Who are the most important socialist intellectuals and politicians in history? We here offer quotations from eight prominent socialists, representing a wide geographical and temporal range. The quotations illustrate the author’s motivation for advocating socialism, the actions necessary to bring about socialism, and/or the expected results of socialism. What common characteristics best define socialism?
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Where are young socialists in their thinking? What expressions of socialism are meeting their mark rhetorically? What does socialism mean to them and what values do they think socialism is advocating?
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A generation ago the slogan of campus activist was, speak truth to power. Why has there been such a dramatic change in just one generation?
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We all know the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge. Or do we? At least 20 movie versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol have been produced, along with innumerable stage plays and live reading. Who was Ebenezer Scrooge? Was his character the Villain according to Socialism, the Homo Economicus and Savvy Investor, the hero of the Anti-Over-Commercialized-Christmas crowd?
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William James was a leading American philosopher who lived at the turn of the 20th century. In his essay the Moral Equivalent of War, James describes himself as a socialist and pacifist and is very disgusted with the human history of war and is looking for a solution. This essay, while thoughtful and well argued is to my mind, highly objectionable. Here is why.
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Is Keynes to blame for everything? John Maynard Keynes was the most influential economist of the 20th century. In the 21st century his theories are institutionalized. But how close is current Keyesnian practice to original Keynesian theory?
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Money is one of the greatest inventions ever, just as books are one of the greatest inventions ever and for the same reasons. Books are collections of abstract symbols that represent abstract ideas. Writing enhances our thinking through portability, storage, precision and universality. Books enable everyone to communicate with one another. All of these points about books hold precisely for money.
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The standard claim is that philosophy begins with Thales. Why did philosophy come into being in a clusters of cities on the coasts of Asia minor? Ascribed to Thales by Aristotle: “The first principle and basic nature of all things is water, ”and “All things are full of gods.” Why do historians of philosophy get worked up over these lines?
To see their significance, let’s set a context by going back to the worldview of the awesomely great Homer. So brush up on The Iliad, which I want to use as our pre-philosophy-worldview contrast object.
Lord Acton said, “absolute power corrupts absolutely” but is this accurate? Abuses of social and political power are the ones we worry about the most. Social science data does seem too, on the surface, bare out Lord Acton’s claims. However, if you correlate the degrees of corruption with degrees of centralization the data suggests things are not quite so simple.
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Professor Jordan B. Peterson is perhaps most famous for the neo-Marxist label “Postmodern Neo-Marxism.” Although Dr. Peterson recommends Explaining Postmodernism by Dr. Hicks, their analysis on this issue differs in some important ways.
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PCM is a “pro free speech” alternative media and tech startup that seeks to inform and educate its audience on socio-political matters.
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