Unsociable

I was in college when I met my first Socialists, and they struck me as hostile. Angry, really. Angry at systems that allowed for inequality and the accumulation of wealth, angry at society for aiding and abetting such systems. And angry at me, for being unwilling to join their cause as a matter of faith. My preference for waiting to see how a Socialist government in the United States would operate in practice, I was told, had earned me a spot up against the wall when the Revolution came. One was either With them or Against them, and the choice needed to be made then.

I didn't care for being threatened, and so I decided that I didn't care for Socialism.

In the intervening years, I've mellowed, and so, it seems has the general strain of Socialism that I encounter. Rather than taking its cues from Marxist rage, much of the socialism I encounter today looks to the Nordic countries for its model, promising a society of mutual care where people aren't left behind by those seeking profits instead of the general welfare.

It's kinder and gentler, to be sure, but I'm not convinced that its any more workable. I am of the opinion that Scandinavians do not care for one another because they are Socialist, but their state Socialism comes out of a preexisting care for one another.

And that's an important distinction. Capitalism, or what many people call capitalism (I suspect that "corporatism" might be a better name), is not what drives the United States to feel like a place where people simply don't care about one another. The fact that many Americans tend to feel that caring for others leaves them exposed and vulnerable is a much better explanation. A change in economic system is not going to change that, especially not quickly. It's going to take a much broader societal shift, and one that I haven't seen any viable plans for thus far.