Annual Cheer or Blueprint For Future?

Today is Christmas Eve. Traditionally, in the West at least, a time of high expectation for the coming feast, the annual orgy of gluttony and commercial greed. Every year, many commentators in the capitalist press bemoan that the religious significance is being lost (not mention that it is through the system of their making mind you), and that what the Bible and Jesus had to show us about humanity is being forgotten.

Perhaps they have a point, albeit from a different angle. As socialists, we reject the enforced morality of religion and do not accept the unscientific belief in a greater being etc. However, on some aspects of thought we can agree - in that mankind has the potential to be loving, caring and benevolent towards one another and to reject our differences and working together towards a common good, sharing the earth as a treasury for all.

However, unlike the religious and often saccharin Christmas message, we propose such a state of being for all time, not just merely for twenty-four hours once a year. Mankind has the capacity, the scientific knowledge, the intelligence and the machinery to provide food, shelter, warmth, clothing, medical care and all the necessities of life as well as the luxuries, to all the inhabitants of the planet every day of every year. We have the ability to do this as well as protect and look after our natural environment and repair the damages of previous generations. We can work together, live together and progress together, not just as individuals, or nations or classes but as one united, strong and capable human race. We can choose to live in peace and love and harmony and to build a better, more wonderful world than any Christmas sentiment can express, should we decide to.

The only stumbling block to a world of permanent Christmas spirit, a world where real peace and goodwill to all men is a normality rather than a tinsel-edged dream from card on the mantelpiece, is capitalism itself.

True Socialism would mean an end to hunger, poverty, war, disease, famine, hatred and the ills of the current world - a new beginning for mankind where the need for an annual festival to relieve the misery of existence for many would be a thing of the past.

SussexSocialist