by Ben F Since this is the first issue I would like to examine whether the socialism is utopian or not. Our right wing counterpart on the opposite end of the political spectrum dismisses us as utopian as a means to make us look ridiculous and unrealistic but I wish to dismantle that notion. For arguments sake I will define utopia as a “perfect social, legal and political system” but a common interpretation of the word utopia simply suggests a better society that is not necessarily perfect. Our goals are indeed idealistic but no society can be perfect since the human condition has so many variables. Oscar Wilde (a socialist himself) claimed "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 realisation of Utopias.” Wilde elegantly wrote this in his essay entitled “The Soul of Man Under Socialism”. Did Oscar Wilde, one of the greatest writers of the 19th century want a perfect society? Not necessarily, it’s obvious that this is a figure of speech…an abstraction of sorts. Utopia is a place of sorts only found through progress. By struggling together (solidarity) for common goals we can achieve progress and indeed we’ll be setting sail to the better society that we dream of. As
Bakunin said “I do not say that the peasants [and workers], freely organised from the bottom up, will miraculously create an ideal organisation, confirming in all respects to our dreams. But I am convinced that what they construct will be living and vibrant, a thousand times better and more just than any existing organisation.” A society a thousand times better and more just is realistic and something we can work towards too. Initially socialism was a utopian movement. Saint Simon is one of the earliest self-proclaimed socialists. His ideal socialism had a huge emphasis on science, useful work and equality. These ideas spread to America and some of the first socialist experiments in America. Charles Fourier took Saint Simons ideas and made them far more egalitarian. In fact he was the first person to use the word “feminist”. His ideas spread across America and various utopian communities spread across America each varying in success. Two important figures would take these utopian ideas and make them into a philosophy rather than blueprints for a perfect society. The first and lesser known figure is Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. His work “What is Property?” laid the foundations to anarchism and from there the philosophy flourished. The second and notoriously known figure is Karl Marx. Marx rarely wrote about socialism itself but he wrote extensively on capitalism and how it affects society as a whole. Any serious socialist of any variety will use some of 19
j u n e 2 0 1 1 \\ alltheleft