Socialism

In my view, the most fundamental characteristic of socialism is its commitment to the creation of an egalitarian society. Socialists may not have agreed about the extent to which inequality can be eradicated or the means by which change can be effected, but no socialist would defend the current inequalities of wealth and power. In particular, socialists have maintained that, under capitalism, vast privileges and opportunities are derived from the hereditary ownership of capital and wealth at one end of the social scale, while a cycle of deprivation limits opportunities and influence at the other end. To varying extents, all socialists have therefore challenged the property relationships that are fundamental to capitalism, and have aspired to establish a society in which everyone has the possibility to seek fulfillment without facing barriers based on structural inequalities.

The notion of “utopianism” has often been used to dismiss projects regarded as unrealistic or fanciful.

However, those who were the most influential at the time did not necessarily produce the most enduring ideas. In terms of contemporary support, Etienne Cabet was probably the most popular, but his notion of utopia now appears drab.

He proposed a “religion of Newton,” in recognition of Newton’s role as the founder of modern science; scientists and artists should head a new church, and he even sought to combine a secular morality with a regenerated form of Christianity, claiming that the main goals were to eradicate poverty and to ensure that all benefited from education and employment.

If Saint-Simon’s critique of existing society was based on a kind of class analysis, and Fourier’s on the stifling of passions, Owen’s owed far more to a condemnation of irrationalism. His enduring belief was in a form of environmental determinism that meant that people were not responsible for their own characters, which were moulded by the circumstances in which they lived.