Is socialism a system or a theory?

[Genecks]

Anarchy is the only real system, everything else is a theory for how things "look".
Anyone can turn on anyone else, stealing everything and taking everything they own and love at any time.

 

[flotsam]

Anarchism has some great common ground with socialism. We both fundamantally want the abolition of the state and capitalism. Both are misunderstood philosophies. Both relate to systems that are, essentially, currently outwith the thinking of a modern consumer western culture. Never forget the great sacrifice of the anarchists, fighting alongside socialists in the Spanish Civil War to protect a democratically elected government that was being usurped. I know that if the time was to come again I would fight to preserve and forward socialism beside my anarchist friends. I know that socialism is the future of mankind. What shall we do otherwise. Can we carry on as we are going? Can the Earth sustain capitalism? I think everybody knows the answer to that question. Venezuela is a taste of what radicals can expect if you try to introduce social justice into society in a capitalist world. But you cannot hold back good ideas, Galileo speaks to that. One day the decrepit gives in.

 

[Smurf]

But you cannot hold back good ideas, Galileo speaks to that. One day the decrepit gives in.

I think what everyone's worried about is wether it will happen soon enough

 

[flotsam]

Capitalism is a fine system when people are idealistic and honest. It is a means by which people can take care of their own interests in ways which also benefit everyone else. That is the ideological basis of capitalism, but societies change and it is time to begin looking to the future and seeing what is happening--to be forewarned.

Capitalism has one single ideology, to maximise profit. Ask any company director what his job is and he'll tell you that it is to maximise profit.
How can taking care of your own interests benefit others. Presumably this is a reference to the 'trickle-down-effect'. The right-wing idea that if you make the rich, richer, then some of the money will 'trickle down' to the poor. A useful analogy to illustrate the effectiveness of this policy is to imagine you have just been mugged. You don't report the crime in the hope that due to the merry-go-round of the market, some of the cash will find its way back to you.
Capitalism is a system that encourages individualism. Humans are not individuals. We rely on each other from cradle to grave. We are social beings. This has had the most important part to play in our evolutionary success and will continue to do so. A human trait irreconcilable with capitalism.
Capitalism is the great race to the bottom. A contest where the one at the bottom of the league is the winner. The greatest gain comes to those who pay the least wages, plunder the most resources, vandalise the environment the most and generally bully governments into lowering barriers to profit such as employment rights, taxes, environmental controls and objective research.
Be forewarned indeed. Things will only get worse. Global warming is something to look forward to. Never ending war is another great achievement and who could forget the fact that while billions on this planet live on a dollar or less a day about 700 billionaires are benefiting society by living on a combined wealth of a mere £1.2trillion. Capitalism is a fine system indeed for that tiny minority.
If capitalism is the greatest reflection of what mankind is capable of then we are doomed to the evolutionary scrapheap. But I believe the next great leap forward in human history will indeed involve extinction. The extinction of capitalism. Then we can really see what we are capable off, free from the shackles of a catastrophe that some have the audacity to call a 'fine system'.