A Socialist Manifesto

By Eric v.d. Luft

"Luft’s conception of socialism is far distant from the socialism of the gulag and the secret police; it is a socialism that free people of good will could actually live with and flourish under, and it would certainly be a kinder, more just, and more inspiring social order than we have presently. This original and thoughtful, albeit problematic, contribution to the discussion of socialism is well worth the attention of serious readers. Recommended for high school, public, and academic libraries."

-- David S. Pena in Counterpoise, vol. 12, no. 3, Summer 2008, pp. 27-28.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gegensatz Press
• Release date: Jan 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781933237541

Eric v.d. Luft

Eric v.d. Luft earned his B.A. magna cum laude in philosophy and religion at Bowdoin College in 1974 and his Ph.D. in philosophy at Bryn Mawr College in 1985. From 1987 to 2006 he was Curator of Historical Collections at SUNY Upstate Medical University. He has taught at Villanova University, Syracuse University, Upstate Medical University, and the College of Saint Rose, and is listed in Who’s Who in America. Luft is the author, editor, or translator of over 600 publications in philosophy, religion, history, history of medicine, and nineteenth-century studies, including Hegel, Hinrichs, and Schleiermacher on Feeling and Reason in Religion: The Texts of Their 1821-22 Debate (1987); God, Evil, and Ethics: A Primer in the Philosophy of Religion (2004); A Socialist Manifesto (2007); Die at the Right Time: A Subjective Cultural History of the American Sixties (2009); and Ruminations: Selected Philosophical, Historical, and Ideological Papers (2010).

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A Socialist Manifesto

Eric v.d. Luft

Published by Gegensatz Press at Smashwords

ISBN 978-1-933237-54-1

Copyright © 2007 by Eric v.d. Luft

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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2007

For Toby

Contents

Prologue

Principles

1. Freedom

2. Nonviolence

3. Democracy

4. Expansion of Suffrage

5. Elimination or Flattening of Hierarchies

6. Global Confederation of Sovereign Nations

7. Universal Access to Due Process

8. Abolition of Torture, Unfair or Cruel Imprisonment, and the Death Penalty

9. Education

10. Enhancement of Civilization

11. Respect for History

12. Regulation of Capitalism

13. Redistribution of Wealth

14. Elimination of Poverty

15. Public Ownership, Management, and Funding of Essential Services

16. Recognition of All People's Natural Human Rights

17. Outlawing Conscription

18. Dismantling of Religious Hegemony and Elimination of Theocracy

19. Stewardship of the Environment

20. Universal Health Care

21. Decriminalization of Marijuana

22. Ownership of One's Own Body

23. Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative

Prologue

Manifestos throughout history have shown themselves to be relatively short-lived. They tend to address specific situations of their respective times; so, when these situations change, either for better or for worse, their corresponding manifestos become obsolete. Each manifesto may have philosophical or theoretical content that transcends its age and makes it still worth reading even after its practical or immediate recommendations have faded into present irrelevance. Examples of leftist manifestos that fit this description are Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1776), The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America (The Declaration of Independence) by Thomas Jefferson et al. (1776), The Manifesto of the Communist Party (The Communist Manifesto) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1848), The Port Huron Statement of the Students for a Democratic Society by Tom Hayden et al. (1962), The Radical Women Manifesto (1967, revised 2001), and the Youth International Party Manifesto! (The Yippie Manifesto) presumably by Abbie Hoffman (1970).

Accordingly, given the situations at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the time is right for a new leftist manifesto to build on the legacy of these previous works.

Its title is A Socialist Manifesto rather than The Socialist Manifesto because socialism is not a fixed ideology, but an ongoing conversation open to all people. Maybe someday another socialist manifesto will be written to supersede it, or perhaps this one will be revised. Either development should be warmly welcomed.

This manifesto pertains to the United States of America, because that is what the author knows best. Readers from other nations can make the appropriate adjustments, according to each of their own home political situations.

True socialism - unlike true communism and true anarchism - is not utopian. That is, the aim of socialism is not the best possible result under ideal conditions, but the best result possible under actual conditions. Accordingly, we take a Fabian, brass tacks approach to the betterment of all society, with the practical recognition that in ordinary reality not everything can be given or achieved all at once. Our quest for the best result possible rather than the best possible result demands a gradual revolution, not a sudden or shocking upheaval. The gradualness of the socialist revolution keeps people safe, secure, and tolerably comfortable, winning converts to our side as it wins small battles here and there; but the massive revolutionary upheaval, on the other hand, would threaten, endanger, and alienate them, disrupt their everyday lives, and give them false promises and unrealistic expectations, thus creating violent reaction and counterrevolution, as it did in the cases of the French and Russian Revolutions. It is better to have occasional tiny victories than to reap frustration by trying to achieve all at once more than is humanly reasonable. Moreover, because we cannot see into the future, we cannot yet name exactly everything that we want, so the prudent course is to implement one improvement at a time, stand back, find out how well it works, make any necessary adjustments, then add the next improvement. Even the Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World), who had far-reaching and extremely radical goals for a general proletarian revolution, adopted a practical, realistic, gradualistic strategy and strived incrementally in the early twentieth century to achieve basic rights for workers, such as the eight-hour day.

This manifesto repudiates both communism and anarchism, the former because is incompatible with democracy and freedom, the latter because it is incompatible with civilization and progress.

Communism is the enforced assurance that all will be shared equally. Communism does not work politically because its enforcement entails that its enforcers are above the general equality, economically because no logistical system could support such sharing, or spiritually because the people are not free.

Anarchism is the deliberate rejection of all political authority except the natural sovereignty of each particular person. Any decisions that do not involve the group are made by the individual alone and any that do involve the group are made collectively, ideally by consensus. Anarchism works very well in small groups. It is in fact the best way to run very small groups, unless quick or emergency decisions are routinely expected. Domestic cohabitant adults, whether traditional husband-wife, gay partners, unmarried heterosexuals, threesomes, or moresomes, must each be absolutely equal as decision-makers in each household. This is anarchy at its best. Very young children in the household must initially, but decreasingly as they get older, be ruled by dictation; yet after they grow to an age where they can understand and contribute meaningfully to discussions, anarchism becomes the best way to run the whole family. This age of sufficient maturity will be different for each child. The parents, guardians, or other adults in each family must monitor and respect each child's ever-changing level of emotional and intellectual development and allow him/her into the family decision-making process as early as possible. Such substantial micropolitical involvement at such early ages shows children that adults trust them, enhances their sense