Principles of socialism
Socialism, in its abolition of commodity production, wage labor and the private property, and currency, aims to enshrine its egalitarian principles into governments. The goddess of justice beckons us to create a society concerned with the betterment and protection of Earth’s living entourage. This can be extended to the landscapes of the Earth, the lands and the waters, the forests and the deserts, the mountains and canyons. Our guiding principle is one of love and all that is required to love. There is justice implicit in love, a care, a balance, and a desire to benefit what or who we love. If socialism’s benefit is restricted to human beings then it will not remain so for long as proper management and reverence for the environment is required for the well being of people. A socialist society must make accessible: clean air and water, nutritious food, desirable shelter and clothing, quality education and healthcare, freedom of movement, speech, expression, and religion, and political power. Only through collective, horizontally designed structures of political power alongside the independence of economic power, can these things be ensured. This entails the abolition of the stratification of all peoples, meaning that people cannot be subjected to the overwhelming force of another due to the fact that the other holds economic power over them. Political and economic power themselves cannot be abolished, only redistributed and diminished. It is through the creation of local, independent economic and political structures that we can restrict overreaches of power. This what socialist prefiguration aims to do. This entails environmentalism, caring for our planet so as to ensure the meeting of socialist principles must be undertaken locally while a fascist or otherwise authoritarian capitalist regime is present.
Our liberation is something to be maintained, not merely achieved. If we follow the principles of socialism we can create a society based on benevolence, the benefit which originates from love. This necessitates economic and political freedom. Therefore, access to crafts, skills, and education should be public. A strong publicly maintained and publicly concerned body ensures a liberated people. The land, technology, and infrastructure which is responsible for maintaining a society belongs to the people within it. We naturally desire to contribute in different ways, and so the education necessary to allow us to do so must be publicly accessible. Further, the opportunity to work must be guaranteed to them once they finish their education. A society liberated from the chains of profit and money can easily keep tally of the areas in need of labor. A socialist world would put the people in control of the means of production and thus would entail our seizing of economic power so that humanity’s gifts would benefit the collective of humanity and the planet.
There have always been people who claim that socialism rewards everyone equally when in fact some deserve to be rewarded better than others. But this is to misunderstand the function of a society, and it misunderstands the principles of socialism, one of which is to create political freedom. Societies do not exist to play god. A society, and especially a society’s economy, should not aim to replace karma. A society exists for the collective benefit of those within it, a good government serves the entirety of its people and the same should go for the society. It is not in line with the socialist principles of love and justice to punish lazy people with starvation because societies exist to soften nature’s blow, not harden it. In other words, the function of a society is to protect and care for the people within it. This is why we have medicine, education, and everything else which composes a healthy society.
Secondly, the creation of economic freedom can be done without abolishing the division of labor as long as people can access the collective fruits of their society’s labor. However, political freedom requires that we remain suspicious of status and so education must be accessible. If someone wants to enter into another line of work, or gain another skill they must be able to whenever they want. This allows for people to undertake both physically and mentally demanding labor, possibly switching between the two. It is through economic freedom that political freedom is possible, but the reverse is also true. Hand in hand, access to the means of production and access to political representation (not merely through representative democracy) through a direct participation in the government is required for a free society. Socialism entails liberation through the abolition of the distinction between the governing and the governed.
Additionally, we should preserve our freedom to express ourselves in a socialist society and this topic is often neglected by leftists because we are more concerned with creating a society where injustice is difficult to do in the first place. While important, subtle imbalances can create accelerating instabilities in a system. Many more “communal” living situations and communities have often tended toward the traditional. This is not to say that there is something about communal living situations that causes this, it has more to do with environment and culture, but a lack of adequate space and independence will inevitably lead to something culturally conservative. People need a space of their own so that they aren’t constantly irritated with the personal preferences of other people’s lifestyles. While socialism, bringing with it communal approaches to life, would help people become more tolerant, they get fatigued and if we don’t make sure that privacy, space, and independent access to necessities (you should not starve because your neighbors don’t like you) are considered necessary parts of a quality life then we will run into trouble. This is all to protect our freedoms to express ourselves without unreasonable consequences. In a situation where we lack organizations and institutions, systems, to organize the flow of resources within a socialist society, stress, confusion, and tension builds within communities and this could lead to violence and oppression particularly against people who tend to make others uncomfortable or otherwise go against the grain.
