SOCIALISM QUOTES IV

quotations about socialism

Stripped down to its essence, and returned to its roots, socialism is an ideology of radical democracy. In an era when liberties are under attack, it seeks to empower civil society to allow participation in the decisions that affect our lives. A huge state bureaucracy, of course, can be just as alienating and undemocratic as corporate boardrooms, so we need to think hard about the new forms that social ownership could take.

BHASKAR SUNKARA

"Socialism's Future May Be Its Past", New York Times, June 26, 2017


Socialism, when the last word is said, is merely a new economic and political system whereby more men can get food to eat.

JACK LONDON

The Human Drift

Tags: Jack London


Socialism provides safety in numbers. And that's OK, if you don't mind trading your name--your identity and individualism--for a number.

JAROD KINTZ

99 Cents for Some Nonsense


Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

RONALD WRIGHT

America & Americans


Real socialism is inside man. It wasn't born with Marx. It was in the communes of Italy in the Middle Ages. You can't say it is finished.

DARIO FO

London Times, April 6, 1992

Tags: Dario Fo


It may be said that the power of officials is much less dangerous than the power of capitalists, because officials have no economic interests that are opposed to those of wage-earners. But this argument involves far too simple a theory of political human nature--a theory which orthodox socialism adopted from the classical political economy, and has tended to retain in spite of growing evidence of its falsity. Economic self-interest, and even economic class-interest, is by no means the only important political motive. Officials, whose salary is generally quite unaffected by their decisions on particular questions, are likely, if they are of average honesty, to decide according to their view of the public interest; but their view will none the less have a bias which will often lead them wrong. It is important to understand this bias before entrusting our destinies too unreservedly to government departments.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

"Pitfalls of Socialism", Political Ideals


In essence, socialism is a system in which others are forced to pay your bills no matter how irresponsible you may be.

RICHARD W. RAHN

"The Insurance Compulsion", Washington Times, August 7, 2017


If socialism is a nonentity in the experiencing world, then what is it in reality? I have argued that in the experiencing world, what was set up was not socialism but statism. Statism is a fact whereas socialism is a faith or a belief. Reality and ideal enter into conflict with each other. This conflict was most evident in Maoist China. Maoism had a commitment to ideal (socialism), unwilling to bow to the fact of statism. The Cultural Revolution is in essence a conflict between statism as a fact and socialism as a faith.

HENRY WANG

Socialism and Governance: A Comparison Between Maoist and Dengist Governance


If Socialism is a legitimate form of government, why have not the forces of government evolved it? The age of experiment has long since passed. We have had repetition over and over again, but no materialization of Socialism. Government is purely human, and until there is a new creation there will never be anything new in government.

JOHN CALHOUN TUTT

attributed, Why I Am Opposed to Socialism


I, who said forty years ago that we should have had Socialism already but for the Socialists, am quite willing to drop the name if dropping it will help me to get the thing.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism, and Fascism

Tags: George Bernard Shaw


Every reasonable human being should be a moderate Socialist.

THOMAS MANN

New York Times, June 18, 1950

Tags: Thomas Mann


Democracy is the road to socialism.

KARL MARX

attributed, Communism

Tags: Karl Marx


Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man. Yes? Well socialism is exactly the reverse.

LEN DEIGHTON

Funeral in Berlin


By concentrating on what is good in people, by appealing to their idealism and their sense of justice, and by asking them to put their faith in the future, socialists put themselves at a severe disadvantage.

IAN MCEWAN

City Limits, May 27, 1983


Anyone who objects to any government whatsoever as a form of socialism ought not to pull that socialist lever in their home, the one that makes their waste disappear in a whirlpool into the socialized sewage treatment plant.

JOHN MÉDAILLE

The Distributist Review, August 31, 2009


Whether considered as a doctrine, or as an historical fact, or as a movement, socialism, if it really remains socialism, cannot be brought into harmony with the dogmas of the Catholic church.... Religious socialism, Christian socialism, are expressions implying a contradiction in terms.

PIUS XI

Quadragesimo Anno


There is no other limit to the size of the Socialist party than the number of workers and wage-earners.

LEON BLUM

speech at the Socialist Party Congress at Tours, 27 December 1920


The whole problem with Communism and Socialism is summed up in this old Polish proverb: "If I lie down , I get 1000 kopeks a month. If I stand up I get 1000 kopeks a month. Why stand up?"

REVELGEN

"A reply to Tiietso Makhele -- in reality, Socialism is a dead duck in SA", News24, August 10, 2017


The supreme principle of socialism is that man takes precedence over things, life over property, and hence, work over capital; that power follows creation, and not possession; that man must not be governed by circumstances, but circumstances must be governed by man.

ERICH FROMM

On Disobedience: Why Freedom Means Saying No to Power

Tags: Erich Fromm


The socialist pretends to have glimpsed paradise on earth. Those who decline the invitation to embrace the vision are not just ungrateful: they are traitors to the cause of human perfection. Dissent is therefore not mere disagreement but treachery. Treachery is properly met not with arguments but (as circumstances permit) the guillotine, the concentration camp, the purge.

ROGER KIMBALL

The New Criterion