Reply #16: Socialism is very misunderstood on many points [View All]

[Selatius]

Socialism itself is basically divided into two camps: State socialists and anarcho-socialists or libertarian socialists. One wants to utilize the state in its existing form in order to impose a socialist order. The other tries to use education and popular organization in order to bring it about.

State socialism can be terribly dangerous. When you allow a relatively small number of people the decision-making power to determine how the economy should be run or managed instead of allowing workers to do it themselves through consensus and communication, you risk replacing the previous capitalist oligarchy with a socialist oligarchy that is just as tyrannical as the previous regime. This is even more true if those who have the decision-making power are unelected, but the same danger exists even with a republican form of government because concentrated power corrupts the mind. All you need is a few who can hide their bloodlust for power and get elected, and all is lost.