>I wouldn't have said "I'm a socialist" on the Moyers show, because
>either the segman wouldn't have run or the audience would have
>stopped listening. I'd happily say it here, or on WBAI, or in some
>other forum where it wouldn't result in censorship or loss of
>audience interest.
There's not much point in just asserting "I'm a socialist" to people who don't know what socialism means, but there is a point in explaining what it means. So you could say "I'm in favour of economic security for all" and "I'm in favour of economic, as well as political, democracy". You then sum it up by adding "In a word, socialism."
>I am for a welfare state. I wouldn't say I believe in "economic
>rights" becuase I don't know what that means. But a stronger welfare
>state would be good for the working class and would bring us several
>steps closer to the decommodification of life.
A "welfare state" of course is, by implication, a capitalist state. Although there are as many different kinds of "welfare state" as there are different kinds of capitalism, I'm not there has ever been or can ever be any other kind of capitalist state than a welfare state. The trouble is that, if history teaches us anything, it teaches us that a capitalist welfare state can never mean economic security for all, because economic INsecurity for most people is an absolute pre-condition for capitalism to function. Few people would argue with that proposition and it explains what is wrong with capitalism.
So being in favour of a welfare state is being in favour of a capitalist state.
>But there's also a real political problem with saying "I'm a
>socialist," beyond indicating some affiliation. There is no
>socialist movement, and the whole idea is essentially dead except in
>the realm of fantasy.
Socialism is an idea. It isn't dead until all socialists are dead and even then it would rise from the dead. Humans are, fundamentally, a social animal. It is capitalism which is unnatural.
>It's heartbreaking that that's true, but it is.
It is a triumph of capitalist propaganda and social engineering that you think its true. But you are putting the cart before the horse, socialism isn't a creation of a socialist movement. A socialist movement is a creation of socialists. All humans are socialists by our very nature and it is only by an overbearing process and continuous process of social conditioning that the unnatural society we live in can be propped up.
> So I'm not sure what you accomplish by foregrounding an allegiance
>to socialism if you're more interested in changing the world than
>advertising your authenticity.
What you would hope to accomplish by explaining socialism to people who don't know what it means, is to spread the idea.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas