Why I am not a socialist

[sqbr]

Reading She Who Stumbles (which is from everything I've seen is hands down the best blog ever for anyone interested in race and feminism in australia) for my last post, I came across this post :Why I’m not a socialist (any more) - Part 1 (afaict she never got around to part 2. I know what that's like)

And boy could I relate to it. My experience is a bit different, since I was born into a socialist (and semi-socialist) family and have never been really actively engaged as any sort of activist but still. I must print out a copy for my mum (my grandma and dad are rather didactically socialist, it can get a bit oppressive)

EDIT: Flying Blogspot points out that not all socialists are like this, which is true.

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

That's a very good point, and it is like the feminism thing: if your primary encounter with people who self identify with a particular philosophy is negative, and those people claim to be the One True Way to follow that philosophy, then you are going to be put off really strongly, even if there are actually lots of different ways to follow that philosophy, some of which you'd like.

Currently I'm kind of nibbling at the edges of activism, at every step reassuring myself that I haven't turned into my father/grandparents, so it's possible that at the end of this process I'll be comfortable with the term "socialist" in the same way I am now with "feminist".