|
donathos said: Look at the history of socialist countries and tell me whether or not they are "better societies." I'd say that the evidence points in the other direction: that socialism destroys economy, liberty and life. And, in general, I'd advise that you read the applicable histories, because you currently speak like someone who is steeped in propaganda but without any understanding of how any of this has worked in practice. |
This argument is of the same form as the argument absolutists used against early liberals when they advocated for republicanism and representative democracy. "Rome and Greece failed, monarchy is the best form of government because the people need a sovereign to keep order. Do you want the war of all against all?"
While it is useful to look at prior implementations of an idea, it doesn't say much about their success/failure in the long term.
There is quite a bit of diversity in socialist thought, and it does oneself a disservice to only understand and know about Marxist-Leninism.
It is like looking at the Great Depression and summarizing all capitalism as a failure where people are starving to death because the investors gambled with the global economy. Or it is like looking at Pinochet's capitalist authoritarian state and asserting that all of capitalism is equally authoritarian.
Capitalism is (and has been) the dominant economic system for centuries, and most of the atrocities that happen under capitalism are rationalized or exported away (due to its expansion via gloablism.)
When the bad effects of capitalism were internalized by the local populations in what are now developed countries, most of those who felt the brunt of these negative effects were quite ardent anti-capitalists. Today we are able to export the brunt of exploitation to other countries due to globalism, and therefoee only feel the benefits of capitalism. Of course, this can't last forever. No hierarchy does.
