Thread by @TomLondon6

EXTRACTS from an essay written in 1949 by Albert Einstein, Why Socialism?

Most of the major states of history owed their existence to conquest. The conquering peoples established themselves, legally and economically, as the privileged class of the conquered country.
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They seized for themselves a monopoly of the land ownership and appointed a priesthood from among their own ranks.
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The priests, in control of education, made the class division of society into a permanent institution and created a system of values by which the people were thenceforth, to a large extent unconsciously, guided in their social behavior.
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Nowhere have we really overcome what Thorstein Veblen called “the predatory phase” of human development. The observable economic facts belong to that phase and even such laws as we can derive from them are not applicable to other phases.
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...the real purpose of socialism is precisely to overcome and advance beyond the predatory phase of human development ...
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...we should be on our guard not to overestimate science and scientific methods when it is a question of human problems; and we should not assume that experts are the only ones who have a right to express themselves on questions affecting the organization of society...
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Man is, at one and the same time, a solitary being and a social being. As a solitary being, he attempts to protect his own existence and that of those who are closest to him, to satisfy his personal desires, and to develop his innate abilities.
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As a social being, he seeks to gain the recognition and affection of his fellow human beings, to share in their pleasures, to comfort them in their sorrows, and to improve their conditions of life.
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The individual is able to think, feel, strive, and work by himself; but he depends so much upon society—in his physical, intellectual, and emotional existence—that it is impossible to think of him, or to understand him, outside the framework of society.
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It is “society” which provides man with food, clothing, a home, tools of work, language, the forms of thought, and most of the content of thought; his life is made possible through the labor and the accomplishments of the many millions past & present hidden behind word “society"

social behavior of human beings may differ greatly. It's on this that those striving to improve lot of man may ground their hopes: humans are not condemned, because of their biological constitution, to annihilate each other or to be at the mercy of a cruel, self-inflicted fate
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the essence of the crisis of our time concerns the relationship of the individual to society. The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset ...
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but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence. Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate.

All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life.
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Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.
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The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil.
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Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, ... The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society.
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This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists...Consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged

Moreover, capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is extremely difficult, indeed in most cases impossible, for citizens to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of their political rights

This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career
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I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
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The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.
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Clarity about the aims and problems of socialism is of greatest significance in our age of transition. Under present circumstances, free and unhindered discussion of these problems has come under a powerful taboo...

THE END