Socialism Is Evil?
I don’t oppose the fact that ideas can be evil. If someone came up with an idea to kill lots of innocent people for absolutely no purpose, I would consider that idea to be evil. I’m just stating my definition of what evil can possibly mean. How then is socialism evil?
Socialism is the economic idea that the government would maintain the central source of power and should nationalize sectors of the economy to promote an even and fair distribution of wealth. This idea in and of itself does not sound like an evil idea. Yet, many people detest socialism and even use it as an insult. Sure some people are extremely proud of the capitalistic view, but that does not mean that socialism is necessarily evil. There’s a difference between disagreeing with an idea and thinking that an idea is evil or just plain wrong.
The problem is that so many associate socialism with communism, and in the United States at least, communism is looked down upon due to our dealings with the Russians, Cuba, and even China during the Cold War. Communist countries have, in general, had poor human rights records for instance. Other critics say that political and economic freedoms are suppressed and thus freedoms are taken away. As you may know the United States was founded on freedom, and a socialist model simply wouldn’t do. This is why the mere thought of socialism is looked down upon.
This doesn’t have to be true in other countries however. If a country and its populace agree to such an economic and political policy then so be it. Socialism itself isn’t what is evil, it is what people do with that idea that can be so harmful. For example, totalitarian governments use it as a way to gain power and have control over their people.
There are of course plenty of disagreements on which policy is better, As far as my stance, I know that I don’t consider socialism an evil in the world. I keep that in mind when I express my opinion. I do think it’s quite unrealistic, in the sense that power corrupts too easily, but that’s just how I see it.
Can a socialist society work? And what would have to be done for such a society to function? Can it be done with relatively little impact on personal freedoms? What do you think?
Comments are more than welcome!
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Mad Stratter Said,
January 10, 2009 @ 5:35 pm
Great post; I’ve never understand how people, especially during this past election, can consider “socialism” an insult. Policies were mocked as being “socialist” as if that term, on it’s face, meant that it was an evil and terrible idea and nothing more needed to be said about it, as if shooting down an idea by calling it “socialist” was a reasonable argument.
Although, I noticed that many of the people who did this were the same McMorons who thought that “Muslim” was in insulting and evil term.
Whatever you political and religious views, back them up please. People have every right to hold their own beliefs, but when they are so shallow (yet firmly held) that they consist only of adhering to an adjective and slinging around the names of other, opposing adjectives as the basis for right and wrong, good and evil, well… I become frightened for the state of our nation.
Alberto Said,
January 10, 2009 @ 8:00 pm
I agree Mad Stratter. The ignorance of using Muslim as an evil term wasn’t surprising to me, but nevertheless angers me every time. Thanks for your reply!
fastfret Said,
January 10, 2009 @ 9:01 pm
I agree with the points here, considering how much of our government has socialist ideas incorporated into it. Our public education system, medicare, medicaid, social security, welfare. Some of politics biggest subjects are that of socialist nature. Beleiving socialism as evil would be very hypocritical.
Mad Stratter Said,
January 11, 2009 @ 1:53 am
It always cracked me up when people would say that we can’t elect Obama because he would lead us down the road of Socialism… as they support the government which essentially privatized the banks.
Alberto Said,
January 11, 2009 @ 5:34 am
Very true. Although there are people out there who do want to do away with all of these…
Alberto Said,
January 11, 2009 @ 5:44 am
Ironic to be sure