Socialism and the Arc of Time

An ideology dating back to the late 19th century, socialism tends to have dual response, both equally partisan; with the very word either making you giddy with optimism, or forcing your stomach to turn over: such is the nature of the Left vs the Right. However, what are we to say of the socialism of today? Has the departure from the autocratic formative years of the ideology been fully completed, or does the system remain seen as a lake of palatable platitudes never to truly work?

One of the most truly frustrating things that occurs when you identify as a socialist, especially when within the limelight, is the relentless way in which branding takes place: ‘oh I heard she’s a Maoist’ or ‘oh great another Trot’. This sticky branding has stayed with socialism since its ubiquity: the association of socialism with historical tyrants is certainly a branding issue within the ideology and brings to the fray the biggest issue in contemporary casual descriptions of socialism: the historical association it has with autocratic state capitalism and gulags.

Let’s be clear here; no body within the modern mainstream left excuses these atrocities: to be doing so is to in turn dissociate yourself with the modern movement. Rather, these past failures should be accepted for what they truly were: thuggish dictatorships with the word ‘socialism’ or ‘communism’ sprinkled in to attempt to legitimise their actions.

In this, then, we arrive at the apex of the issue of halting this branding: the modern left rejects these ideas out of hand but the outside still has that association with socialism. Thus, is a noble goal of the contemporary left not to try and distant themselves from such an image? Because so far, it doesn’t seem to have worked.

This, of course, isn’t purely down to the respective leftist groups operating today but also down to the reaffirmation from the media in telling people to deem socialism as a boogie man and an insult. The reasons for this are clear; the contemporary ideas of the modern left threaten the status-quo in a far more pertinent and real way than the USSR ever truly could: in short, autocratic state capitalism would always be the architect of its own downfall, while a democratic means of achieving modern socialist realism has far more chance of being seen as sustainable and popular.

Hence, in this we see the new challenge on the left has become twofold: not merely are we fighting for societal change, we are also fighting for the recognition of our image change. Namely, we are fighting for our evolution from post-feudalist Stalinism to a radical and democratic action group to be recognised; the departure from these two extremes couldn’t be more pertinent.

Modern society needs a strong and legitimised voice on the left now more than ever, and it is our job to give that voice the microphone it so desperately needs in this crowd of crony capitalism.