> 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. It's heartbreaking that that's true, but it is. 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.
I wouldn't quite say that socialism is essentially dead, but it certainly needs a heroic resuscitation effort. If the word means anything, it means control of the means of production, or of the economy as a whole, by society. It's not very hard to come up with many defects in the existing system of private control, but so far I have yet to find anyone who has a plausible outline of a system of social control that would actually work and would deliver better results than the present one. To me, it's basically pointless to call oneself a "Marxist" or "socialist" without a practical, positive proposal for replacing the system.
If I call myself a socialist, which I sometimes do, it's only in the sense that I feel some connection with the socialist tradition and am actively searching for an alternative system.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________ Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds. (Henry Adams, "The Education of Henry Adams")