The
Socialist Courier blog has no great expectation of being able to take you by
storm and make you all good socialists. Certainly, it would give the blog great
pleasure to succeed in convincing any large number of you of the justice of the
ideas of socialism, and of the necessity of putting its ideals into practice. Even
today people imagine that we can instill whatever ideas we may choose into a person's
mind; that we can influence at our own discretion the development of ideas at
any given time in any given people. But it is precisely this that is
impossible.
But what we
are more eager to do, is to convince you how necessary and important it is for
you, yourself, to take an interest in the socialist movement, to take that one step
beyond so to open your eyes to the world around you, and for once to realize
that what you have in all probability been told about socialism is to a large
extent based on exaggeration, lack of understanding, or ignorance of the nature
of the movement, and perhaps also on ill-will. Every man and woman should take an
interest in politics and in socialism. From the very day that we enter into the
world, politics begins to operate upon us and this continues all through our
lives down to the grave.
In regard to
socialism many have no doubt often been told that it consists of utopian attempts
toward the destruction of every good thing that civilisation has called into
being: as something which under no conditions can realise its ideal and is
capable only of doing serious damage to society in general. How easy it would
be to put an end to socialism if it were really only a matter of nonsensical
theories. But has this occurred? Has it been demonstrated to be the case? No.
The fact
that we cannot and do not think what we please to think; we think what we must
think. And what obliges the individual to think in a certain way is the measure
of his or her interests and opinions, which are in turn developed out of the
social interests of a certain class in society. If our capitalist class stands
opposed to socialism, we socialists are not in the least astonished by that. No
one can expect a class to act against its interests. Yet we are astounded that so many of our
fellow-workers adopt the ideas and interests of the class that rules over them.
If it had not been for this, socialism would certainly be established today.
The very class in society, which is toiling in servitude, selling their labour
power, and compelled to renounce the right of free disposal over their own
persons accept the belief system of their masters. Socialist Courier thinks it
is only natural that other thoughts will eventually awaken in their minds:
"Is this right? Is it reasonable? Is it to remain so for ever? Are we
always to be the oppressed and expropriated, to the end that those who
appropriate to themselves out of our labour all the wealth and enjoyment that
this world can offer may live in opulence and ease?" These pertinent
questions are brought home to the consciousness of the working class by virtue
of their labour, their intelligence and position as human beings, and so to
this extent the socialist movement must expand and develop.
Not only can
socialism and its demands be accepted as an ideal, they can also be realised.
What do socialists demand? The abolition of every form of expropriation and
oppression of man by man in social, political and economic life. Mankind shall
be free and equal without exception and they shall be permitted to fulfil their
mission in life as individuals with the opportunity of harmoniously developing
and educating, in accordance with his or her needs, the physical and
intellectual capacities which nature has given to him or her. From this arises
the need for society to increase both the quantity and the quality of the means
of life and of culture, so it shall prove adequate to meet the very highest
demands that can be made upon it; and it follows, therefore, that it is the
duty of every person to co-operate in accordance with their powers and
capacities in the production of these means of culture and life. We do not desire to "divide up," as
people are in the habit of saying; we do not wish to throw humanity back into
barbarism of barter; on the contrary, we desire to lift the whole of humanity
to the highest thinkable plane of civilisation. We wish every individual
without exception to have a share in the means of culture and education
according to their capacities and needs. This ideal is possible today because we
now possess all the means and possibilities to realise it.
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