21 February 2019

Nathan J Roberts spoke to some of America’s richest high school students, and made an eloquent pitch for socialism: “I’m beginning here, with a basic example of an unjustified inequality, because … for me, that is where the socialistic instinct begins, not with economic theory but with a sense of solidarity, feeling a deep understanding, love of, and sympathy with your fellow human beings in very different circumstances, and wanting nothing for yourself that you do not also want for them. … A socialist is, first and foremost, not just perturbed by injustice, but horrified by it, really truly sickened by it in a way that means they can’t stop thinking about it. It gives you the feeling that ‘we can’t do anything about that’ or ‘that’s just the way of the world’ is not acceptable.” He goes on to explain that the key issues for socialists are inequalities of wealth and power, and that liberalism fails to address deep structural imbalances. Worth a read.