My observations and intuition so far is that, the larger the organization, the more that its injustices outweigh its benefits. Power corrupts, and people always have a way of justifying their own actions to themselves, no matter how unjust or “evil” they may be. As a population, I’m not confident in any one person, or any one small party, to wield the broad authority that a large government has.
I dunno. The more introspective I get the more I think of Oceania in 1984. Ingsoc is purported to be socialist but it’s still highly stratified, and the higher classes wield their power in the most violent and dehumanizing way possible. I fear that that’s the result of not just socialist organizations, but any organization that becomes large enough.
You’re confusing the way people behave in some forms of organization with the way people behave in all circumstances and forms of organization. The idea of a universal human nature that exists in static form, outside of its context, is idealism, ie an appeal to the supernatural. Further still, socialist governments and parties have all been very large, the CPC for example has 100 million people.
I don’t personally take much stock in fiction as a means to explain reality. Orwell was an anti-semitic British fed that kept a list of Jews and communists. His projection in Animal Farm and 1984 are taught in western schools for the very reason you are reminded of them, to discourage socialist organizing at a young age.
My observations and intuition so far is that, the larger the organization, the more that its injustices outweigh its benefits. Power corrupts, and people always have a way of justifying their own actions to themselves, no matter how unjust or “evil” they may be. As a population, I’m not confident in any one person, or any one small party, to wield the broad authority that a large government has.
I dunno. The more introspective I get the more I think of Oceania in 1984. Ingsoc is purported to be socialist but it’s still highly stratified, and the higher classes wield their power in the most violent and dehumanizing way possible. I fear that that’s the result of not just socialist organizations, but any organization that becomes large enough.
You’re confusing the way people behave in some forms of organization with the way people behave in all circumstances and forms of organization. The idea of a universal human nature that exists in static form, outside of its context, is idealism, ie an appeal to the supernatural. Further still, socialist governments and parties have all been very large, the CPC for example has 100 million people.
I don’t personally take much stock in fiction as a means to explain reality. Orwell was an anti-semitic British fed that kept a list of Jews and communists. His projection in Animal Farm and 1984 are taught in western schools for the very reason you are reminded of them, to discourage socialist organizing at a young age.