WhatsappSocialism is becoming more and more in style among young people in the West, especially in the United States, and especially on the West Coast. Is socialism truly something that societies should look to as a positive way of living to be emulated? Are there some redeeming values to socialism that should be incorporated in order to keep things fair and even between various groupings of society?
Socialism is less than 200 years old, but the ideas behind socialism are ancient. The basic ideas of fairness and spreading resources evenly among people are certainly lofty goals. But the idea of living a life of socialism only began taking root in the modern age in the late 19th century. By the early 20th century, there were social projects under the banner of socialism that began to take root. the largest experiment was that in the Soviet Union. Following World War I, the revolution broke out in Russia and the Communist Party took over in Russia.
The Soviet Union was the first massive experiment in Socialism. The ideas of equality were indeed very enchanting, especially to the masses of peasants who suffered under the Czar. But very quickly, the Soviet Union became known as a country with massive areas of forced starvation. Equality was the farthest idea from reality. It would continue like that into the late 80’s, until the Soviet Union finally imploded under financial pressure to stay in competition with the United States.
China’s communist revolution in 1949 was the 2nd attempt to base a massive national economy on the ideals of socialism. It would not go very well. Millions of people were killed in order to advance the noble causes of socialism. It became clear that the difference between the lofty ideas of socialism and the reality of life in socialist countries was enormous. To this day, China is a country that is perhaps the most dictatorial and least free countries in the world. Socialism and dictatorships seemed to go hand in hand.
