The past few years it has been brought up during the elections on whether a candidate has the vibe of being a socialist. Both of the major political parties have gone out their way to demonize any candidate that appears to have a socialist tone. Trying to frighten the masses. Yet they never truly define what socialism is.
So that brings up the questions – What is socialism? Why is it perceived as being such a bad thing? Well to define what socialism is exactly we have to go back to school. We are familiar with capitalism and communism because the dominating nations tend to be either one of those two. Yet there is little understanding of what exactly is socialism and why so many in the western fear it so much.
Let’s start with the definition of socialism. According to Merrian-Webster the definition of socialism is as follows:
– A way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies.
To sum up the characteristic of socialism is basically a social and economic system owned and/or controlled socially. There are different forms of social ownership like :
– Cooperative enterprises
– Common ownership
– State ownership
– Citizen ownership of equality.
So then the question that should be asked is which type of socialist are you behind. Many see Socialism as an answer to the mishaps of the current Capitalist system that is has been in place for so many decades. Whether it is or not, only time can tell.
Socialism was a concept that was birthed by theories by Karl Marx and often mistaken for Communism. Another one of Marx’s theories. Socialism has more of a democratic centralized control. Which provides free access to goods and services to the masses of the population. Giving the people a shared and equal access to resources. Yes this sounds like Communism but it is not. (And that is a system that hasn’t worked any better than Capitalism.)
When all is said, if one look at the science fiction movies of the future. The progressive and advance societies of the future always have the appearance of an actual functioning socialist society. So if you think about it why do those that dream of the future feel that this would be a better place within this form of government. Yet those that are currently in power prefer to make you think that it’s the horrible monster that live in the governmental closet.
Socialism is not a monster nor is it our savior. Yet it might be a step in the right direction. Universal sharing but assist more than our economy. Time will only tell.
References:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Socialism.html
Looking Outside The Bubble 