Why Socialism?

Based on Einstein’s 1949 essay of the same name

Most major states arose from military conquest:
Colonial wars, conquistadors,
predators come in fast, kick ass,
set themselves up as the ruling class.
First by power, then by stealth,
take over the land, control the wealth,
appoint the priesthood, make every decision,
institutionalize education - and class division.
Mold the mores, from tribe to nation,
steer the people, unaware, to seek some hero, savior,
law or custom that channels their behavior for generations.

It’s Amazing to gaze back through history’s haze,
wondering if we shall overcome this predatory phase.
If we do, it will take a new mentality,
An economics rooted in morality.
Social scientists from Plato to Keynes can deal with means,
but science alone lacks the acumen
to solve problems when the ends are human.

We are social as well as solitary beings.
We learn language; to speak, to pray, to sing,
we’re taught tools of craft, nuances of thought.
Our accomplishments, our very lives,
are made possible through the labor and creative drives
of the many millions, past and present,
dreamers, peasants, the list is vast,
poor souls, souls of deep piety,
renegades, those of propriety,
all hidden behind the word “society”.
We depend on these bonds, but sometimes forget
that they’re a protective force, an organic tie, not a threat.
Our survival drives are doing fine.
It’s our social drives that are in decline .
In a world where “me” rules and “we” is for fools,
life can lose its savor, and becomes a grind.

Indeed our greed has atrophied compassion for our neighbors’ need.
We’re all pressed and panicky in the economic anarchy of a free market unchained.
When free enterprise is unrestrained,
major players in the monopoly game
strive to deprive their neighbors of the fruits of their labor,
not through whips or cops or those kind of tools,
but in faithful compliance with established rules.
How did the invisible hand place the factories, the land,
all the wealth, in a handful of hands?
How come all we ever built or grew
became the property of just a few?
Competition, division of labor, our technological tradition,
has nourished an aristocracy, a corporate theocracy,
whose power can’t be effectively checked by any democracy,
since members of legislative bodies
are selected by political parties
financed by corporations whose very nature
is to separate the electorate from the legislature.

International corporations control the sources of information -
all the major channels and stations,
the content and thrust of education;
Infect us with distracting delusions, while money’s collusion
lifts consumerism to such heights,
that it’s hard for us to form objective conclusions,
or to make intelligent use of our political rights.

When the means of production are privatized,
money doesn’t trickle down, it rises up. By suction.
It’s the deprived that get downsized,
put out to beg, or criminalized.
Free enterprise playing by the regs, plays loose with the citizen goose,
while grabbing the golden eggs.
Class war without a truce,
while production’s carried out for profit, not for use.

And since the deprived don’t provide a profitable market,
no matter how sweetly its depicted,
the production of consumer goods gets restricted.
People can’t afford to buy stuff.
Rent, food, whatever it is, they don’t have enough to pay it.
Depression, recession, however you want to say it, times get tough.

And technology may be a wonder, but it also robs
when silicon chips and robots take away your jobs.
So it’s both a blessing and a curse:
Control of each little gigabite
lets money move at the speed of light –
But since people can’t move so fast, unemployment gets worse.
With all the exploitation and frustration,
morality is still out on vacation.

The profit motive, competition, planned scarcity,
breeds an instability in the accumulation
and utilization of surplus cash,
giving rise to increasingly severe depressions,
competition and aggression among brothers,
regression of concern for the earth and for others.

Globalization seems to mean sanctioned predation.
Social needs, like education, get rationed.
There’s more stressed students every year
worshiping acquisitive success
as a preparation for their career.

A new economy needs to be installed
where the means of production are owned by all;
where compassion and kindness replace flat out greed
so the free market is truly freed.
A livelihood has to be guaranteed
to every woman, man and child,
for the “me” and the “we” to get reconciled.

And let’s not forget, no government can be trusted to behave.
Any government, democracies as well as aristocracies,
Can still enslave, mass produce graves,
Turn their backs on facts, the poor and the old.
A centralized bureaucracy has to be controlled.

So a planned economy is not enough.
We have to do more than deal in stuff.
We have to provide the values as well as the facilities
to teach our children, to enhance their innate abilities,
develop in them a sense of responsibility for their fellow beings.
We have to redress this misguided mess,
this system, so blind to being kind,
that it’s all but severed the ties that bind.
Caring and justice can never flower
In societies that stress the glorification of power
and material success.

Why Socialism?

New Poems

From By Heart

Some Earlier Poems

Audio Recordings