Saturday, February 4, 2023

QUORA: ‘Why don't socialists in free capitalist societies use their freedom to join together in communes, start living like socialists and stop bothering the rest of us?’

 QUORA: ‘Why don't socialists in free capitalist societies use their freedom to join together in communes, start living like socialists and stop bothering the rest of us?’


I posted this answer:


They can and they have.


Capitalism is the social system of individual rights. Socialists can exercise their government-secured rights to freedom of conscience, association, property, and contract to form private, voluntary socialist societies. In a Capitalist society, no one can stop them so long as they respect and don’t violate the same rights of others. 


The Kibbutzim and Amish enclaves are modern examples of voluntary socialist societies. Historical examples are plentiful, especially in Capitalist America, where their rights to a socialist lifestyle are most strongly protected. In this vein, two intriguing books are worth reading. The Communistic Societies of the United States; Harmony, Oneida, the Shakers, and Others by Charles Nordhoff and  History of American Socialisms by John Humphrey Noyes were originally published in the 1870s. The authors give first-person accounts of the ideologies and functions of life in these 19th Century communities, all of which were established privately, voluntarily, and lawfully.


Socialists are free to live their creed in a Capitalist social system. Not so for Capitalists in a socialist political system.


When Marx weaponized socialist ideology into a political movement, socialists turned to political power to impose socialism on the whole of society by law--that is, by government force, resulting inevitably in the erosion of liberty, and ultimately in a totalitarian state. National Socialism, Communism, and Democratic Socialism—and in less extreme form welfare statism—are examples of weaponized socialism. The socialist Robert L. Heilbroner is honest about the stark political difference between Capitalism and Socialism. Political Socialism, Heilbroner acknowledges in his seminal paper What is Socialism, can not tolerate individual liberty, because the very freedom that defines Capitalism, including individual rights to free speech and property, is a direct threat to the collective Socialist vision. 


So, “Why don't socialists in free capitalist societies use their freedom to join together in communes, start living like socialists and stop bothering the rest of us?” In America, they can. Who could stop them? Under Capitalism, all people are free to live by their creed, so long as they respect the same rights of others.


I covered this in depth in my essay Criminal Socialism vs. a Free Society


My related answers:


QUORA: ‘Is capitalism voluntary?’


QUORA *: ‘What makes someone a socialist?'


QUORA *: ‘Why do people find communism so terrifying as an idea?’


Related Reading:


A New Textbook of Americanism—edited by Jonathan Hoenig


Socialism vs. Welfare Statism: Why These Terms Matter


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