The interesting thing about Evolutionary Socialism is that most people refuse to acknowledge its existence, just like people don't pay much attention to progressivism. Which is weird because arguably the most successful socialists in history are the British Fabians who promise to make haste slowly. An interest of note is how at times, the British Fabians and American Progressives did collaborate, and differences aside do take the same outlook of doing actions generally in small moves.
Well, the best way to understand something is simply to read (or now listen) to what they said about the topic and as such here is Eduard Bernstein's book about socialism piece by piece. It's literally the hand book about socialism by slowly boiling the frog in the pot.
Evolutionary Socialism, by Eduard Bernstein
Now I'm not saying pay a blind eye to the Revolutionaries. But what I am saying is that if over the decades, the Evolutionaries have been the most successful at implementing their goals, then you should be prioritizing your view and your discourses on the Evolutionaries. It's priorities. Most people that I see focus on the Revolutionaries and leave a blind eye to the Evolutionaries, which is a huge mistake. That is all I am getting at. In my summary for this book here is what I wrote:
Contains a challenge to the rigid Marxist orthodoxy that revolution is required in order achieve a centrally planned society. Bernstein believed in working from within a capitalist system in "revisionist", that is, evolutionary steps toward socialism. By gradually evolving in consistent legislative reforms, socialism could be made to become inevitable. Doing this would not only avoid the violence seen in earlier attempts to establish communism, but it would (Bernstein believed) endear the voting populace toward embracing a socialist future.
I think this is pretty accurate of a summary, even moreso for the view of Evolutionary Socialists than just simply the book itself.
Thanks to recent interchange on FR I discovered you and your efforts. The same day as the date of this post, Oct 3.
ReplyDeleteThe subterfuge of the Progs, as I and others call them for short, was in their name from the start. I wish reverse italics were regularly available since it would remove the need for the often use of scorn quotes. I adopted \Progressive\ as my way to note the Fabian nature of the word. Its progenitors would love to openly install a contemporary Bourbon aristocracy in the USA. To do so they must undermine the constitution gradually. In the past I referred to them as incrementalists, which mirrors the Evolutionists here. Its the radical Left they still use until, as with Stalin, the Revolutionaries must be eliminated as their mindset aligns with Trotsky and not Lenin/Stalin. I would be surprised if in your work you have not written along these lines.
I've a question related to all your efforts. How can a listeners speed up you audio books? I love using that feature on youtube and adapt as needed by backing up if too fast. It would match reading skills and be a boon to further furthering your intentions by saving time of those who find your works.
I don't update my blog that often, as I have better and wider responses on FB under a different pseudonym, and have mostly abandoned FR except daily following one FReeper and occasionally FR latest news.