As a political movement, socialism actually began in the Industrial Revolution. There are many examples to examine to gain a better understanding of socialism but I believe one of the better examples is found in Thomas More’s Utopia. In Utopia, More strongly promotes socialism through communal ownership and does so as a way of controlling one’s own sins. While the idea of sin was prominent in More’s work, it was used more as a standard than as anything else because More’s Utopia was highly critical of organized religion.
More posited that land and houses should be common property and everyone should work for a least two years, mostly on communal farms. He also advocated that everyone change houses every 10 years to avoid the pride of possession. In Utopia More removed money from society, allowing people the freedom to take what they needed from the common storehouse when they were in need. More envisioned everyone living simple lives meeting their own needs and working only a few hours a day leaving the rest of the time for leisure. While this sounds utopic, the reality of the time was quite the opposite.
Early attempts at copying More’s socialist society were almost all agrarian in nature, which made hard labor and long days necessary elements for successful farming which left little time for leisure. The French Revolution was another attempt at pursuing ideas of socialism. Here we find the problem of control rising to the surface. Who determined the standards of community and made the decisions for community was the larger issue during this time and continues to be hotly debated today.
Today, socialism is still considered, by many, as a viable political and economic option. Pull up any philosophy page on a major college or university website and you will read about the positives of socialism. You will read how, as an economy, it features social rather than private ownership of the means of production. You will read how it gears production towards satisfaction rather than profit which sounds simple but the practicality of it is much more complicated. What you will not read is how socialism places the ownership of property and the control of the means of production in the hands of those in power. You will not read about a system of checks and balances or a means of accountability for those in power because it is not there. There are no restraints or means of accountability placed on those in power which is problematic whether we are referencing socialism, capitalism or any other economic or political system. The assumption of socialism as far as I can tell is that those in power are different and worthy of our trust, but as More in Utopia sardonically suggested, what about the sins of pride and greed? A quick study of history will suggest both are issues in socialism and, to be fair, they are issues in every other economic and political system as well.
What you will find in most socialist situations is plenty of pride, plenty of oppression and the accumulation of personal wealth. Yes, you will find those same things in capitalism, but where socialism has no means of accountability, the same cannot be said for capitalism. Capitalism has a system of checks and balances called a free market which is a means of accountability even if there is disagreement as to its potency. There are claims that capitalism is corrupt and easily manipulated, which are true, but those same issues are valid for socialism as well.
Many philosophers present socialism as an economic system and an ideology, which is the correct and right way to look at socialism; it is much more than an economic system. Most will write about how socialism organizes economic activity through human planning instead of a free market which they claim positions socialism as morally and economically superior to capitalism. Most socialists argue that capitalism undermines democracy, facilitates exploitation, distributes opportunities and resources unequally and vitiates community, but the facts do not support those claims. The human planning of socialism places power in the hands of a few who make decisions for everyone else under the guise that they know what is best and act for the good of all, but what happens if they do not know what is best … what happens if they do not act for the good of all?
Economic systems are not inherently evil or good. They are only as good or as evil as those who put them into action and enforce them. The ideas of socialism are not terrible. The desire for equality and the equal distribution of goods and services is commendable, but at the heart of these ideas and the implementation of any economic system is the human heart and its nature. Looking at our world and its past, I am not convinced that the human heart will function properly if given unbridled power and wealthy. Again, are the ideas of socialism bad ideas? Not at all, but until socialism comes to grips with how to restrain power and greed it will not be the answer we seek and continue to produce more problems than it solves.
We keep hearing about socialism and how it is the answer to all of our current social ills, which leads to the question, what is socialism? Let’s start with Britannica.com which states that socialism is a “social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources.” Socialism assumes correctly that individuals do not live or work in isolation but instead, live and work in cooperation with one another, which means, according to socialism, that everything everyone produces is in some sense a social product and owned by everyone. While this seems like an honorable idea on the surface, underneath there are multiple issues.
Socialism is in open opposition to capitalism, which advocates private ownership of the means of production and allows individual choice through a free market approach to the distribution of goods and services. Many socialists complain that capitalism leads to unfair and domineering concentrations of wealth and power controlled by a few powerful and wealthy people who use their wealth and power to control society. While this may be a valid issue with capitalism, it is also equally as valid of an issue with socialism.
Socialists claim that the choices the wealthy make, in turn, detrimentally affect and limit the options of the non-wealthy. Socialists contend that true freedom and true equality require social control of societal resources because both form the basis for prosperity for all of society, but does prosperity even have a place in socialism? I would contend that in a socialist society true prosperity could not exist, but I digress.
Both Marx and Engels, in their proclamation in Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) assert that “the condition for the free development of each is the free development of all,” which, again, sounds honorable, but in retrospect actually is not. Why not? Well, instead of allowing a free market to exercise control over societal resources through hard work, creativity and risks and rewards, socialism advocates exercising that same control through political parties which is in essence preference, which happens to be one of the reasons socialists advocate for socialism. Remember, according to socialists, the wealthy exercise preference due to their power and wealth, which we are told is detrimental to all of us. My question would be what is the difference between preference exercised by a political party and preference exercised by a free market? Does capitalism or socialism produce a fairer and more equitable economy?
Inside socialism itself, there is general disagreement on two issues: property and control. The extent and kind of property that society should own and control in collective ways is rigorously debated even today inside social circles. Sir Thomas More, years ago, expressed a sentiment in his writings that almost everything should be public property while other socialists advocate and accept the private ownership of farms, shops and small businesses. The second and more difficult issue is the exercise of control over property and other societal resources. There are two camps regarding control, centralists and decentralists. The centralists envision exercising public control of property through a central authority, such as a state, under the governance of a single political party, as is the case in Russia, China and North Koreas. Decentralists envision the central authority of control occurring at the local or lowest level, by the people most directly affected by such decisions. This seems like the lesser of two evils, but finding a decentralist version of socialism is a difficult task. The closest semblance to this would be democratic socialism where production and wealth are collectively owned but the country has a democratic system of government. Examples of this would be Italy, Germany, France and Brazil.
As I close part 1 of this series, I encourage you to compare and contrast capitalism and socialism as both are put into practice in countries around the world. Ask yourself this question: where would I tend to find the things I value and enjoy the most, in capitalism or socialism? Until next time …
I am older now so most of my Saturdays are spent either cleaning or organizing. It was on one of these Saturdays when I was cleaning the garage that I found something I had not seen in many years … my baseball glove. I have only ever owned two—when you are a baseball player the first thing you learn is how to take care of your glove so it lasts forever—and there it was sitting at the bottom of a box.
I reached into that box and picked that glove up and put it on my hand; it still fit. I squeezed it a few times; it was like an old friend. It had been with me since childhood and had never let me down. In little league, in middle school, in high school and even in college, I rarely went anywhere without my glove. As I pounded my fist into the mitt, many wonderful memories came rushing back and each one brought a smile to my face. As I looked at that old mitt, I recalled one such memory from high school that changed my life forever.
Scott sprinted into the room, out of breath. The list is on the wall he announced. I took a deep breath. Today was the day. Several of my friends pushed me out of the room. Go see if your name is on the list they said. As I left the room, I had all these feeling rolling around in my mind. I was afraid. I was excited. I was worried … wait, what was I worried about? I didn’t know. What if my name was not on that list? What if it was? I walked slowly down the hall towards the gym. I was thinking about what my response would be if my name was not on the list. I rehearsed my it-really-doesn’t-matter attitude because I was sure my name was not on the list, but then, what if it was? Each step brought me closer to the gym and to the athletic department bulletin board. Was my name on that list or not?
It all started at the end of my freshman year. It was Trisha’s fault. She was the one who told me I should try out for the baseball team. We were playing softball in gym class. I was playing shortstop and enjoying myself as I always did when I played the sport.
“You should be on the baseball team,” she said. “I know boys on the baseball team, and they are not as good as you are. Why aren’t you on the baseball team?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Never thought about it.”
“You should think about it. You’re really good. I know good and you’re good.”
Trisha had an opinion on everything: boys, school, history class and baseball. She loved baseball. Her brothers played baseball, and she played softball. I was a bit shy, but I pondered her assessment of my baseball skills and started to wonder if I was good enough to make the baseball team.
As I walked back from gym class that day, I decided right then and there … I would indeed try out for the baseball team. I had played the sport since I was little. I loved baseball. I was a kid from a small town going to the city for high school. I was a small fish from a puddle swimming in an ocean that was full of sharks, or so I thought. What I found out later was that there were very few sharks in this ocean called high school. Most kids were just like me … trying to find their way in this vast ocean called life.
Summer came and went and before I knew it I was starting my second year of high school. My first year had not been all that successful. I did not really study all that much. I was bright enough to put forth minimal effort and still do fairly well. All my teachers kept telling my parents that I only needed to apply myself to which I responded with my why-can’t-you-accept-me-for-whom-I-am attitude, which did not work with my parents.
I was determined to be a better student in my second year of high school for purely selfish reasons. I realized that I had one job, which was school, and if I did better in that one job then everyone would pretty much leave me alone. I also had not forgotten the previous year’s gym class and Trisha’s comments; therefore I was also determined to try out for the baseball team. I wanted to give myself the best opportunity I could because I knew being from a small town would make it twice as hard to make that team. I was not a known commodity and would only have three days to show what I could do. In preparation for tryouts, I ran five times a week. I did pushups and pull ups. I practiced pitching with my dad. I did everything that I knew to do to ready myself for those three days of tryouts in February. When February rolled around I thought I was ready, but then again, I was not sure. I had that small fish mentality.
Being Massachusetts, snow was still one the ground in February so tryouts were held in the gym. My forte was fielding and fielding a ball of a gym floor for me was very easy. I do not think I missed a ground ball the entire three days. I grew up playing baseball in pastures and railroad yards where holes and rocks were part of the infield. When a ball was hit off a gym floor it always had a true bounce, which for me, was easy to field. Hitting, on the other hand, was not something in which I had a lot of confidence.
In tryouts we did all of our hitting in the batting cage. Being from a small town, I had very little experience hitting in a batting cage. It took me a day to get my feet under me in the batting cage, but by day two, I was making regular contact in the cage. I hoped that first day did not set me back too much. The coaches walked around the stations taking notes. At the end of each day, the coaches ran us … hard. I actually ran more in baseball tryouts than in any other sport I played.
At the end of day three, I sat by my locker worn out. Day three was a surprise to me. We did very little hitting and fielding. We ran and ran so more. We did laps and suicides and then more laps. We ran the hallways of the school and the stairwells. It was, by far, the hardest day of the three, but it was over. “I made it,” I thought with relief. I wasn’t even thinking of making the team right now. I was too tired. I was just glad I survived the tryouts. That was a victory all by itself and I was content to sit by my locker and enjoy the moment.
Now, here I was walking towards the athletic department bulletin board wondering if I made the cut. I had mixed emotions about making the team. I wanted to play baseball, but then, I knew making the team would require a huge commitment. I lived in a small town in the mountains about 40 minutes away from the city. My family had one car, which my mother used to drive to and from work. My father worked at the mill in the town so he walked to work. Making the baseball team would require a lot of sacrifice on the part of my parents as well as me, and here I was mere steps away from that board. Was my name on it or not?
I stopped in the middle of the hallway. I heard the commotion around the corner. Others were finding out the fate I was about to discover. I took a deep breath and step forward. I walked around the corner and found that a crowd had gathered at the bulletin board. I step forward and saw that there was a long sheet of white paper pinned to the board. I saw the blue ink and a list of names cascading down the white sheet. I was still too far away to make out the names, but I could see that there were indeed names on that sheet of paper. This is it, I thought as I took a deep breath and stepped forward; no one had noticed me yet. One boy walked past me with his head down and shoulders hunched over; I knew his fate right away. Another slapped me on the back as he ran by me. As I walked up to that paper, I was prepared for whatever that paper said.
As I read the names, I saw a name near the top of the list that looked like mine. It had the same first name and … let me see. I couldn’t quite read the last name. I moved closer. It looked like my name and as I got closer I could see that the name I was looking at on that piece of paper was actually my name. I was shocked! I couldn’t move and just stayed right there staring at the list, expecting my name to disappear at any moment, but I did not. I had made the baseball team … I had made the baseball team! I just stood there and continued to look at my name on that piece of paper for a few more moments until someone slapped me on the back and congratulated me. That brought me back to reality. Another boy came up beside me and read the list. He looked up and down it twice, failing to see his name. He saw my name though and turned and congratulated me.
“I knew you would make it,” he said.
“Yea,” I said. “I didn’t.”
“Come on, man. You didn’t miss a ground ball in that gym. You were the best fielder in there.”
“Thanks,” I said. Not really knowing how to respond.
“I tried,” he said.
“I am really sorry you didn’t make it.”
“Yea, no big deal. Outfielders are a dime a dozen. At this place, being a good outfielder will get you cut. You have to hit too. I didn’t hit too well.”
“Hard luck.”
“Yea, thanks!”
And with that he left and went down the hall. I finally pulled myself away from the list and went to share my news with my friends. As I walked down that hall, kids I had seen around the school who had never spoken a word to me came up to me and offered congratulations. Two girls walked by and congratulated me on making the team. As I walked into the area home to my friends, they all said congratulations at the same time.
“How did you guys know?” I asked.
“Everybody knows. Cara told us.”
“Cara, I didn’t even know she knew who I was.”
“Well, she apparently does,” said Scott.
“Odd,” I thought. I knew a few people in my school, but I was beginning to think I was about to meet a lot more and all of it was because I made the baseball team. I thought that was quite strange. As the bell range, Scott and I went to our English class. As I walked into the English area, Mrs. Chesterton pulled me aside.
“Congratulations!” she said with a smile. “I am so proud of you.”
“Thank you Mrs. Chesterton. I did not know you knew. I just saw the list myself.”
“Well, word travels fast in this school. Now, do not let this affect your work in this class.”
“I won’t. Promise.”
She went back to the front of the room and pulled her book out. Scott and I sat in the back of the room, putting our books on our desks.
“Life is about to change,” he said.
“What? What do you mean?”
“Dude, baseball is huge here. You are about to be a celebrity.”
“You are crazy.”
“Not”
“Yea, you are. Leave me alone.”
Mrs. Chesterton came to the front of the room to begin class. She asked us to pull out our novels as we were going to do something different today.
I was amazed at how many kids congratulated me. Kids who had never spoken a word to me came up to me and offered their congratulations. I was from a small little mill town in the mountains so this was new to me. That little town also helped me stay pretty grounded so even though everyone else thought making the baseball team was a big deal, I didn’t. I really just wanted to continue to play the sport I loved. Making the baseball team meant one thing to me … I could play baseball for another year, and for me, that would be worth every sacrifice I was about to make. Mrs. Chesterton instructed us to open our novels, and as I opened mine, I smiled because I realized that from this point forward life would be different.
And years later, I now know that I was right back then; life was different. Yes, baseball was part of that difference. The game provided years of enjoyment that extended well into adulthood as I was also able to coach as well, but baseball, which was such a large part of my life for so long, did not change me as much as I thought it would. It taught me a number of lessons that I continue to put to use today but its impact on me was minimal.
Over the years, the game has changed as culture as changed and I am not sure those changes are good. I no longer enjoy watching most sports, baseball included, and my reasons are many, but maybe the most important reason is that the game has become what I imagined it was as a kid … everything! It is a business mixed with power and lots of money; loyalties are pushed aside in favor of market shares, lucrative contracts and selfish motives. The love of the game is a phrase few use today when describing the reason they play the game, and for me, that is so sad because baseball is still a game and should be still a game. I took my baseball glove off my hand and put it back in the box. It was now just a baseball mitt in a box that held some special memories. I knew I would never use it again, but for me, that was just fine.
Bridge Roe, the phrase, comes from two words that mean a lot to me. Both of these words come from my past. They are reminders of a childhood filled with optimism, potential and memories … lots of memories. They are reminders that we are shaped by our choices, our past, our present and our future. We can choose to be optimistic, to see the glass as half full and to fondly remember our past.
I believe in a lot of things here at Bridge Roe. I believe in God, people, hard work, truth, integrity, honor, synergy, service, difference … and you. Yes, I believe in you, even if you disagree with me. Why? Well, it begins with a deeply-held belief that I learned through difference. I do not want you to be like me … you can’t be like me because you are you and I am me. I want you to be the best “you” you can be and I believe that the only way that can happen is through interaction with others who are different. I mean, we can’t all be the same, can we?
You have probably come to the conclusion by now that difference is an important word to me, and you would be right. Difference is all around us. There are no two snowflakes that are alike. Trees are different; flowers are different. I see difference as beautiful and yet, most of us are afraid of it. Don’t be! Embrace difference because it is both beautiful and powerful. When you take a belief that you have and engage that belief with its opposite, if you are sincerely seeking truth through a process that will either confirm your idea as true or teach you something new. This is the power of difference and why we all need to understand it and embrace it. Here at Bridge Roe you will encounter difference in all its beauty, its power and its truth.
“Embrace difference because it is both beautiful and powerful.”
Our world is changing every day. In the last few years we have dealt with a pandemic, inflation and now the threat of a global war. The world in which we live has changed … a lot in such a short period of time. Beyond these macro-issues, we need to ask ourselves a question: what is at the heart of this change? Can you put your finger on it? Can you nail it down to a phrase or a sentence?
If I were asked what is at the heart of the change we see I would have to say that we are no longer moral in respects to our concern for others. Our norm is now entirely about ourselves. We don’t care for other people. We don’t really care about poverty or homelessness. I mean, we do care about those things, but not more than we care about ourselves.
That seems to be the single biggest cultural shift I have seen in my lifetime. Being selfish used to be weird and taboo. Being selfish used to be embarrassing. Oh, sure, people were selfish years ago but they never flaunted it. They tried to at least present a certain humility or concern for others. Now, being selfish is celebrated; it is the norm. We are told to look out for ourselves and to get what we can get. I saw a bumper sticker the other day that summed up this mindset perfectly: the one who dies with the most toys wins.
Why is this bad? Well, first, it does not embrace difference or even care about difference. Second, we do not live in isolation but in community and there is responsibility when it comes to community. There are a whole lot of people who cannot take care of themselves and are dependent on you and me to take care of them. What happens when we want to only take care of ourselves? Well, look out your window because you are seeing the effects of this mindset in real time. Governments want more … millionaires want more … politicians want more and who suffers the consequences … everyone else. What is the answer?
Difference! Look around! Where you see beauty you see difference. Where you see excellence you see difference. Do you find beauty and excellence in sameness? Athletic teams win championships because of difference. Artists are successful because of difference. Sameness produces mediocrity and more sameness. Difference is all around you and there are many who claim to embrace difference and support difference, but all they are really doing is embracing and supporting their own power. Do you want to embrace difference … I mean truly embrace difference? If you do, then forget about equality and celebrate difference. If we celebrate difference than everyone wins because everyone is different!
Difference … is defined as “a point or way in which people or things are not the same” (Dictionary.com) but that pithy statement does not really tell the story of difference, does it? Difference or different can mean many things. It can mean weird or strange as in “you are really different.” It can be a pause of concern, “that’s different.” It can be a personal statement, “I am different.” Whatever way you use it, if you are like most, you use it in reference to something negative over 60% of the time.
I remember the very first time I traveled to another country and encountered difference. I was surrounded by people who were not like me, did not speak like me or even think like me. My choice was to recoil into my shell and avoid changing (difference) or embrace it and learn something new. What a difference (chuckle, chuckle) it was for me to embrace the difference around me. It changed me and made me who I am today. I learned how to think about the world in a very different way. I learned a new language, new food, and a new way to interact with a world that just doubled in size for me.
Difference is not to be avoided but to be sought. How are we to seek difference? Well, let’s start with social media. If you want to seek difference then you should avoid unfriending or unfollowing anyone who disagrees with you. Instead, you should engage them respectfully to see why their opinion is different. You may continue to disagree but both of you will have learned something from each other. One of the most frustrating things to hear is those who push an agenda of equality but then promote conformity to their standard as a single position. That is not difference but sameness and sameness should be avoided because it leads to many things that are bad. Think about the past and sameness. I doubt you come up with much that was positive.
As I conclude, I want to implore you to think about difference and whether you seek it or avoid it. Your response to it will make all the difference in your own life and the lives of others!
Bridge Roe: Where Thinking Matters 