A compelling case for why it's time for socialism
Is socialism desirable? Is it even possible? In this concise book, one
of the world's leading political philosophers presents with clarity and
wit a compelling moral case for socialism and argues that the obstacles
in its way are exaggerated.
There are times, G. A. Cohen notes, when we all behave like socialists.
On a camping trip, for example, campers wouldn't dream of charging each
other to use a soccer ball or for fish that they happened to catch.
Campers do not give merely to get, but relate to each other in a spirit
of equality and community. Would such socialist norms be desirable
across society as a whole? Why not? Whole societies may differ from
camping trips, but it is still attractive when people treat each other
with the equal regard that such trips exhibit.
But, however desirable it may be, many claim that socialism is
impossible. Cohen writes that the biggest obstacle to socialism isn't,
as often argued, intractable human selfishness--it's rather the lack of
obvious means to harness the human generosity that is there. Lacking
those means, we rely on the market. But there are many ways of confining
the sway of the market: there are desirable changes that can move us
toward a socialist society in which, to quote Albert Einstein, humanity
has "overcome and advanced beyond the predatory stage of human
development."
