Random Musings on Socialism and the world

An economics Professor proves that, socialism will ultimately fail. And many have cited the fall of USSR as an example for this already. Well, they have a point when they say " You can not take away the "incentive to work" from someone to feed others who aren't working". But I feel, the primary point of Socialism is to provide an opportunity for "the others" to work and contribute so that effectively, there will be many more hands at work. Socialism is not about feeding others, but to enable them to work instead. When, in the example given by the professor, the grades are averaged and all the students get the same grade "B", it doesn't mean that students should be demotivated and should stop studying. It effectively means that, as a team, the students are only worth a grade "B" and they need to put in more effort to attain the grade "A". And this will happen only when the lowest scoring individual of the class is made to put in efforts and helped along to get an "A". Because, the primary idea of grading, (whether individual or in this case, class-wide average) is not to demotivate them but to point out that there is still something to achieve. Many of us might be assuming that people are poor because they were lazy to work. That is only one side of the coin. They are poor more because of the exploitation they were subjected to. By the colonists, by the political class and the so called "well-educated".

Everyone likes to think that what they earn is because of their effort. If not for the collective support of every Good Samaritan (may be Your parents, teachers, friends and even some stranger whom you never expected to be helpful) you had in your life, it would have been hell lot of difficult to be in the same position you are right now in. (And of course, if not for the bad Samaritans in your life, it would have been a little easy for you to be in the same position). While you are busy, discovering or inventing something, and applying for patent rights for the same, there have been scores of farmers, who have toiled to make your food and clothing ready (indirectly because it goes through a lot of processing before it reaches you) who are being exploited in all sorts of ways, right from taking away their right to use the seeds in the name of patents, to paying utterly dismal prices for their produce(when compared to the rise in input costs and inflation) just because they don't have the bargaining power. Imagine, what would happen, if for just one year, all farmers out there rely on completely natural ways of producing their own crops for their own subsistence and stop selling them in the market. What would the middlemen and the patent-making scientists do? Of course, this won't happen as they are lured by the charms of the modern age and just like us, they have got their priorities wrong. Consumerism but not socialism is a curse. It makes you change your priorities to what you want rather than what you actually need.

And socialism doesn't ask you to be selfless. It asks you to be "Selfish" but at a different level. It wants you to be thinking about the entire society as yourself and act accordingly. If everyone one does that, then it will be equally or more effective than the present situation. And as they socialism (or capitalism) doesn't fail. Its the inner greed of human beings that fails us.

I'm not against the concept of scientific development but when the primary purpose of scientific development is to save our time from carrying out routine and mundane activities, we have the responsibility to utilize the time to further the cause of development. Many of us who are working waste a lot of time for which we get paid. And yet claim that those who are poor are lazy ( I admit, there are exceptions for both the sets.) But even those who are working are not clear about the consequences of their work. (Of course, Even great scientists like Alfred Nobel weren't). What you think is going to be a boon to the society (if at all you are worried about it) may be a curse in disguise. Hence, its always wiser to be prudent, to be introspective, to move slow and steady than to move in a hurry and fall back because of a misstep. After all, life is a one time journey. Let it be as wonderful as it can.