Crusade
11th March 2010, 12:26
As sad as it is, if the first argument you make about socialism is based on its moral "superiority" to capitalism you won't change anyone's mind. Doing this makes you appear naive and makes them immediately fall back on the "it'd be nice, but it's unrealistic" safety net. If you're promoting socialism as an ideal system, shy away from words like "equality". It sounds weird to say that, but when people hear that, they get this horror movie image of some guy sitting around and accepting cash for nothing. Thanks to democrats in America people think socialism= Welfare bandaids for all.
People want a system they'll support even when they're pissed off and don't care about anyone else. People want to know how Socialism will improve their standard of living, how socialism can make someone do a job more efficiently, if it can lead to the progression of humanity etc. Doing this while also explaining how capitalism encourages societal practices that are counter productive to human progress and security will give you much better results. When people argue for socialism, they're often focusing on Socialism's benefits to someone else. When people argue for capitalism they're talking about what's in it for YOU. I think it's about time we started doing the same.
It's not that we shouldn't mention the humanitarian perks of Socialism, but when it's our primary focus we come off looking very utopian and uninformed. For some reason this is only the case when talking about helping others. Capitalists can get away with saying "THE FREE MARKET WILL SOLVE ALL OF THE WORLD'S PROBLEMS" with no one saying a thing, simply because they're talking about what's in it for "you"(:lol: if you happen to get rich that is).
People want a system they'll support even when they're pissed off and don't care about anyone else. People want to know how Socialism will improve their standard of living, how socialism can make someone do a job more efficiently, if it can lead to the progression of humanity etc. Doing this while also explaining how capitalism encourages societal practices that are counter productive to human progress and security will give you much better results. When people argue for socialism, they're often focusing on Socialism's benefits to someone else. When people argue for capitalism they're talking about what's in it for YOU. I think it's about time we started doing the same.
It's not that we shouldn't mention the humanitarian perks of Socialism, but when it's our primary focus we come off looking very utopian and uninformed. For some reason this is only the case when talking about helping others. Capitalists can get away with saying "THE FREE MARKET WILL SOLVE ALL OF THE WORLD'S PROBLEMS" with no one saying a thing, simply because they're talking about what's in it for "you"(:lol: if you happen to get rich that is).