The Naked Socialist states that the word “socialism” conjures up two very different images in people’s minds: The Beautiful Promise and the Regime (the structure of socialistic ideas in society to achieve implementation). Illustrations are provided for both from different sources.
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism articulates what socialism is and isn’t
The Naked Socialist produces eight definitions of socialism
This segment begins with a look at the traditional appeal of socialism
TheNaked Socialist contends that one has to give up certain individual rights for socialism to work. The associated eight individual rights are defined and an example is provided on how to analyze a potential new socialistic law in terms of the individual rights one would have to give up.
There are seven processes used to socialize a nation. The text details what they are and how to prepare to recognize socialism as it develops so preventive action can be taken if you so desire.
The segment contains a listing of 46 goals or objectives to establish international socialism, a new world order. [Most interesting]
Some contend socialism is a means to amass political power. This segment concludes with how the U.S. Constitution is constructed to balance power. (More on this in segment 6)
This segment has several very interesting sections, beginning with a story of how socialism almost destroyed America.
This is followed by section entitled “The Myth of Successful Scandinavian Socialism,” “the Rise and Fall of Socialist Europe,” and the “Different Varieties of Socialism.”
The segment closes with “A Snap Shot of World Socialism” where the status of socialism in 14 different countries is analyzed including the United States, with a focus on welfare and pensions.
The excerpts in this segment contend that the Founding Fathers of the U.S. were very focused in their efforts to prevent socialism from entering our Republic to the point that our government with its checks and balances was setup to prevent such an eventuality.
In this segment presidential administrations from Grover Cleveland (1893 – 1897) through Barack Obama (2009 – 2016) are analyzed from the perspective of how socialistic policies and practices have slowly crept into our society.
The segment ends with a perspective on what the next potential newly added socialist aspects might be in the near future.
This segment looks at Health Care Insurance throughout the world. Fundamentally, there are four different models utilized. The first is by Germany, Japan, Belgium, France, and Switzerland. The second is by Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Cuba, and most of the Scandinavian countries. The third is by Canada, Australia, Taiwan, and South Korea. And the fourth is by all other countries. Interestingly the United States utilizes all four models. The associated costs and quality of care is analyzed for each model.
The segment ends with a totally different, very limitedly utilized, model; one that incorporates all aspects of health care versus focusing primarily on just the insurance aspect.
Segment 10 has five different sections utilizing five different sources. The sections are: 1) Is Socialism the Best Way to Organize Schools? 2) Public Schools: American Socialism in Action, 3) Socialist Education and the Problem with Incentives, 4) How did the U.S. School System Become Socialistic, 5). The Image of Today’s Teachers: Might Socialism be Part of the Cause.?
Four different large urban school districts have gone through significant reform. Three have resulted in significant improvement: New Orleans, Washington D.C., and Denver. One was not successful: Newark. Each attempted to remove the schools from the clutches of socialistic policies: centralization of governance and policy control, avoidance of competition and performance measurement, collectivism vs. individualism, lack of incentives, and no choice. This segment summarizes each school districts story; each of which is different.
All four of the reforming schools in segment 11 included a significant movement away from traditional schools to charter schools. This segment provides excerpts which detail the keys to the charter school success.
SEGMENTS 12 THROUGH 18: [NOTE: Many scholars contend that socialism and communism have the same desired endpoint. Net they are the same except the manner to get there: the communists favor starting the cultural change by revolution while the socialists favor a slow, methodical step by step approach to attaining the end goal. Therefore, I decided to learn about communism (hard socialism) and well as “soft” socialism. The next seven segments detail what I have learned about communism to date.]
The first section of the segment focuses on the founders of socialism/communism: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
The second section looks at the socialism/communism ideology primarily derived from The Communist Manifesto supplemented with some excerpts from The Naked Communist
This segment provides a glimpse into the communist regimes of Russia, Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela. Then it is summarized into communist viewpoints based on the four examples.
Segment 15 will provide some insight into what life is like for an ordinary citizen of a communist country – Cuba – as reported by Yoani Sanchez in her book “Havana Real.” Note: Yoani still lives in Havana, Cuba
SEGMENTS 15 THROUGH 18: [NOTE: A fifth example of a communist regime is China. I elected to dig much deeper into the China model as they started out with a very traditional Communist approach via Mao Zedong’s rule. But Deng Xiaoping changed that dramatically when he came into power. Today China has a capitalistic economic approach with single-party communist dictatorial rule. So, it is very, very different than the first four examples. For this reason, plus their significant success over the past 30 years I read a great deal more. Four segments are required to adequately convey the learning.]
There were two periods of note in Mao Zedong’s rule. The first was the “Great Leap Forward” from 1958 to 1961 wherein he implemented the Party’s Five-Year Plan which led to 20 to 30 million people dying from starvation. Much of this segment will be an attempt to capture the detailed planning for the effort and how it went disastrously bad. It will provide a good overview of the flaws of pure communism.
The second period was “The Cultural Revolution” from 1962 to 1976.
This segment will utilize excerpts from Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, Faith in the New China to explain a “transformation one hundred times the scale and ten times the speed, of the first Industrial Revolution, which created modern Britain.”
Segment 18 will focus on China’s post-Maoist governing model, launched by Deng Xiaoping in the late 70s utilizing excerpts from “Age of Ambition” and the Biography of “Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China.” It will include a section on the challenges facing the Chinese government today.
This segment will attempt to convey some of the changing aspects to the Chinese culture. It will primarily utilize excerpts from “China in Ten Words” to do so.
Segments 15 through 18 will provide a sense of how rapidly China is changing and the direction it is headed, particularly in the area of individualism and freedom. Segment 19 is intended to provide a sense of where the United States is headed in the same two areas (individualism and freedom) and the trend line via some analysis of today’s college campuses, particularly in the areas of free speech and due process.
This series covers a lot of ground, so there is a need to put it all together in a summary. That was accomplished by a combination of learning summaries by me coupled with summary excerpts which are noted.
The original Socialism series ran from November 1, 2018, to March 19, 2019, with 20 segments.
The excerpts from this March 8, 2022, epilogue are from the former Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, Kevin A. Hassett. He provides some interesting perspectives on how Socialism has been modified in the Nordic countries, Socialism in general and how the U.S. fits the spectrum, and key elements of the U.S. Drift.