The socialist approach

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

He strictly forbids him to consume anything that is poisonous and injunous; anything which IS so conspicuous and luxurious as to corrode his soul, undermine his character and “integrity, corrupt his manners, or unduly embitter and excite the envious feelings of the other members of the family. If he allowed these things to happen, the health of the family would be weakened, and its cohesion, peace and tranquillity would be impaired. It is the duty of the State to do to every citizen what the paterfamilias does in this regard to every member of the family.

We fully appreciate that in the realm of political economy, nothing has intrinsic value, however good and precious it may be in itself. On the other hand, anything, however dangerous to health or morality it may be, has value if it is wanted by some people, however crazy and erratic such people may be. It is the duty of the State firmly to contain and eradicate all those conditions which tend to encourage these eccentricities and lunacy.

As a matter of fact, the State does recognize this duty, but only partially. The State is fully aware that alcoholic drinks are injurious to health, yet it has neither the will nor the courage to legislate against its consumption. The State is wise to legislate against the circulation of obscene books and the unrestricted consumption of poisonous drugs. It is also wise to legislate against suicide. But it is certainly abdicating its duty by allowing people to take slow and cumulative poisons by the unfettered consumption of alcoholic drinks, tobacco, coffee, tea, etc. The insidious effects of this consumption are incalculable. Those concerned not only fan their vanity, greed, and selfishness, but also aggravate the bitterness and venom of the poor in the process.

Therefore, if a man is not free to commit suicide; if he is not free to possess and consume any drug of his choice, whether poisonous or not; ifhe is not free to commit the nuisance of making noise to the annoyance of his neighbours, then he has no right to complain ifhis freedom in regard to certain classes of consumption is denied. If the one does not amount to a denial of personal freedom, the other definitely cannot. The iniquities of freedom of enterprise and private property, and of vesting the means of production in private hands, have been sufficiently exposed in Chapter 7, and we do not wish to repeat, nor do we intend to improve upon, the remarks which we have made in that chapter:

TWO: It has been and. it is still being contended that it is naive to believe that a socialist State, or socialism in any country, can be achieved through democratic and legal means. Those who hold this view, rest their case on the authority of Marx and the experiences of countries where socialism is now the order of the day.

Says Marx in Capital: ‘force is the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one’. In other words when the antithesis in its war of attrition with the thesis is about to give birth to the synthesis, then an explosion or force is inevitable. We have already stated our views on violence or force under ONE above. We only wish to say, in further clarification, that all that is imperative for those who believe in socialism to do is to make sure that both their objectives and methods of approach are good, constructive, and beneficial to all, even though those who are adversely affected materially assert or believe the contrary. Once these criteria are satisfied, the socialists should leave the actual mode of accomplishment to the universal mind which mayor may not necessarily bring about the LIse of force or violence. Since, in our view, the thesis, antithesis and synthesis are processes which take place in the minds of men and hence stir the universal mind into action for the achievement of specified ends, the factors involved are too subjective for human reasoning to fathom. Consequently, it is impossible to make an authoritative pronouncement which must hold good for all cases and at all times. Our own view, . therefore, is that violence or revolution is not inevitable as a means to socialism. If, in the process of introducing socialism sincerely and democratically, violence is used, it will not be because it was contemplated or intended by those who plan to introduce it by democratic and legal means but rather perhaps because, having cognizance of the deep-seated and uncompromising antagonism of the capitalists and their determination to employ violence and fraud to prevent the introduction of what is generally beneficial, the universal mind sees the method of violence as the only efficacious means to the ends in view.

But once socialism is introduced by any means, it should be possible to maintain it by democratic and legal means. Those who continue to oppose it and in their opposition adopt the methods of violence, fraud, bitterness, or destruction will only find themselves in unequal combat with the transcendental and insuperable forces of the universal mind working for the elimination of all that is evil, under the influence of the dialectic thoughts and actions of true and dedicated socialists. So much for the theoretical basis of this contention. With regard to the experimental basis, it is unfortunate that while the paths trodden by all truly socialist countries in Eastern Europe and Asia are profusely stained with blood, none of the democratic countries of Western Europe, America, and Asia has achieved true socialism to set a contrary example and precedent. The economic hotchpotch in Britain is certainly not socialism.

CONTINUES NEXT WEEK

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