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From: janw@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: My Kind of Socialist
Message-ID: <28200296@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Nov-85 02:21:00 EST
Article-I.D.: inmet.28200296
Posted: Mon Nov 18 02:21:00 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 26-Nov-85 21:31:37 EST
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Nf-ID: #N:inmet:28200296:000:2272
Nf-From: inmet!janw    Nov 18 02:21:00 1985


In case anyone has not read it, The Soul of Man under  Socialism,
an  essay  by Oscar Wilde, is highly recommended - to socialists,
libertarians and all the others. Wilde uses the words "social-
ism" and "individualism" interchangeably !

Written in 1890, it contains some true prophesies; it is
witty (of course), and lucid, and full of ideas. And short.

Here are some quotations:

>If the Socialism is Authoritarian; if there are Governments armed
>with economic power as they are now with political power; if, in
>a word, we are to have industrial tyrannies, then the last state
>of man will be worse than the first.

>It is to be regretted that a portion of our community should be
>practically in slavery, but to propose to solve the problem by
>enslaving the entire community is childish.

>All authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise
>it, and it degrades those over whom it is exercised.

>All modes of government are failures.

Consequently, he is for doing without government (which  he  dis-
tinguishes from the State).

>With authority, punishment will pass away. This will be a  great
>gain ... As one reads history ... one is absolutely sickened, not
>by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punish-
>ments that the good have inflicted.

So, what makes him a socialist ?

>Now if the State is not to govern, it may be asked what the State
>is to do.  The State is to be a voluntary association that will
>organize labour, and be the manufacturer and distributor of
>necessary commodities.  The State is to make what is useful. The
>individual is to make what is beautiful.

But how can State, apart from individuals, *make* anything ?  His
answer is *automation* (in 1890 !).

Is all this unrealistic? He has an answer:

>A practical scheme is either a scheme  that  is  already  in  ex-
>istence,  or  a  scheme  that could be carried out under existing
>conditions.  But it is exactly the existing conditions  that  one
>objects to.

>A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even
>glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity
>is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out,
>and, seeing a better country, sets sail.  Progress is the reali-
>zation of Utopias.