Some theory...
From ‘ A theory of life’ (William Morris – writing from 1880s)
Socialism is a theory of life, taking for its starting point the evolution of society; or, let us say, of man as a social being. Since man has material necessities as an animal, society is founded on man’s attempts to satisfy those necessities; and Socialism or social consciousness points out to him the way of doing so which will interfere least with the development of his specially human capacities and the satisfaction of what I will call, for lack of a better word, his spiritual and mental necessities. ……..Socialism aims at realising equality of condition as its economical goal, and the habitual love of humanity as its rule of ethics. ……Socialism is to substitute the relation of persons to persons, for the relation of things to person. A man would no longer take his position as the dweller in such and such a place or the filler of such and such an office, or the owner of such and such property, but as being such and such a man. In such a state of Society laws of repression would be minimised and the whole body of law which now deals with things and their domination over persons would cease to exist. In a condition of personal equality, also, there could no longer be rivalry between those inhabiting different places. Nationality, except as a geographical or ethnological expression, would have no meaning. …………The land, factories, machinery, means of transit, and whatever wealth of any sort is used for the reproduction of wealth, and which therefore is necessary to labour can only be used by it, must be owned by the nation only, to be used by the workers (who will then include all honest men) according to their capacity……..
From ‘How we live and how we might live’.
The word revolution, which Socialists are often forced to use, has a terrible sound in most people’s ears, even when we have explained to them that it does not necessarily mean a change accompanied by riot and all kinds of violence, and cannot mean a change made mechanically and in the teeth of opinion by a group of men who has somehow managed to seize on the executive power for the moment…… So we will stick to our word, which means a change in the basis of society; it may frighten people, but it will at least warn them that there is something to be frightened about, which will be no less dangerous for being ignored; it also may encourage some people, and will mean to them at least not a fear, but hope. Fear and hope – these are the names of the two great passions which rule the race of man, and with which revolutionists have to deal; to give hope to the many oppressed and fear to the few oppressors, that is our business…..it is not revenge we want for poor people, but happiness; indeed, what revenge can be taken for all the thousands of years of sufferings of the poor? However, many of the oppressors of the poor, most of them, we will say, are not conscious of their being oppressors; they live in an orderly, quiet way themselves…they know that the poor exist, but their sufferings do not present themselves in a dramatic way; they themselves have troubles to bear, and they think doubtless that to bear trouble is the lot of humanity; nor have they the means of comparing the troubles of their lives with people lower in the social scale….
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