This was quoted at Avedon Carol’s weblog, which is required reading for anybody wanting a liberal perspective on US politics. The three paragraphs below I’ve taken from this article because they express eloquently how I feel about being a Socialist.
The first thing we stand for is freedom, not just the freedom to speak our minds, but the freedom to act on our beliefs. The freedom to worship as we see fit, or not to worship anything at all. The freedom to have any kind of relationship we want with other consenting adults, be it political, financial, or sexual. The freedom to serve our country, whether it be in the military or as a public servant, or not to serve it at all. These freedoms are not exclusive to a particular race, religion, or group of people, they belong to everyone.
The second thing we stand for is responsibility, not just for ourselves and our well-being, but for the well-being of the community at large: from the local school district, the nation, to the world as a whole. We must recognize that we are more than just entities unto ourselves, but a part of a vast and complex world, and that everything we do affects the world we live in in some way, and to use the freedoms we so greatly value to ensure that future generations will be able to have that freedom.
And finally, but most importantly, we stand for the truth, the truth above all; the truth of our vision and our desire to make a better world not just for ourselves, but for our enemies, even when they can’t or won’t see it. Our enemies are blinded to the truth by their ignorance, and by their arrogance, viewing the battle itself as the truth, seeking one enemy after another for no other reason than to justify their existence and manipulate others into supporting them. What we stand for is something greater, and we should never forget that no matter how hard we fight.
The above is not complete by a longshot, but it does express two core beliefs of mine, the belief that we have both rights and responsibilities as individuals and the belief that the truth matters. If “my side” wins by deceit, by foul means, we won’t have won, we’d just become our enemies.
Related to this, earlier this evening I posted the following to Usenet, about what I think is the core of true socialism:
The whole point of socialism is that power is not in the hands of a small clique or a single dictaror, but in the hands of the people, i.e. everybody.
You can follow the teachings of Marx and Engels and all the other great socialist thinkers all you like, but without that one crucial point, you’re not socialist. The liutmus test for any country that calls itself socialist is whether people are free to disagree with socialism without fear for their life.
Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Castro’s Cuba, Stalin’s Russia and Mao’s China never were socialist. Any party that talks about the Vanguard of the Revolution leading the Poor Oppressed Masses (who cannot possibly free themselves, the poor sods) is not a socialist party.
The revolution can not be directed top down, it will come bottom up.