What is Socialism?

What is socialism?

  • When government does anything it wasn’t doing five years ago

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Albion

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While I'd agree it was not socialism, I'd disagree that those are the reasons.

I'd disagree that it was involuntary, as Jesus' teaching was a command instruction that grasping the resources from God as one's personal property conflicted with being His disciple.
It still is voluntary. None of those people was forced to be part of the Christian community. They chose to join and participate, and they could choose to leave it. That is not the case in any society that is under a Socialist government.
 
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RDKirk

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It still is voluntary. None of those people was forced to be part of the Christian community. They chose to join and participate, and they could choose to leave it. That is not the case in any society that is under a Socialist government.

I did say:

Being of the Way was voluntary (ignoring Calvinism for the sake of this discussion), but once a member of the Way,
 
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RDKirk

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Once a member of The Way...what? You'd be imprisoned for changing your mind?

Social pressure.

Membership in the Body of Christ as developed in scripture is, at its base is truly, "From each according to his [God-given] ability, to each according to his needs."

Those branches that don't produce fruit are subject to pruning.
 
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Albion

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Social pressure.

Membership in the Body of Christ as developed in scripture is, at its base is truly, "From each according to his [God-given] ability, to each according to his needs."

Those branches that don't produce fruit are subject to pruning.
Social pressure? And this is supposed to be the equivalent of Socialism with all the powers to punish (fine, imprison, silence, execute, confiscate property, restrict movement, etc.) in the police state that such governments operate? I don't think so.
 
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RDKirk

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Social pressure? And this is supposed to be the equivalent of Socialism with all the powers to punish (fine, imprison, silence, execute, confiscate property, restrict movement, etc.) in the police state that such governments operate? I don't think so.

Strawman argument. I never said the Body of Christ was socialist. I said the opposite.
 
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dogs4thewin

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If I read “Book of Acts” then all early Christians were socialist. Disciples were telling people to sell all their belongings and then disciples were distributing them according to the needs.
but here is the difference people did that VOLUNTARY.
 
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grasping the after wind

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That would be the same as Option 4.

Not at all. government does not even have to own the means of production it only needs to control it. It does not have to won land or any of people's the individual's possessions like their body or their clothes or their memories. It only needs to control not own.
 
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grasping the after wind

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Local governments do. Government is government.



That would be the OP's Option 4.



And then if you take the next step of believing that the "Will of the Collective" is embodied by a single individual, a Divine Leader, rather than a bureaucracy, you get fascism, such as in North Korea.

This is not at all the same as owning everything. So option 4 is not apt. Option 5 seems correct to me though I do not think it was available when I voted. Whether it is an individual or a unopposed political party that claims to embody the mythical Collective Will you will get a leftist totalitarian state. Either a state that openly calls itself a form of nationalist socialism i.e. Fascist or a socialist state that claims to be communist and interested in international revolution untainted by nationalism but remains a form of nationalist socialism i.e. Fascist that wishes to export not only socialist ideology but attempts to export socialist ideology as a way to exert a nationalistic based hegemony.
 
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grasping the after wind

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If I read “Book of Acts” then all early Christians were socialist. Disciples were telling people to sell all their belongings and then disciples were distributing them according to the needs.

They wee not socialist as they did not exert a form of government control of the means of production. there is quite a difference between a communal purse and socialism.
 
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USincognito

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Socialism is a transitional social state between the overthrow of capitalism and the realization of communism.

Only in Marxist interpretation of economic history. There have been other socialist political philosophers.
 
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USincognito

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There are four things a government can do to businesses. They can own them, regulate them, fund them, or leave them alone. The first is socialism, the last capitalism.

Fun fact (and a good example of why I maintain that a lot of people who talk about socialism don't actually understand how much of a spectrum it occupies) - the Nazi's controlled production, but nearly every factory was privately owned.

Mauser
Krupp
Messerschmitt
 
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DanishLutheran

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Only in theory. And you are referring to a utopian "communism" that is itself only a concept. In other words, it is a quite wrong to use such a prediction as a way to sell or even to define Socialism.

False. That is exactly what socialism is, and socialists' attempts at rebranding socialism to be "all about kindness and fairness and cute fluffy bunnies" is nonsense.
Socialism is what the East Bloc was. It's what North Korea is. It's what Venezuela is.

None of the so-called "communist countries" ever referred to themselves as such, but as "socialist", because that would defeat the purpose of the Party's iron-fisted rule.
 
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Albion

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False. That is exactly what socialism is, and socialists' attempts at rebranding socialism to be "all about kindness and fairness and cute fluffy bunnies" is nonsense.
Socialism is what the East Bloc was. It's what North Korea is. It's what Venezuela is.

None of the so-called "communist countries" ever referred to themselves as such, but as "socialist", because that would defeat the purpose of the Party's iron-fisted rule.
OK. I apparently have missed the reason you began by saying "False." :)
 
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StrivingFollower

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I am glad you raised that issue. The early disciples shared their wealth/possessions. However, political scientists will point out that this was not Socialism because 1) it was voluntary, and the 2) the motivation was that sharing was a religious principle; it was not done for any secular standard of justice (that all men should have equal possessions because that is allegedly a "human right" or anything of that sort).
It's certainly much more loving this way.
 
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Francis Drake

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Membership in the Body of Christ as developed in scripture is, at its base is truly, "From each according to his [God-given] ability, to each according to his needs."
The Body of Christ is based on Christ himself, not a communist slogan.

Maybe you should check your sources, given that your quote was created by the God hating Karl Marx, hardly a good source of wisdom!
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

Communism and Socialism are evil theologies entirely based on covetousness and envy. Slogans like the above are used to exploit the sinful and selfish natures of fallen men.
Despite certain (apparent) parallels between Socialism and Christianity, the former can only operate by robbing people of freewill and their wealth.

Socialist politicians gather their votes by pointing to your rich neighbour, and promising that their policies will supply your needs from that neighbour's wealth.

Exodus20v17“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Socialism and communism turns the above scripture on its head and uses covetousness as a virtue to legalises theft.

No matter how much socialism and communism are dressed up, they are Antichrist ideologies.
 
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Francis Drake

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If I read “Book of Acts” then all early Christians were socialist. Disciples were telling people to sell all their belongings and then disciples were distributing them according to the needs.
Not true, as Peter makes very clear in his rebuke of Ananias.

Acts5v3Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”

Socialism is mandatory theft of other people's goods, based on envy and covetousness. It has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity.
What the believers did in the early church was voluntary and based on love alone.
 
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Francis Drake

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Socialism is a economic system in which the means of production are socially owned. That is not the same thing as saying they are government owned. So none of the answers are really accurate.

Social ownership is a lie. It just means that someone else paid for it and the now government controls it for the sake of votes.
 
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Arcangl86

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Social ownership is a lie. It just means that someone else paid for it and the now government controls it for the sake of votes.
There are plenty of forms of social ownership that aren't government owned. Heck, some of them are in pretty common use now.
 
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