Many people on the Left identify corporate world with oppression. The correct response to that is that oppression can happen under any ideology. The Medievals did not have the corporate world, but they were highly oppressive. Same was the case with Communism and any number of others. Any system is capable of becoming oppressive to someone; and that is in no way limited to capitalism.

Many people instead see capitalism as a way to freedom and identify it with freedom. Probably the freest setting I’ve been in was the Burningman festival in Nevada. There were 20,000 people, many of them naked, and everyone was friendly to one another. There was a fee to enter, but commerce was forbidden. Most people who go to Burningman work and cannot be portrayed as being commies or bums. It is capitalist because it requires a fee; it is not capitalist because it forbids commerce.

So we have Marxists claiming that, when left to their own devices, people will overthrow capitalism, take control of the means of production and implement Communism. The behaviour of American people refutes that claim. Not only did they not embrace Communism, but they lead the charge against Communism when many in the elites were warming toward it. What one may think people to be, and what people actually are, can differ greatly.

Now there are people in conservatives who think that everyone who’s been a part of socialism or Communism is evil. In fact many people were drawn to it for correct reasons. The plutocrats of 19th and early 20th century treated the workers like dirt. When someone is treating another person like dirt, it is only a matter of time before someone sees him as the villain.. Many people who embraced socialism were people who detested seeing workers being treated like dirt. They were not evil. Many of them were kinder, more compassionate and more ethical than the people who did not embrace socialism, and it is necessary that this be understood. My grandmother was a Soviet Communist; but she was at least as ethical and responsible as any 1950s conservative.

Is socialism the correct solution? I believe that people should have both security and opportunity. It is valid to want to achieve and make good; it is not valid to reduce life to a struggle for survival or to destroy what one cannot re-create. I am not against business or technology. I am against brainless practices such as burning the rainforest or flooding the atmosphere with CO2. As for workers, they deserve to be treated well, if for no other reason than that Christian love demands it.

When I was in the computer industry, I didn’t feel exploited or oppressed. I remember those times with fondness. I was wealthy, in excellent shape and with a fun and beautiful girlfriend. I couldn’t have hoped for a better youth. I know how good capitalism can be when it works as advertised. However I’ve also seen things of vast richness and beauty in nature, and it is wrong that it be blindly plundered for gain that stands to be realized better through smarter technologies. And I’ve also had enough contact with people less fortunate than me to know that they do not deserve being treated like dirt.

The people who have been part of things such as socialism are not evil. Many came from the right place. At the same time, attacking capitalism is not the solution. There are two main liberal issues: treatment of workers and treatment of the environment. These can be addressed within the framework of capitalism and do not require a government overtake of the economy. It is not valid to embrace Marxism. It is valid to strive for better treatment of workers and the environment.