Socialism vs Capitalism. In this article, allow me to break down the differences between socialism and capitalism, and explain why many societies are partially built on socialist platforms. Socialism is defined as “a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.” I found that on the Google Dictionary, and I generally agree with it. Making the same search, we find that capitalism is defined as “an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.” In other words, Socialism and Capitalism are the opposite of each other, in that they are opposing theories on how a society should be run.
For a long time, socialism and capitalism were at odds, and it seemed as though they were fairly evenly matched. The A lot of people, particularly on the far right, and oftentimes from the United States, hate socialism. They say it’s the worst thing imaginable for a country, and love to reference times during which society devolved completely, such as the Great Leap Forward or Holodomor. These events were quite awful, and anyone who has read history shouldn’t want to repeat them or copy the leaders who brought them about. While I understand and agree with that point of view, most people just haven’t read enough history to tell you or I how these disasters relate to socialism.
The reality of the situation is that in some cases socialism has gone too far, and the government in power has not only made mistakes but become corrupted by immorality. While the Holodomor and the Great Leap Forward were not clearly intentional, they involved a lot of oversight and corruption. Here’s a short passage about what took place in the 1920s, when Stalin initiated the Holodomor in Ukraine.
This shouldn’t happen under a normal system of government, and it doesn’t. You see the thing is, all countries are at least partially socialist. The military is always nationalized. That’s all socialism is, the nationalization of services. If you have a nationalized service in your country, then I have some news for you. The natural corollary to this, I believe, is that some socialism is good.
This is why wherever you live, you want to make sure that civics are taught in some way, shape, or form. You also want there to be a certain amount of freedom of speech. The ability to make your thoughts known and give dissenting opinions is a privilege that those of us who live in common law jurisdictions take for granted (although things are getting worse in the United Kingdom). We shouldn’t do this, because open discourse is what allows democratic societies to run.
All in all, it doesn’t matter how you run a country, as long as you run it with smart, engaged citizens. Right now, a lot of the turmoil we’re seeing in Western countries is due to a lack of engagement. Young people don’t vote, and people over 45 have little to no clue what goes on with the youth (outside of the people they work with). People also don’t know much. Search “asking Americans random questions” on YouTube and you’ll see what I’m talking about. People have little to no general knowledge. How are they supposed to run a good country?
I’m not sure how to get people to care more about civics, but I know it’s an important subject. Without religion, people need a moral baseline, and to understand how their society functions. It seems obvious to me, but for some reason, this glaring issue is being ignored. Hopefully, this article can spur some discussion and change.
