The socialist phenomenon

Título: The socialist phenomenon

Autor: I. R. Shafarevich

Sinopse: King Solomon would've agreed with the author, a Soviet-era Russian mathematician, in his contention that the impulse to seek utopia is deeply rooted in the human psyche. Examining pre-Christian communal societies, both actual ones (Pythagorians) and fictional (Plato's "Republic"), he found commonalities with many of the major heresies of Christianity. Of the latter, Schafrevich divided those of ancient and medaeval origin from those occurring from the time of the Reformation onward. The earlier hereises, such as the Cathars, Paulicians, and Bogomils)generally had in common ascetism gnostic traits, and looked to the next world for their Paradise, regardless of their living arrangements here on Earth. The author plausibly argues for a continuous strand of existence for the core heretical doctrines, by making a case for the earliest groups having passed their beliefs on to the latter ones. (The Bogomil-Albagensian connection is well established, in this regard.) Along with Plato, these groups advocated the communality of women as the major departure from their asceticism. (The family unit arguably is the basis of private property; groups having all in common, including wives and children, have no basis for the accumulation of inhereted wealth.) Later heresies tended to favor the bringing about of the Kingdom of God on Earth, now, by putting their beliefs into action. Noting the linkage between some modern Christian denominations and earlier medaeval heresies (groups sometimes mis-classified as "Protestant"), the author shows how the drive for Earthly Paradise gradually dispensed with God, until the movements became wholly socialist, as in Saint-Simonism. The author describes the workings of actual socialist states throughout history. The prime examples given are Pharonic Egypt and the Inca. Of the latter, Schafrevich notes how eerily it resembled Thomas More's "Utopia" in several aspects, even though More wrote a generation before Pizarro. Of the Inca, the author says that they had the best examplye of an isolated, socialist state, and he notes that the social and intellectual life of the Inca resembled an anthill, not a Workers Paradise. Unlike some leading economists (von Mises), Schafrevich believes that socialism is workable, but that the result, if carried through to the fullest practical application, resembles the Incan anthill, where only one will matters, and human nature is so deformed that even a century later, Jesuits noted that the people posessed no independant will to action. (In this regard, he more nearly resembles Nobel Laureate Frederich von Hayek, who believed that socialism could practically exist, but that the result would be a grossly inefficient totalitarianism.) Schafrevich concludes that Socialism/Communism is perhaps the greatest heresy, an attempt to have Man become Creator of His own Paradise on Earth. The hollowing out of the faith of many Protestant and other non-orthodox faiths leaves behing people who believe in doing works to bring about the Great Society, but they do so without reference to God. These people became the Dzerhezinskis of the Communist movement. As a history of heretical theology, this book is outstanding. As a guide to the animating force that impels people to advance Socialism, in the face of overwhelming evidence that it is unworkable and contradictory, it is peerless. -Lloyd A. Conway

Contexto da obra

Quando a classificação é mais ampla, o contexto do livro costuma depender ainda mais de autoria, tema e edição. “The socialist phenomenon”, de I. R. Shafarevich, publicado pela editora Harper & Row, em 1980 e com 319 páginas, integra a categoria Livros Variados. Por isso, autoria, edição e tema acabam tendo ainda mais peso na forma de apresentar o livro.

Editora: Harper & Row

Páginas: 319

Ano: 1980

Edição:

Linguagem: pt_BR

ISBN: 0060140178

ISBN13: