dec 2000
time: 00:34
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socialism is when you are so lazy, and so much want to leech off other people, that you post to the internet asking for an essay rather than doing your own research for a school topic.
That said a few pointers. "socialist" has been used by many people to mean different things, including by self proclaimed socialists, and they have disagreed with each other, sometimes at the point of a gun. So ANY definition of socialism youre likely to get here is almost certainly wrong.
Lots of people consider Marxism=Socialism. However even Marx himself recognized that there were other less "scientific" forms of socialism.
People will trip over themselves trying to distinguish socialism from Communism. Confusing cause Marx wrote the "communist" manifesto, and called his movement Communist. But for about 60 years after that most Marxists called themselves simply socialists. "Communist " label was revived by Lenin and his followers.
social democrats shade into "working class oriented liberals" More confusion, also different use of terms between US and Europe. and different European countries.
Read Marx, esp Communist Mandifesto. IIRC he lists the differences among different socialist groups of the time.
Read Daniel Bell, "Marxian Socialism in the United States"
Dont trust everything would be "experts" here tell you.
and dont ignore youre dad, theyre founts of wisdom.
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Space05us
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quote:
and dont ignore youre dad, theyre founts of wisdom. |
I dont ignore him entirely, he taught me how to hunt and fish and all that stuff. But he's a blind follower of the Republican Party, and when I say blind I mean blind.
If Bush were to announce that all citizens had to wear pink socks my dad would be the first person in line to buy a pair, and if you asked him if it didnt seem a bit queer he would denounce you as a traitor.
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chegitz guevara
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Ft. Lauderdale, FL Communist Party of Apolyton
Jun 2000
time: 00:34
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Socialism is the name of a number of different but slightly related ideologies. What they all have in common is a belief that capitalism is harmful to the poor, and that the poor would be better served by a system of state or publically owned production, transportation, etc.
Most competing socialisms were swept aside with the success of Marxism, though Fabian socialism is still a major competitor. The Labour Party of Great Britain was/is a Fabian socialist party.
Marxism, aka, scientific socialism, was an attempt to put socialism on a scientific base. All other socialism are based on utopianism, i.e., wouldn't it be nice if the world was like this. Instead Marx applied the scientific method to history and economics, and tried to understand the evolution of human society. What are the forces that would push society to change? Then he explained a little what a future society might look like, while trying to avoid making absolute predictions.
Socialism is a movement based on the ideologies. Anarchists, communists, and social democrats are all types of socialists. The main differences between the groups is the method by which socialism is achieved and how far society should go. Social democrats, aka Socialists, believe that socialism can be voted into existence and that tightly regulated capitalism is good enough. Communists believe that a revolution is necessary to achieve socialism (but it doesn't necessarily have to be violent), and that a workers state needs to be created in order to defend against reactionary forces. Anarchists believe we can skip creating a state.
Last edited by chegitz guevara on 24-03-2004 at 02:51
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lord of the mark
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FUKCOV - Former United Kingdom Colony of Virginia
Dec 2000
time: 00:34
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"Social democrats, aka Socialists, believe that socialism can be voted into existence and that tightly regulated capitalism is good enough"
see its even more complicated than that. There are folks who think socialism can be voted into existence, but that regulated capitalism IS NOT enough, large elements of production need to be publicly or cooperatively owned, if not everything. Some such people are Marxists, but the Fabian socialists Guevera mentioned also fall in this category. There are other people who thing that capitalism with regulation, and a welfare state, and a strong role for organized labor, is enough. I tend to call the former group democratic socialists and the latter group social democrats, but that only reflect the time and place of my political upbringing (USA, NY, 1970's, some contact with fringes of SDUSA) In Germany in the '20's the Social Democrats were mainly Marxists. And the UK Labour party includes lots of folks who are not Marxists, but ARE democratic Socialists by my def, who call themselves Social Democrats.
To some degree Social Democrat overlaps with contemporary usage of liberal. I see the key differences as a greater concern of SD's with economic issues and with issues of distribution and class. Also a greater tendency for SD's to be concerned with working class politics, while "liberals" are more content with an upper middle class movement. And SD's are more willing to explicitly use class analysis and language, while "liberals" prefer class neutral "progressive" language, or populist language.
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lord of the mark
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FUKCOV - Former United Kingdom Colony of Virginia
Dec 2000
time: 00:34
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no the wikipidea article is foobar.
Look at this under "Social democracy"
"The period 1914-1962 in Europe was dominated by World War I, World War II, and the Cold War, culminating in the construction of the Berlin Wall. Although social democrats had been influential in this period, and a moderate breed of Eurocommunism had developed, in general nationalist, fundamentalist and capitalist forces were seen as allies of the United States, and there was some suspicion of Social Democrats as potentially "soft on Communism" and seeking to implement something like Stalinism in Western Europe. "
First the US didnt really have anything to do with domestic European politics till 1945.
Second in post-45, not only were some domestic US social democrats of the SDUSA variety fairly strong anti-communist, but IIRC the CIA had some contact with European Social Democrats, especially in France and Italy.
Thirdly - Eurocommunism didnt begin to emerge till the end of this period. It first really came to light when the Italian communists refused to support the invasion of Czechoslovakia. I dont think ANY major west european communist party objected to the invasion of Hungary. Perhaps the author is getting Titoism and Eurocommunism confused?
I havent read all the rest, but this doesnt bode well.
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Pekka
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em seu burro dos pais!
Feb 2002
time: 07:34
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Well, there are many forms of Socialism. What we here try to do is I think we try to create a situation where all citizens are equal and have the same opportunities, and then kicks in the capitalist integration to socialism where we try to have those people who have had equal opportunities to further go with that and pursue their dreams.
It's like a system where you try to get the benefits of the socialist system with the healthcare and stuff, and then the capitalist thing too.
The problem is it's hella expensive system and if it crumbles, it shows its effects on everyone equally  . Like no healthcare for anyone properly anymore, like in here. Or, the situation where you have 'public transportation', but only in big cities and it's more expensive than driving your own car, and having one of the highest prices of gasoline in the world it's pretty funny.
All in all, a good idea for sure, and COULD work if there would be enough money to do it. So it's likely to work only partially, and what you have is a system that is not really socialist but only poor in that way it should be rich to work.
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24-03-2004 02:15
european democracy 
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