> While I also think it is completely possible that few of the people
> asked have any idea what socialism actually means (and likely think it
> is something more like Social Democracy) I also think there is
> something to the fact that there isn't much of a strategic ideological
> advantage to claiming to support socialism in the US. Saying you like
> Small Businesses is something of a hegemonic reflex--like saying you
> love freedom or liberty. You almost *HAVE* to say that you support
> small businesses to feel okay about yourself (well you, Doug,
> don't--and with good reasons I am increasingly persuaded by, but the
> average citizen is fed a steady diet of pablum about pa and ma shops);
> but saying you support socialism in a culture that has typically seen
> the term as a slur seems to have more agency involved. If, as Richard
> says, this has to do with the population that have most recently taken
> up the slur, then I agree, it would be a good opening. (the Handle
> quote is great.)
>
> s
====================
There's a great quote by Ernst Mandel in his essay excoriating Jon Elster [in "Analyzing Marx] saying ice cream vendors would have just an easy time making money within a socialist society as they would under contemporary capitalism. I'd paste it in but I'm traveling and am away from my library. Based on my all too fallible memory, it seems apropos.
Ian