Response to American Catholic:” Beyond Socialism and Capitalism”

As we face the most difficult times that the human race has yet to experience, I think that it is important that we emphasize that the concept and the term socialism was born out of compassion.

Before Robert Owen "coined" the term “socialism”, cooperative communitarianism or mutualist communalism were ideas put forward by intellectuals and advocates of the oppressed in a brutal feudal and emerging Capitalist economic system. They were eutopian dreams of equity (equality in proprietorship), put forth by altruistic thinkers and taken to heart, mind, and body (thus the beginnings of class struggle, a struggle against a brutally oppressive and exploitative system) by some of the peasants, some of the artisans and, as industrialization set in, a new more dehumanized class, the factory worker.

It was in light of the depraved conditions, particularly of the last, and with population growth, the enclosure movement, the waning influences of the established charities of the Catholic Church, that in England, the aristocratic, paternalistic, parliamentarian mill owner, Robert Owen, campaigned for the increased role of the State to improve the conditions of the workers and the indigent, and that he suggested that the ideas of the workers' "movement" be termed "Socialism" to include such.

"Socialism" and its predecessors got a bad connotation because of sporadic violence in reaction to oppression. Such was the origin of the term "anarchist", originally a derisive term used against the early cooperative communitarians who occasionally fought back against active oppression. The term Anarchist, which eventually would be adopted as a "positive" tendency by some Marxists was used, in the early days, to turn public sentiment against the Cooperative Communitarians.

Of course, the history of bloodshed between the Capitalist/Feudal establishments and Marxist/Leninist/Maoist strikers and soldiers and the eventual expropriations that came with the eventual victories of the latter have given the terms "Socialist" and "Communist" negative connotations.

As a lover of life, a Friend, I abhor violence.

Socialism, at least, should take care of those that cannot take care of themselves. That aspect of it, by itself, makes it an improvement in economics (i.e. the management of the home) and consistent with one of the pillars of Islam, the giving of alms. The more "utopian" ("eutopian" means "good place", "outopian" means "no place") aspects of cooperative communitarianism or mutualist communalism such as an economy dedicated to meet the needs of all founded on the principles of inclusion, equity, humanity, quality of life in lieu of maximization of consumption and waste, environmental/public health and wellness, sustainability, and peace (the hoped for result) which seeks to inculcate that all men are brothers, all people kin, are worth consideration when dedicating thought and communication towards the progress of the human race.

As the laws of nature (survival of the fittest) are horrendously cruel and have been taken to the ultimate by the human species, and thus there will always be motivations of competition that can be divisive between individuals, within communities (however defined) and between and among communities, we must use every opportunity and devise that we are able to counteract such, to truely establish our humanity.

Given the fact that we can communicate like never before, let's use it! Let's declare the future a new era, an era of speciation that brings about the ideal of mankind, the evolution to Homo Cooperativa.

I believe that Hugo Chavez is a peace loving man. I hope that Hu Jin Tao is a peace loving man. Despite the policies thus far exhibited (e.g. Afghanistan and Pakistan), I'd like to believe that Barack Obama is a peace loving man.

Left to their own motivations and momentum, men will fight. There is no such thing as a good fight.

Forget "command and control", what we have in mind is "plan and implement".

Let's work together!


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike "Cuthbert" Morin
Eugene, OR, USA
wiserunion@earthlink.net
(541) 343-3808