Social Studies

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Daily Nebraskan columns)

This column, although written almost a decade ago, seems apt given the current suggestion in many town hall meetings that Obama is a socialist for moving us toward universal health insurance coverage.

Social Studies

History glosses over influence of Socialism

Jeremy Patrick (jhaeman@hotmail.com)

April 10, 2000

"It is not only radical or currently unfashionable ideas that the texts leave out - it is all ideas, including those of their heroes."-- Frances FitzGerald

In America, "socialism" is almost an obscene word. In the minds of most Americans, the word calls to mind images of the Berlin Wall and a tyrannical government; it is a virtual synonym for "communism." For example, when Hillary Clinton floated around her national health care plan a few years back, Republican leaders on Capitol Hill were quick to denounce it as "socialistic."
Socialism is seen as a threat to the American way of life - this tremendous freedom we're supposed to have to make ourselves into anything we want to be. Because socialism holds that not every citizen has this opportunity because of economic inequality, it is seen as a threat to "family values."
Pat Robertson once said, "The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women ... It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." (Hill & Cheadle, 1996) So Robertson puts an attack on capitalism in the same list of evils as child-murder and witchcraft; it's hard to tell which he thinks is the worst.
The ironic thing is that many of our nation's most cherished heroes were socialists.
In history textbooks, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. is glorified as the leading black civil rights leader of the 20th Century. This is arguably true, but besides ignoring the often fierce resentment King provoked in other black leaders, the textbooks almost uniformly ignore the fact that King was a self-proclaimed socialist. He knew that the overwhelming poverty suffered by blacks could not be caused solely by racism.
In 1967, just a year before he was assassinated, King said, "...One day we must ask the question, 'Why are there 40 million poor people in America?' And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader redistribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy." (103 Harv. L. Rev. 1039)
Another example of historical tunnel vision is Helen Keller. She's remembered as the determined and courageous woman who learned to speak and write while blind and deaf and went on to be an advocate for the disabled. Her life is lauded to such an extent that she becomes almost a cartoon figure. Keller is held out as the embodiment of the belief that through hard work, anything is possible.
What the textbooks don't say, however, is that Keller was a radical socialist. She joined a socialist political group in her early twenties and remained a socialist until her death at the age of 88. Keller spent most of her life writing and speaking on socialist causes. At the time she became a socialist, however, she was idolized world-wide; the shift in her political views caused a fickle public to react angrily and newspapers, once full of praise, became full of disdain.
Keller spoke about one of these critics, an editor at the Brooklyn Eagle: "The compliments that he [once] paid me were so generous that I blush to remember them. But now that I have come out for socialism, he reminds me and the public that I am blind and deaf and especially liable to error. I must have shrunk in intelligence during the years since I met him." (Loewen, 1995)
History has immortalized the first two decades of Keller's life. It has forgotten the last six decades of her life that she spent fighting for economic justice under the banner of socialism.
We've all heard of the famous novel "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. When I talk to people about it, all they can remember (with justified horror) are the disgusting practices of the meat-packing industry detailed within. When the book first came out, it horrified society to such an extent that it led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, one of the most extensive food safety regulations the country had ever seen.
Focusing on this small portion of the book, however, completely ignores the main thrust of it. "The Jungle" is a call to arms for socialists. It was written as a wake-up call for the poor to unite and protect themselves from economic exploitation. Much of Sinclair's life was devoted to socialism. History chooses to remember him generically as a "reformer" or a "progressive."
Glossing over these national heroes' socialist beliefs is common. The New America Desk Encyclopedia (3rd ed.) for example, does not use the word "socialist" once in any of the entries for King, Keller or Sinclair. History has pulled out a piece of their lives and ignored the rest, distorting what they were really like.
Understanding King's desire for racial equality cannot be complete without understanding his desire for economic equality. Keller's drive to help the disabled is inseparably intertwined with her drive to help the poor. Sinclair's passion for "muck-raking" is inexplicable without understanding the socialist beliefs on which it was based.
Just as the influence of socialism on these individuals has been forgotten, so has the influence of socialism on America. Many of today's government policies, such as minimum wage laws, Social Security benefits and Medicaid, were espoused by socialist parties long before they were adopted by Democrats or Republicans.
As Michael Harrington, one of the leading American socialists of the 20th Century, said, "One of the main consequences of the socialist movement has not been socialism, but a more humane, rational and intelligent capitalism, usually in spite of the capitalists."
Even if the textbooks are ignorant of the contribution of socialism to our nation and its heroes, we shouldn't be.

(c) 2001 Daily Nebraskan Online (www.dailyneb.com)