| It's a bit of a straw man to present failed socialist-in-name-only states when critiquing socialism. If someone were to bring up the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea as an attempt to critique democracy you'd rightly scoff. I'll freely admit there have been numerous failed socialist states. Very few self-proclaimed socialist states have even attempted to implement socialism. Many who claimed to be socialist were destroyed by capitalist states[1]. Some attempts for free states have been crushed by other self-identified socialists[2] but it's of course impossible to know if these groups would be socialist in the long term. Socialism is inherently horizontalist, which means it doesn't fit into the model of centrally controlled countries, making it very hard to achieve for any extended period of time. The only current socialist experiment I'm aware of is Syrian Kurdistan, Rojava, which is trying to promote a co-op based economy based, while reducing the damage private ownership can do. Imagine you tried to have a capitalist revolution in feudal Europe. Can you imagine that would go very well? Probably not. It's easy to see why capitalism is an improvement over feudalism, but it's hard to comprehend how long it took to get there. Similarly socialism, if it is ever achieved, is probably going to fought against by the established order tooth and nail. This is certainly no excuse for the failures and crimes of vanguard communist parties[3]. All this humble fellow would ask is people take the time to educate themselves on what socialists actually want before presenting critique. [1] This category is almost beyond enumeration, Reagan Doctrine, Guatemala, domino theory, Vietnam, etc. etc. etc. [2] My history isn't great but I believe these count: Revolutionary Catalonia, the Black Army, Kronstadt rebellion, there are probably more, especially in relation to the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922 [3] As an aside, I don't believe vanguard parties are the way to go |
It's a bit of a straw man to present failed attempts at cold fusion when critiquing cold fusion itself.
Communist revolutionaries genuinely did attempt to implement socialism. The fact that so many failed should make one question the wisdom of attempting their approach. Perhaps the fatal flaw in socialism is only in it's revolutionary nature and a more conservative approach in it's implementation is warranted? Interesting hypothesis, but I'd like to see more data.
"Imagine you tried to have a capitalist revolution in feudal Europe. Can you imagine that would go very well? "
I dunno, I believe that's usually called the Industrial Revolution.