Yes, I am a socialist, communist etc, but hold on. Are you sure you know what this means?

The word socialist has been much abused over the past century with many self-seeking individuals and groups using elements of the idea to serve their own ends. Thus few nowadays understand what is really meant by socialists, but instead conjure up all sorts of strange and irrelevant ideas.

Firstly, socialism is not about being nice to your fellow man, it is about greed as much as capitalism is about greed. However, it will not be psyched-up, perverted greed creating rampant consumerism. Socialism will also allow a much broader view than capitalism allows. It will let people realise that their interests are best served by cooperation, rather than competition. Socialism will allow people to pause and think before cutting down a forest etc, and consider the future implications for themselves and their family.

Secondly, it is not about state interference. Instead the state will cease to exist, we will become a global society instead. The state has only really come into existence to serve the divisive nature of capitalism, and will be an encumbrance to a socialist society.

The words Communism, Socialism & Commonwealth all mean exactly the same thing and are freely interchangeable. Whenever one occurs on this site, or in talking with any true socialist.

Communism/socialism is not about dictatorial regimes. Inherent in socialism is a far greater degree of democracy than has been known before. Policy will not be set & enforced by a government, but decided by the people involved in any given situation. Coercive ie. the police and armed forces, will not be required. It has been stated by a senior police officer that 99.9% of all crime is property related, common ownership will render property crime pointless. The remaining 0.1% will be discouraged by a force that has always been far stronger than the law, ie peer pressure.

I also have a glossary where many misunderstood words are explained.

The key element to me is the Theory of Social Development, better known as Historical Materialism. Several lines of thought led me to become a socialist, but this is perhaps the main one. It started several years ago when studying the Reformation Period of Central Europe. I realised that over a very short period the society in this region was fundamentally altered. Though the birth of Protestantism is usually given by historians as the main change, the real change was far more subtle and far reaching. The feudal stranglehold supported by the Catholic church was shaken off, and the society was opened up to merchants who need have no ties to anything but profits. The feudal baronies became the states of Poland, Prussia, Saxony, Thuringia, Denmark etc. I also that momentous events happened in Italy, Spain & England at about the same time. The events were different for each case but the results were the same.

The period was hard on the inhabitants of the region. Many peasants lost the ties with their feudal barons and ended up roving the land as group of robbers. The rule of law broke down, and the sword was all that could be relied upon.

As I studied this I began to feel a lot of parallels with modern society and framed the question "are we entering another Reformation Period?". I now know the answer to be in the negative, we are already smack in the middle of a similar event. If you have looked at my as Historical Materialism pages you will understand that this is because capitalism has reached its limits, if you have not looked then have a look now, you may find it explains a lot.

The capitalist revolution was resisted and from this resistance came many of the events we look back upon with horror such as the Spanish Inquisition, the post-French Revolution Terror, the English Civil War, the Napoleonic Wars etc. The march of progress could not be denied though and capitalism came to be, all the resistance achieved was to make the transition drag out through several very painful centuries. From this I see that the only way to avoid such horrors in our future is for all of us to understand the forces operating and demand socialism.

Here is a list of occupations that are necessary only in maintenance of the money system. Therefore these people would be freed off under socialism.

There is a lot more explained at the WSM site.