Let’s Brutalize an -ism: Socialism
A lot of buzzwords floating through communication channels from academia to caffeteria seem to rather obscure than reveal their correct meaning. One of those words is “socialism”, quite popular and prevalent -ism both to be praised and reviled, depending on which side of popular political debates one takes. But what is the reality behind the -ism? In this podcast we inquire about precisely this: what were and, we would argue, still are the basic outlines of socialism as a quite well defined form of modern metaphysics, something most of its proponents and enemies rarely recognize let alone understand.
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Branko Malić
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I haven’t commented in a while but I would just like to make it clear that it was out of laziness, not lack of interest. I’m sure that I speak not only for myself when I say that I am very much interested in the content that you put out and would like to express my sincere gratitude and support for your endeavors.
Thanks. New things are in the works, don’t worry.
I got into a little spate with somebody not so long ago over whether it means for someone on the left to be a socialist, and conversely someone on the right to be a capitalist. The person in question was a very intelligent man, far more so than myself for that matter, but sadly in a manner all too common these days, only capable of exercising the facilities of his mind within the confines of institutionally defined frameworks. Thus he seemed to see the term in an American polemic meaning, i.e. a conflux of government programs designed to help the poor and alleviate social problems.
Personally I can’t find the difference in such definitions of socialism and capitalism. I view “socialism” as a rational organization of society according to the mechanization of its functions, i.e. subjection of the social to the economical, and the economical to the “cybernetic” that is to say, rationally engineered system of the production and distribution of goods, services and products. The extent to which a society is socialist is the extent to what the social functions and activities can be encompassed by this system. Thus question of whether this cybernetic instrument serves either a private cadre of chief executives or state officials is one concerning semantics, at least to me.
I was wondering if you could comment on the legacy of Catholic pre-Marxist critique of capitalism and how conservative, “reactionary” (oh how I hate using that word) thought in Europe was generally speaking, highly wary of markets, finance and capital? Particularly how many Catholic writers, like for example Hillaire Belloc seemed to have been very astrigent towards the then-liberal vogue of free-markets as a social ideal?