Socialism

SOCIALISM: THE DREAM OF AN IDEAL SOCIETY? Is it a wonderful "utopia" or a totalitarian nightmare? Will everything be free or will deep-state bureaucrats decide who gets what? Did Plato, Thomas More, & Francis Bacon propose social ownership of property? Is there a difference between socialism and communism? Did Pilgrims attempt "a communistic plan of life"? What happened? How did the Pilgrims' covenant under God become the Age of Enlightenment's social contract with a distant God, become the French Revolution's social contract with no god, become Marxism's "the state is god"? "If the state gives rights, it can, and inevitably will, take away those rights"-Eisenhower. Was France's Reign of Terror a model for future violent socialist revolutions? The Bible talks about private property, yet Marx wrote: "The theory of the communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property." Coolidge wrote: "It does not follow that because something ought to be done, the national government ought to do it." What did socialism do to Russia, Romania, Poland, Hungary, China, North Korea, Cuba, Cambodia, and Venezuela? What are honor-shame cultures? What are the group dynamics which can manipulate individuals with peer-pressure to surrender their private views to fit in with a group. Who was Joseph Goebbels, who said: "Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play." How did he control mob emotions? Learn about the political tactics of "deconstruction," "psychological projection," and "seizing the moral high ground." Is the form of government the problem or is the problem deeper - the selfishness inherent in the human heart? What is the only real solution? FIND THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS AND MORE IN THIS EYE-OPENING BOOK!

Socialism is strangely impervious to refutation by real-world experience. Over the past hundred years, there have been more than two dozen attempts to build a socialist society, from the Soviet Union to Maoist China to Venezuela. All of them have ended in varying degrees of failure. But, according to socialism’s adherents, that is only because none of these experiments were “real socialism”. This book documents the history of this, by now, standard response. It shows how the claim of fake socialism is only ever made after the event. As long as a socialist project is in its prime, almost nobody claims that it is not real socialism. On the contrary, virtually every socialist project in history has gone through a honeymoon period, during which it was enthusiastically praised by prominent Western intellectuals. It was only when their failures became too obvious to deny that they got retroactively reclassified as “not real socialism”.

A spirited, deeply researched exploration of why capitalism is bad for women and how, when done right, socialism leads to economic independence, better labor conditions, better work-life balance and, yes, even better sex. In a witty, irreverent op-ed piece that went viral, Kristen Ghodsee argued that women had better sex under socialism. The response was tremendous — clearly she articulated something many women had sensed for years: the problem is with capitalism, not with us. Ghodsee, an acclaimed ethnographer and professor of Russian and East European Studies, spent years researching what happened to women in countries that transitioned from state socialism to capitalism. She argues here that unregulated capitalism disproportionately harms women, and that we should learn from the past. By rejecting the bad and salvaging the good, we can adapt some socialist ideas to the 21st century and improve our lives. She tackles all aspects of a woman's life - work, parenting, sex and relationships, citizenship, and leadership. In a chapter called "Women: Like Men, But Cheaper," she talks about women in the workplace, discussing everything from the wage gap to harassment and discrimination. In "What To Expect When You're Expecting Exploitation," she addresses motherhood and how "having it all" is impossible under capitalism. Women are standing up for themselves like never before, from the increase in the number of women running for office to the women's march to the long-overdue public outcry against sexual harassment. Interest in socialism is also on the rise -- whether it's the popularity of Bernie Sanders or the skyrocketing membership numbers of the Democratic Socialists of America. It's become increasingly clear to women that capitalism isn't working for us, and Ghodsee is the informed, lively guide who can show us the way forward.

A book to challenge the status quo, spark a debate, and get people talking about the issues and questions we face as a country!

Socialism: Past andFuture is prominent thinker Michael Harrington's final contribution. He composed a thoughtful, intelligent, and compassionate treatise on the role of socialism in modern...

This outstanding and original volume offers a critical examination of a number of developments which in recent years have undermined the idea of socialism and eroded its electoral appeal. Among these developments are the collapse of Communist regimes, the fragmentation of the constituencies upon which earlier socialist advances had depended, changes in the organization and the dynamics of capitalism and a dearth of agencies committed to the socialist project. The book also takes up and seeks to rebut older objections to socialism, such as the notion that it is inevitably totalitarian, that it is based on too optimistic a view of human nature and that it fails to take account of the tendency of power to accumulate in the hands of minorities. The book argues that a social order dominated by the logic of capital and competition cannot, despite all the positive claims made on its behalf, produce the conditions which make true citizenship and community possible. By contrast, socialism offers an attractive and feasible programme for the realization of those ideals. Miliband argues that socialism cannot be seen as an answer to all the ills which have plagued humankind. Socialism, in his view, has to be understood as part of an age-old struggle for a more just society, and he believes that, seen in this light, socialism remains not only desirable but also perfectly possible. Moreover, he believes, socialism will, in time, come to command a majority support which its advancement requires. Socialism has to be seen as a permanent striving for the achievement of democracy, egalitarianism and the creation of an economy under democratic control.

A bold new manifesto for digital technology after capitalism.