"Socialism"
Never-thought-I'd-live-to-see-the-day department: PBS featured a news segment about the rise in popularity of Socialism among the young. The figures are impressive, the total of the 18 to 30 generation shows a clear majority in favor of, or positively disposed toward, Socialism. Among older Americans the tally is never better than maybe 20%. That is, young Socialists or people who like the idea, are in the 50+ percentage range. This is largely thanks to Bernie Sanders. Not too many Saint-Simonians here, but the idea to discuss is that RC is "positioned" to take advantage of the new popularity of Socialism. What we do not need to assume for one minute is that the word "Socialism" necessarily refers to some form of Marxism. Unfortunately the Right takes the view -by just about everyone who is a Right-winger- that Socialism is identical to Marxism of some kind, and, at that, is essentially a phenomenon of the old Soviet system. This is a view found among populist Rightists like Sarah Palin as well as more sophisticated thinkers like Jonah Goldberg. My point for a number of years has been that Saint-Simon's Socialism is better thought of as Social Capitalism or something like that, a mixed system in nature, that blends social well being with a market economy. Keep in mind that S-S was an enthusiast for Adam Smith. This is not the same as the Swedish system or any other welfare-led form of Social Democracy, like that of Germany or France. After all, Saint-Simon invented the slogan, "from each according to his ability to each according to his work." Marx, of course, corrupted the slogan and made it into a rallying cry for welfare, viz "according to his need." Not that there is no need for need-based welfare, but it is a question of priorities. What Saint-Simon was advocating was meritocracy, in which those who do the best are rationally rewarded. He said this at a time when the landed aristocracy still reaped the benefits of being privileged because they owned land, not because they added any value to the economy or society. Anyway, S-S thought that the best way to get a society engaged in being productive was through involvement of investment bankers who would fund -for their own profit- the productive work of large populations who, in turn, would build the railroads and bridges and tall buildings and factories and you-name-it. The system was also designed to be both modern and productive and to be socially responsible, driven by the desire for profit but at the same time by the desire for social good. The objective was to create a system that was, we might say, equally reform-minded and Socialist in character as well as Capitalist in character and focused on inventions and creativity and efficiency. And high tech. Nearly all of the leaders of the Saint-Simonian movement were graduates of the Ecole Polytechnique, the first university in the world to become, much later, epitomized in the form of MIT or IIT or Cal Tech. S-S is just about universally credited with being the "father of Socialism" -as well as the father of social science. Marx called him the "old testament" of Socialism (with himself, Marx, supposedly being the NT). But we are under no obligation to re-use all of Marx's characterizations. To look at Saint-Simon's system from the vantage of the 21st century we can say that S-S was an early Radical Centrist. In this sense the term "Socialism" can be interpreted as a form of Radical Centrism or as precursor to Radical Centrism. This cannot be done by anyone who cannot help but associate Socialism with Marx. Indeed, it can only work by criticizing Marx strongly and making sure others understand that anything that remotely smells like Marxism is verboten, bad news, not at all what is meant. That is, it requires some knowledge of Saint-Simon's ideas but, with that, we can make good use of the term "Socialism" for RC purposes. Plus S-S was a hero of the American Revolution and the man who made the behavioral sciences integral to education. And there is a good chance that the story about him meeting with Ben Franklin is true to the facts of history. He admired Franklin, at any rate, and was as pro-American as anyone can get. All of this can mean "Socialism." Guillaume -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
