December 27th, 2022
I haven’t had time to write with Christmas and all that, but I’m 100 pages into this book. This was the first of three parts of the book, which is about “why the left is so mad”. It essentially goes over the state of the world and how our current capitalistic nation/world causes bad things. We all know the world is a terrible place if you don’t have power. Poor people die from treatable illnesses, the rich are destroying the environment and thus destabilizing the planet, workers are oppressed by employers with government support. Economic right-wingers think that everything should be determined by the market. There is no room for humanitarianism or morals. This is the disgusting state of the world, which we choose to ignore because it is too depressing. We know that we, the powerless, can do nothing. I like the ideas of socialism, but I have no faith that any government can operate on good will. Human nature is to be selfish and to take advantage. Even if an altruistic socialistic government were established, within a generation all would be back to exploitation. It did not take long for the American government to become a shadow of the “spirit of ‘76” or even of ‘89. Once the New Dealers were dead, the Democrats became the center-right party and a neoliberal co-conspirator with the Republicans. We ignore this because it is sad, and we would rather live sad lives without knowing it. I’m sure the author is more optimistic that I am, but we didn’t get to that part of the book yet. The only thing I’ve seen him write that I think is BS is bringing up the male-female pay-gap. He even writes “(yes, it’s real)” after bringing it up, then saying in the notes that the argument against it is that men and women, in the same role, get paid the same. Thus, all things equal, there is no pay gap. It’s stupid to perpetuate a blatantly wrong argument when there are so many other inequalities women have to deal with. Don’t give people something they can easily disprove, it makes all the other points look weaker.
December 28th, 2022
Read another 40 pages or so. I think this is the part where the author tells us what socialism “is”, but so far he has not said anything interesting or useful. I don’t even remember the first chapter, to be honest. Something about solidarity with people. Next was about the idea of a utopia and how socialists want to take steps towards creating a perfect world. That’s nice, but is unrealistic. Then there was a chapter about defining terms, but wasn’t actually helpful. It actually added to the confusion by bringing in terms for democratic socialist and social democracy. The social democracy always seemed more realistic to me. Help the poor with a strong state. I never understood the democratizing the workplace part. In what type of situations would it work? In shops or grocery stores or things like that, I can see it. It would depend on the aspect of the democratizing. Workers in a Coke factory should not have a vote on the flavor they produce, but of course should have a say on the things that affect them at work. I guess it’s just an overly broad term.
December 29th, 2022
Read another 3 chapters, which rounds out the “Why socialism is good” section. Overall, I think these were more coherent than the rest of the book, but it is mostly talk about what socialist ideas are. If you want to know how these ideas would work in reality, this is not the book for you. One chapter talks about history and different types of socialism, though they may not have been called socialism. Apparently Einstein and Helen Keller were socialists. We know how radical Thomas Paine was. After the Magna Carta, in 1217 there was the Forest Charter, which reclaimed the rights of the commons. It talks about Marxism and how the dogmatism of Leninism eroded the freedom of the people as opposed to liberating them. Many libertarian socialists were disappointed and appalled by Lenin. Even in Marx’s time, people (Bakunin?) wrote to him warning his philosophy would lead to totalitarianism. Equality cannot be forced at the cost of freedom. That said, Marx udnerstood the worker-employer relationship very well. Libertarian socialists (never heard this phrasing before) apparently differ from traditional because they oppose the dictatorship of the working class as much as they oppose the dictatorship of the rich. This group tends to not be discussed since it makes everyone uncomfortable. In America, socialism was not always so weak. A century or so ago, there were elected socialists. Many mayors were socialist (including my hometown.) Milwaukee had one for 24 years straight, and people loved him and what he did to the city. Bernie Sanders was mayor of Burlington and improved that city, too. Now the author talks about the plans. Bernie’s agenda, in his book “Our Revolution”, has a lot of good goals. There’s also the Green New Deal, though it is a flawed, watered-down version stolen from the Green Party. Single-payer healthcare, paid family leave, sick leave, higher wages, etc. The author mentions getting rid of the electoral college and adding ranked-choice voting. Others that should be added and multi-member districts and abolishing the senate. He mentions term limits for the supreme court, so might as well through the senate out, too. Electoral reform is most important, after the environment. Then there’s stuff about unions and improving the work life. Unions, of course, need to be monitored to make sure they don’t become dictatorships and actually represent their members. How to get this done? The author just says run socialist candidates. Not much of a plan there. Oh well. Vote Green.
December 30th, 2022
The last part is about what’s wrong with other ideologies. First he goes for conservatives. My first complaint is that it opens with a quote from The Bell Curve. This makes me feel that the author either didn’t read it or didn’t understand it. In my opinion, the book and the idea that not all people are born equal and have different capabilities is all the more reason for a government that can provide adequate support. It is a reason for socialism, not some conservative argument. Then the author complains about conservatives. Some of the arguments are silly, like some Anne Coulter joke about immigrants and rape. It was not a funny joke, but don’t get upset over jokes. The author just comes across as a pussy. There is a lot of bullying by conservatives, that is true. There are a lot of spiteful activities by conservatives. Don’t be a dick. But don’t be a square. Anyway, the whole rest of the book is essentially anti-conservative, so one chapter doesn’t add much more. The next chapter is about liberals, the Obama, Clinton, Biden types. May be worth noting that this was written in 2018 or 2019, Trump era. Most of this chapter is about the failures of Obama and the delusions of the Clinton supporters in 2016. Other than spending too much time on the election, this chapter makes some important points for those who think the Democrats are the party for the working classes and abused of society. Liberals like Obama help Wall Street and have no real platform other than be Republican-lite. Then Republicans don’t give them the time of day after the Dems go for “bipartisanship”. The Obamas and Bushes are friends and are all responsible for the deaths of Middle Eastern children. Honestly, a book on the problems with the liberal agenda/methods and the socialist solutions would have been a better purchase. Don’t know if it exists. Only one chapter left, I read this pretty quickly.
December 31st, 2022
Finished this book today. The last chapter is dedicated to common criticisms against socialism. I'll list them here.
- Socialism puts equality over freedom
As said earlier in the book, capitalism leads to a less free society. When the ultra-rich have control over one's daily life and even the country, the lower class has no freedom to act. They are stuck in a state of wage slavery without a path to change that. Thus, soci alism leads to increased freedom.
- Venezuela sucks
Venezuela is not socialist, but authoritarian. They are oppressive and do not give power to the people. The leaders just pocket the money. Compare to Bolivia, whose socialist government has been successful.
- When the government controls the economy, it gets destroyed
People claim that Soviets had a much worse quality of life compared to Americans, but this is misleading. Americans were a postindustrial society. Russia was a peasant society destroyed by WWI and Civil War. Then it was wrecked by Stalin and WWII. You cannot compare the state of the two societies when they started at two completely different levels. Soviets had huge growth, also, with their planned economy. The next point is that corporations function as a planned economy. I can't remember if I heard that point from Richard Wolff or Ha-Joon Chang before. A corporation does not compete with its different constituents. Group A provides something to Group B because the company needs it. There is no market economy. Sears tried an internal market economy and it was a disaster. Corporations also purchase other companies because they don't like the market. They want to control the goods that they need.
- Socialism puts the collective over the individual
I guess the refutation is that capitalists look at laborers simply as capital and interchangeable parts, where socialists value the worker and his needs.
- People are greedy/lazy by nature
People just hate unfulfilling jobs. We are coerced into working and sometimes we find jobs we like and don't mind putting time in. Other jobs are mindless and destroy the soul. People are naturally collective and help others not solely out of gain. We are humans, thus we have selfish and unselfish tendencies, and it is situational. Shepherds and grazers share common fields without destroying them by endless growth of flock because they know the importance of maintaining what they have. Their society is structured around fighting the selfishness.
- Socialists deny that socialist governments are “true socialism”
This one is obvious. Authoritarianism is not socialism.
- Socialists reap the rewards of capitalism
It's hard to be born in a society and not give and take from it. Owning a cellphone does not mean one cannot favor socialism. You can still hope to democratize the workplace. Going to the doctor does not mean I support the current healthcare system. A Christian man with possessions would be just as hypocritical. Jesus said sell it all and join him. There is reasonable wealth and unreasonable wealth. Owning a home and a car is reasonable. Owning an island is not.
- Socialists are boring
Lefties tend to get butthurt over jokes more than others. Right wingers just hate Jesus jokes.
Overall, the book is just okay. I don't think I was the target audience, though I doubt any right wingers would pick up the book. Maybe if you're an Obama Democrat you might learn from it. I read it pretty quickly, so it's not a bad book. It just doesn't leave me with anything I didn't have before. I did leave with a list of other things to read. Possibly I'll check out Current Affairs.