Democratic socialism is centered on humanist ideals, with the ultimate goal of allowing each individual the opportunity and means for his or her personal development and individual satisfaction.  Such self-realization becomes possible in a cooperative, non-competitive social context. 

Socialists understand that individuals are embedded in their social and economic environments, and therefore believe that more often than not the good of the individual is best achieved in what is good for the collective as a whole. 

Socialists are assured that people are predisposed to cooperation and joint social action.   Socialists set up as their opposite the capitalist values of egotism and narcissism.  

Socialism is universally hopeful about the perfectibility of humankind.  Socialism most certainly rejects the capitalist model of man: self-centered, greedy, anti-social, driven, obsessed with things.  This means that socialists necessarily believe in the historical progress.  

But Socialism may expect too much good from people.  Perhaps the process of revolution itself contaminates socialism.  Revolutionaries are warriors, and warriors of every age & type harden their hearts in war.  They start feeling justified in using any means, any method, to win the fight. War and struggle erode every good intention, and often the ideological justifications for the struggle become reduced to slogans.  

But if the substance of socialism survives the revolutionary fire, it will remain fragile in the post-revolutionary period.  No matter the good intentions underlying a socialist society, some men and women will develop ambition and greed.  Others will use their offices or jobs to benefit relatives and friends or punish enemies.  Socialism-- that is, true socialism-- is therefore not inevitable.  Yes, socialism may expect too much of mankind, but then again so may Christianity and all other religion.

Never discount the idealists, even though conservatives of every age have vilified them and sneered at them.  

Once upon a time slavery was assumed part of the natural order of things.  Once upon a time every state in the world was despotic, while human rights and elected governments were at best fantasies.  Once upon a time there were no such things as trials, and torture was the norm.  Modern man breaks records for the size and scope of human cruelty, but modern man has succeeded in moving the norms very far toward the good.  A society free of slavery, peonage, hereditary nobility, poorhouses and debtors prisons, with universal public education, socialized health care for everyone, a 40 hour work week, and a popularly elected republican government, would surely have seemed like a pie-in-the-sky utopia to someone alive in 1700.  Who even a hundred years ago could have imagined the United Nations functioning as it does.  Anyone who thinks we haven't made progress toward the good has not read history.  Are Hitler & Stalin so exceptional?  Not when we recall Sargon, the Assyrians, the Romans, the Mongols, the Moguls, and Ivan the Terrible.  How often did people like Thomas Jefferson, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela appear before 1600?

In this respect, socialism does involve a certain belief in progress.  Marx embraced the idea of progressive historical stages, leading to a communist society, and all socialists believe that a better day is always possible, and that good men will not shirk from working for that day.

We've heard it all before:

"Socialism just too pie in the sky.  Capitalism will be around forever."

Yeah, right, they said the same thing about  slavery, serfdom, monarchy, theocracy, and probably human sacrifice.  

"Man is by nature greedy, and capitalism is man's greed harnessed in the best way."

This is Adam Smith's myth.  Anthropology rebuts it by demonstrating that humankind is capable of many different cultures, many different motivations, and many different sets of values.  Anyone who thinks man is by nature individualistic and selfishly motivated overlooks the many instances of self-sacrifice: the Aztec sacrificial victim, the Samurai & Kamikaze, the Christian martyr, the soldier on the battlefield, the hospital volunteer, the kid who turns in the wallet he found on the sidewalk.  Human psychology is far more complex than the Smith Myth allows.

"Free market economies are much more efficient than command economies."

More efficient at what?  

Mindless production?  An empty goal by itself.  

Producing quality goods cheaply?  Consider how much price padding results from advertising, packaging, sales commissions, and profit-taking middlemen.  

Economic "growth?" The USSR in its earlier decades grew far faster than any other economy ever has, before or since.  At no time in American history did the economy grow faster than it did during the government-directed effort of WWII.  

Making rich people richer?  Yes, capitalism does that very efficiently. 

"What's this socialist crap about everyone getting paid the same?"

Some socialists have argued "from every person according to his abilities, to every person according to their needs."  However most socialists would allow some pay differential, but pay must relate to the nature of a man's work, not to passive ownership of property.  Socialists wish that conservatives were as concerned about the sufferings of the poor as they are about protecting unearned wealth of the rich.  

"Capitalism is democratic; socialism is dictatorship."

Conservatives compare the USSR with the "western democracies." But Stalinism and Maoism were malformations, both abhorrent to true socialists.  A truly socialist society has yet to exist, but if a society isn't democratic, then by definition it won't be socialist.  Neo-liberals take it as an article of faith that democracy & capitalism are co-extensive.  It is true that modern capitalism is facilitated by a republican form of government, but there have been too many prosperous capitalist dictatorships to assume that capitalism is by nature democratic.  Many modern European democratic states have significant socialist features.  Socialists point out as well how badly capitalist money distorts electoral processes.

Capitalism promotes individualism, while socialism forces individuals into artificial collectives. 

Well, up to a point this is true.  But if one examines the full range of cultures in the world and throughout time, one discovers that American-style individualism is an anomaly.  Americans are detached from their communities and families, alone, and subject to high stress.  The supposedly free individual is utterly powerless, while groups exercise power.  The supposedly free American individual is in fact very conformist and conventional.  People are social animals, not quite on the order of cattle, more like dogs & wolves.  If we as individuals had a duty to live moral lives, we have just as much a duty to work for a moral society.  Socialists believe that wage-labor, like slavery and feudalism, distorts social relationships.  Indeed, nowadays it is the mega-corporations that are forcing people into artificial collectives.  Socialism most certainly would demand a lot out of an individual, but socialism would give every individual, through collective self-government, control of her own work, freedom from poverty, and liberty to pursue a good life-- and that's the way it should be.

The Red Flag

The words to the UK's old Labour anthem (Tony Blair has forgotten them):

1
The people's flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyred dead,
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
Their hearts blood dyed its every fold.

Chorus:
Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

2
Look round, the Frenchman loves its blaze,
The sturdy German chants its praise,
In Moscow's vaults its hymns are sung
Chicago swells the surging throng.

(Chorus)

3
It waved above our infant might,
When all ahead seemed dark as night;
It witnessed many a deed and vow,
We must not change its colour now.

(Chorus)

4
It well recalls the triumphs past,
It gives the hope of peace at last;
The banner bright, the symbol plain,
Of human right and human gain.

(Chorus)

5
It suits today the weak and base,
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
To cringe before the rich man's frown,
And haul the sacred emblem down.

(Chorus)

6
With heads uncovered swear we all
To bear it onward till we fall;
Come dungeons dark or gallows grim,
This song shall be our parting hymn.

(Chorus)

Words: Jim Connell
Music: Tannenbaum/Oh Christmas Tree