Here is your primer on Socialism with help from Monty Python, in honor of the late Terry Jones, who was an excellent Karl Marx. Everyone keep your pants on. WARNING: NO ONE WILL AGREE WITH ANY OF THIS.
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Marx believed that human society was explained by who owned the means of production. History went in phases, from ancient and then to feudal relations. Slavery, to contracted slavery, at the behest of the lords. /2
But history is inevitable. We moved from ancient to feudal to capitalist society, as we must, where the ruling classes exploit the worker via private ownership. The state and things like elections and religion were just shams, vehicles for more repression. /3
Inevitably the alienation of work would make the workers rise up, overthrow the owners, seize the economy and the apparatus of the state. The proletariat, through the state they now controlled, would administer the economy in shared holding for all of society. YAY! SOCIALISM!
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This is why everything in the old USSR was "the people's this" and "the people's that." It was The People's Stuff, held in trust by The State, which had overthrown the bourgeoisie and therefore could now be trusted by the workers since it *was* the workers. /5
Some versions debated then in the USSR and now in the West only included the state taking the "commanding heights" of industry and leaving the little guys alone to run small shops and restaurants and the like. But anything worth having would be held by The State. /6
This is Marxian socialism: State ownership of the means of the production, held by a state that is controlled by the now-ruling proletariat in the name of the workers and for their universal good. The upper class was vanquished and expropriated. Violently. /7
Now, Bernie Sanders *used* to believe in this kind of Marxian solution of nationalization and state planning and all that crap. He claims not to now. I don't think he ever did, because rich people in Vermont would have exiled him to New Hampshire, but that's not relevant now. /8
Sanders now talks about "democratic socialism," which, if you understand Marx, pretty much makes no sense, since it still leaves the state in the hands of a faux democracy that a Marxist would say is really just another dog and pony show for the dumb workers. But I digress. /9
You can, I suppose, all vote to have state ownership of industry, but those of us with a lick of sense would call that "state capitalism" with the state as majority shareholder. For it to be socialism, you'd have to banish the ruling class from, erm, ruling. This is key. /10
Democratic socialists talk about govt "controlling" the means of production but not "owning" it. Whatever. The govt "controlling" industry and filtering profits to favored corporations through some department or ministry isn't socialism, it's state - even crony - capitalism. /11
Voluntary socialism, or "democratic" socialism, is like talking about voluntary incarceration. The whole point was that you don't get a choice after the revolution. The State belongs to the dictatorship of the proletariat. That's why the ruling class will fight it violently. /12
Now, Sanders and his fans point to "European socialism," because they want you to think socialism means high taxes and large, well-funded social safety nets. It's not. Go tell those European businesses that they're "socialists". I'll leave the car running for you. /13
The state doing big projects like highways is not socialism. The state funding health insurance is not socialism. The state owning all the means to *make* a highway, and *owning* the hospitals and medical industries? Yes, more like socialism.
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But until the state is run by the workers, this is all just smoke. The key to the socialist phase of history was the STATE was in the hands of the workers, not capitalist bureaucrats and industrialists. So calm down. Socialism isn't coming. /15
You want more social spending? Go for it. Vote for it. But it's not "socialism." You want free college? Fine. But that's not socialism either. You want to nationalize all major industries? Great, that's...well, okay, that's socialism. Not happening. /16
None of this is communism, which would be the final phase of historical development in which there is no longer any state anywhere, and we all hold property in common - which is to say, no private property at all. That'll never happen either. /17
This has been my primer for you on socialism. And now for something completely different. /18x
