Why Not Socialism?

Considering the way the word “socialist” has been thrown around lately, it’s helpful to do a definition check. G.A. Cohen, a University of Oxford professor who died last August, sums it all up in an informative and thought-provoking little essay. Princeton has published a new, pocket-sized hardcover edition that’s both timely and useful. Cohen uses the example of a camping trip to illustrate how society functions, and then expands that illustration to explain how socialism works. He dismantles the idea that human selfishness is the bar to a working form of socialism, acknowledges the failures of central planning and posits a democratic socialism that uses the market rather than attempting to control it. While Cohen admits that show more all market systems are predatory, that’s no reason to simply surrender. Logically, concisely and deliberatively, he offers some good reasons to seek an alternative. show less

Cohen really is a true believer. At least on a small scale, he really does make good case for socialism. Where it breaks down is really anything applied to a larger scale without a dispute mechanism (i.e. markets). I found his objection to market socialism in particular more telling than objectionable as he seems to really want all participants in a socialist system to be true believers too. At that point, I think he's completely lost the plot as we're now dealing with ideologues as the reason why the system works rather than a self-correcting feature of the system itself (i.e. even capitalism would work if it was "true" capitalism and not corrupted by cronyism and regulatory capture, etc.).

How many analytic philosophical journal articles deserve to be sold on their own as a book? None, not even this one. On the other hand, it's a beautiful little object, and Cohen was such a wonderful human being, and so smart, that I'm happy to have contributed something to whoever he decided to leave his copy rights to. This won't convince anyone that socialism is plausible, or even that it's preferable, at least in the short term. But perhaps some college kid somewhere will read it, and it will slowly worm its way into his brain, and he'll become a slightly better person. Maybe.

this book was very good on why socialism is feasible and the general principles on which a socialist society should be built, but i thought cohen's vision of what socialism would actually entail was fairly hazy. (i wasn't sure if that was due to my own ignorance of political philosophy, but considering that this book is aimed to beginners i think that's a flaw nonetheless.)

This very short essay advocates a brand of socialism which seems extreme to me, almost to the tune of "from each according to his ability...". The author uses the reciprocal interactions of a camping trip as an example of socialist behaviour which he would like to see implemented in society at large. There's not much weight in the actual argument since it's so short, but I think it still answers the question posed in the title. As the author says (on page 57), "the principal problem that faces the socialist ideal is that we do not know how to design the machinery that would make it run".

Similar to a political tract or pamphlet in style and length, this is a short exploration about the possibilities of socialism in a 21st century society. Cohen starts with the premise of a camping trip and goes on to discuss if the principles that make such an endeavour work could be applied to society as a whole.
While quite dry and academic in places, this is still a highly readable book and presents an interesting thought experiment.

My dad always bought us 3 of each toy, so I never had to share anything and now I’m so possessive over my shit that that first paragraph made me sick. I’m not saying I'm a capitalist; I don’t know enough about life except to assume that there’s no way to make it fair or good.

0 stars because it’s short and simple, mostly easy to understand for dummies like me, but I’m not sure what I got out of it except that socialism seems like a nightmare for introverts. Why is this high school essay available in hardback? It addresses nothing and I've learned nothing, even though I was practically a blank slate going in.