From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Tue Nov 05 2002 - 15:48:09 MST
On Sunday 03 November 2002 16:11, Jeff Davis wrote:
> Greetings extropes,
>
> I've just returned to Canada, my own computer, and
> ...
>
> ...
> Here's a small excerpt:
>
> Understanding of the difficulties of central planning
> was slow to emerge. In the midthirties, while the
> Russian industrialization drive was at full tilt, few
>...
>From this excerpt, it appears that this source is making an equivalence
between socialism and centrally planned socialism. While there are
definitely groups that answer this description, and while many of them call
themselves socialist, others call themselves things like the Federal Reserve
System, so that is clearly not a diagnostic feature of socialism. I believe
that the most have agreed that government isn't any large part of what
socialism means, but is rather a part of the environment which determines
it's feasibility.
Most of the participants on this list who were defenders, or even explicit
definers, of some socialist position didn't adhere to that centralist
doctrine. Some even explicitly rejected all centralist examples as examples
of socialism. (This said, in fairness I must admit that there are a few who
seem to believe that socialism is defined by centralized authorities killing
large masses of people. Doesn't seem plausible to me, but then I'm not
asserting that position.)
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