Why 'socialist'? - A question for everyone......

[Imperial Guardian]

Hello, i'm new here, but i was just wondering.......

Can you please tell me why you all decided to become 'socialists'?
I ask this because it seems fairly strange to me.
What I mean is , you all have computers, with an internet connection, meaning all of you must be fairly priviliged (middle-class?).
So i'm really curious. Why do you want a socialist society when you have good quality of life already? (with the many options, and wonderful choices that developed capitalist societies/economies give us.)

Oh, and by the way....It's just a question, i'm not trying to cause an argument or 'dig' at you or anything.

[Anonymous]

You are soo stupid!!!! What you are saying is that a socialist has to be poor! i am a midle class due to the intense work of both of my grand fathers, and wake up! this isnt thre early 90´s Internet is well spread among everybody! People say Russia is poor, still the Internet is well spread among Russians, they may not have Pcs but people can use them at ciber cofes, at librarys etc... Today Pc is a tool of Worf, not a luxury! and it will grow, Tellevision was a luxury, but nowdays everybody has one! soo your whole point is stupid!

[oconner]

I am a socialist because although I may be reasonably well off, millions of other people aren't and for some reason, I care about them and I won't give up until everyone has I good lifesytle.

[komsomol]

Well, being socialist requires a certain degree of morals. Me being Socialist and aetheist proves that morality and religion aren't indeed inseperable. This is usually quite a difficult question to answer, since it goes down to the most fundamental basis of a Socialists beliefs. It is often easier to explain in examples.

For example, if you have the ability to love, and to have friendship, and the object of your affection or your friend is of the oppressed masses. Wouldn't it give you a sense of solidarity with the masses of potential friends?

The other such reason would be the most common and the one that compelles most of us to the quest for knowledge, and puts us on a mission to seek power to replace something old with something new, something better.... Justice.

Again, it would take much thinking to find the root of what gives you your sense of justice. But you know when somebody is hopelessly oppressed then you are filled with a feeling of hatred for the oppressor.

The injustice that compells us to completly abolish the class system, is first of all inheritence, and secondly the contrast evident when comparing the early years of a proletarian child with that of a bourgeois child, who may be half as intelligent as the prole.

Your questioning about the motives for people that have nothing material to gain from a Socialist system shows your apparent Individualism, the answer is not material, it is abstract like Liberty, JUSTICE .

[Lardlad95]

Quote: from Imperial Guardian on 1:44 am on Aug. 12, 2002
Hello, i'm new here, but i was just wondering.......

Can you please tell me why you all decided to become 'socialists'?
I ask this because it seems fairly strange to me.
What I mean is , you all have computers, with an internet connection, meaning all of you must be fairly priviliged (middle-class?).
So i'm really curious. Why do you want a socialist society when you have good quality of life already? (with the many options, and wonderful choices that developed capitalist societies/economies give us.)

Oh, and by the way....It's just a question, i'm not trying to cause an argument or 'dig' at you or anything.


because I'm priviliged and there are people who aren't blessed who deserve the lifestyle that I have just as much as I do.

[LeonardoDaVinci]

I personally am a socialist because it puts the welfare of human beings before anything else. Although most people in Europe and the west nowadays do not suffer from the absolute deprivation that forces them into crime, prostitution and the workhouse, there are nevertheless more than 10,000,000 people in the UK alone who are below the 'absolute' poverty line. It is also the great differential of income and wealth that indicate the endemic justice of our society. Five percent of the population owns 95% of the wealth.

Furthermore, in third world countries most people do not enjoy the privileges that you and I indulge in most of the time. In fact, most do not even receive such basic rights as education, healthcare and clean water. A lot of capitalists on this forum might argue that the suffering of these millions of innocent people is mainly a consequence of the misdemeanours of their totalitarian and corrupt regimes. However, this is merely one of the many reasons why these people are suffering, and yet it is the only one recognised by developed countries because it simply absolves them of any blame and requires no introspection on their behalf.

The reality of the matter is that these affluent countries are carrying out the bulk of the damage. International organisations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank which were conceptualised and created by developed countries to advocate such grand plans as trade liberalisation, economic growth and cultural development are a mere façade that ensures their economic and industrial hegemony. Developing countries are encouraged to borrow cheap money to invest in 'development', new equipment, seeds for farming and so on, but however much they borrow or improve, they cannot compete with large-scale operators whose size and resources allow them to control production and the market. Inevitably, the debt burden grows, and countries end up paying, or owing, more in interest than they can possible earn however hard they work. That is precisely where the rat-trap begins. Once the developing countries find themselves engulfed in debts they will be forced to implement IMF policies of allowing higher foreign ownership of their respective economies, raising interest rates, reducing government expenditure and elimination of price controls and subsidies to local industries.

The US also systematically undermines the efforts of the least developed countries to combat poverty and feed their populations. It has imposed massive tariffs on key agricultural items such as rice, sugar and coffee; on groundnuts for example it has imposed tariffs of over 100% (in developed countries, tariffs on imports from developing countries are on average four times higher than those on imports from other developed countries). Simon Simms, head of the global economy programme at the New Economic Foundation (a London-based think tank) notes that, 'as a consequence of American policies, in a single day under globalisation, poor countries lose nearly $2 billion due to rigged international trade, 30,000 children die from preventable diseases, and $60 million drains from poor to rich countries in debt.'

I believe the foregoing piece justifies my choice for socialism as an ideology. I would also like to add that socialism does not in any way hinder your human creativity nor does it threaten your personal sovereignty and freedom; its basic premise is to extend the notion of justice from the legal and political into the economic and social spheres as well as ensuring the equality of treatment and provision of equal opportunities for every human being. And although you might believe (or might have been led to believe should I say) that all socialists and communists are enemies of American freedom, democracy and progress, I would hope that you would renounce these senseless slogans that have been inculcated in your innermost conscience and that you would alternatively seek the truth for yourself, not from me, nor from 'America'. As a wise man once said: "the truth shall set you free." *

[bluerev002]

well because "I" (as in me) is not enough, every one needs to have a good lifestyle. the poor see this is a good thing and the rich see it as a bad thing. in middle class........well your not thinking of how youll get food (like the poor) and your not thinking of how to spend your money (the rich) so you have time to think of some one other than your self.