OK, Kyosa, no they don't. I'm kinda getting sick of trying to explain Socialism to people who have already made up there minds, so all I'm going to say to those not open to the idea is the following:
"Socialism means the WORKERS control industry, NOT the government. Because the workers control industry, they automaticly control the Government. Capitilism is where a small number of people control everything. One who would know has spoken, and will not be accepting criticism. One who would know is open to discussion however."
Don't take it so personally. There's nothing to get sick of. People just disagree.
I will say that your description of socialism and capitalism is very limited and has nowhere near the depth that a truly well thought out position should have. Before I continue, I just want to remind you that I've dabbled in socialistic politics, liberalism, libertarianism, and that I've worked for several different parties and supported a variety of candidates with volunteer time. So, I'm not some idiot know nothing coming in off the street.
Socialism isn't some co-op where the workers share industrial components of society equally. Every socialistic country on Earth has state owned industries where the people get their "share" through democracy and taxation. In theory, the people "should" have some influence on how these industries are run. In some cases this is the case. In most, it is not. People in socialist countries piss and moan all of the time about how they are getting screwed. I lived in Canada for a time, I heard it.
I'm not saying that all socialism is bad, per say. Just that the element of control by the "people" is often lacking or not existant.
This, in regards to this thread is especially important, because we are talking about the US, the corruption of the two party system, and my assertion that the Elite WANT socialism.
The key to understanding what I'm talking about is
Fabianism. The Fabians have all sorts in their warp and woof AND there are a lot of people in the US, the major financial New York Elite, who may not be Fabians, but they share the general philosophy with them.
The bottom line is this, Fabians operate through the principles of gradualism and they are trying to change society into their version of Utopia.
One person's Utopia is another person's hell, however.
Especially when the bulk of the people that control the government have no respect for the rule of law and are primarily interested in using the forces of governmental power for their own benefit.
Another person I would like to direct your attention to is
Leo Strauss. He is the Godfather of
Neoconservatism. In particular I want to draw your attention to the concept of the
Noble Lie and Deadly Truth. The Straussians believed that some truths were so deadly dangerous that the only way to placate the polis was to invent a myth or a legend or some kind of misdirection in order to create a smoke screen that obfuscates them.
The definition of a "deadly truth" varies and there lies the problem.
Imagine if you combined the Fabian position of a gradual drive towards utopia with the Straussian concept of the Noble Lie? All of this is based on an arbitrary view of both Utopia and Noble Lies, thus there is an inherit bias towards the ideas of the people in power, not the polis that most socialists so readily worship.
At this point in my thesis,
Eugenics enters. Eugenics is a philosophy espoused by a cousin of Charles Darwin,
Sir Francis Galton. The idea behind Eugenics is to control the heredity of humanity towards a "positive" outcome. This sounds suspiciously Fabian...and it should. Galton and a whole slew of English Elite were Fabians and they viewed Eugenics as a natural pathway towards creating the Utopia that they so desired. The only problem with this is that they veiwed themselves as the pinnacle of human evolution and that everyone else were the dregs of society. Thus the roots of
social darwinism were sown.
This philosophy was exported to the US in the late 1800s and was espoused by the major foundations that controlled industry, government, and education. The Carnagies, Rockefellers, Astors, Morgans were all enraptured by the veiw of Utopia and actively worked to create it with all of the levers of government they could control.
The history of the Eugenics movement in the US is shocking to say the least...and its roots are in the very socialists that you seem to revere.
Anyways, overtime, Fabian Eugenics merged with the Straussian political concepts to create a political philosophy that is gradually driving towards a vision of a socialist utopia through obfuscation and misdirection. The left/right paradigm is a myth they concocted based on the dialectic models of
Georg Hegel who laid the foundations of Fabian Gradualism with his concept that a Thesis and Antithesis, if both sides were controlled, could be directed toward a Synthesis that satisfies the goals of those who control the dielectic. Strauss' ideas naturally flowed into this matrix.
Thus, I think it should be apparent right now that the elite, WANT socialism. They ARE socialists! What you think you see and what you think you think about certain ideas ARE clever creations by the very people who are directing society toward their vision of Utopia. These are the folks who invented socialism. They bankrolled Marx and Engels all to create ideas that would make their drive for "Utopia" more palatible to the polis.
So, socialism, is NOT the answer to the problems posed by the original poster. Socialism actually makes is easier for the powers that be to control everybody.
That is, unless you are interested in sharpening the guillotine and killing off a **** load of people at the top. I'm talking entire families. It's happened before and thats where social revolutions go. Of course, then you aren't going to want people who can stomach killing a **** load of people for political ideals running the government. We all know where that goes and it only creates another Elite class.
Anyway, its all 1984 and 1776 is the only cure for that...
