What led you to socialism?

[freshwest]

18. I became unchurched because of the righties, and fundies of all persuasions.

I was brought up a Baptist in a family Catholics, Methodists, Lutherans, Unitarians and atheists. We also had Quakers in our lineage. For that reason, we didn't take any of those stances to be ultimate authorities as we respected our individualism. The main emphasis for us was the Golden Rule.

Baptists at that era in my area, weren't political, did not exclude, and did not take themselves that seriously, had just found a difference of opinion on how baptism was to be performed, thinking that it literally meant submersion in water and not sprinkling, as a symbol of a changed heart.

The focus where I attended was on having a childlike faith and a humility that ensured a built-in sense of not judging others, realizing all could be in error, when compared to a 'creator.' That breeds kindness and respect. In other words, walk humbly and realize you don't have all the answers, so live and let live. I guess it would be called a 'liberal' Baptist church.

My family respected all the different methods of living according to the Golden Rule, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Judaism, Zoroastrianism or native American beliefs.

We felt comfortable with socialism as a way to promote equality of all peoples and 'creation' itself, although the family was composed of working women, housewives, businessmen, blue collar men, academics and unionists. Not that gender assigned those roles exclusively, we were a mixed bag there.

Socialism appealed to a sense of a universal spirit of love, inclusive and non-judgmental, spreading to all living things. It just seemed the right way to go, getting to the basics of life, in fact it's natural. We have been deluged with a philosophy that says that nature is all about competition and eating each other. If it was, there wouldn't be many survivors. There are numerous examples of how individuals within species work together and how different species also live in cooperation with each other.

Anyway, socialism is the most logical system for many functions of society. It allows for the greatest accountability and public input in the needs of people. Such things as water, electricity, healthcare and care of those in need is best dealt with by socialism. When society is maintained as inclusive, not divided by wealth, and the basics of life are not disputed because of sense of the sanctity of life (not this travesty the rightwing has promoted), human beings can soar with freedom.

Privatization is selling those needs to those who are not accountable, not inclusive because the capitalist mindset, of necessity, makes division in order to squeeze out a profit. A profit essentially is a function of inequality. Not the spirit of love and inclusiveness, of cooperation and meeting human needs, as I explained in my view before.

Nice talking to you here.



P. S. Note that MLK was not only a Christian, he had found the meaning of love, and sought to understand reality far beyond any confining religious view, and his political stances were decried as being socialist and communist.