Socialism: a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies.
That is how Merriam-Webster defines this evil word. Socialism also happens to be the most looked-up word on the dictionary website in 2015. Thanks to the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, there was a 169 percent search increase of the word, which meant its in the top one percent of look ups.
The website explained that since Sanders has incorporated the word into his “Democratic Socialism” brand it has veered away from its “Cold War connotations.”
“Socialism has been near the top of our online dictionary look-up list for several years,” said editor-at-large Peter Sokolowsk. “However, this year look-ups for socialism moved up even further, beginning with the July campaign events for Bernie Sanders, remaining high throughout the following months and spiking again after the first Democratic debate in October.”
Other “ism” words have also sparked an interest. Words such as racism, feminism, capitalism, fascism and communism have generated millions of look ups over the past year.
The Margaret Thatcher quote that the dictionary web portal has in relation to socialism is quite right: “It was that socialism itself—in all its incarnations, wherever and however it was applied—was morally corrupting.”
Unfortunately, libertarianism hasn’t made the list, and it likely peaked in 2012 during the Ron Paul campaign for president.
What’s terrifying is the jubilation over socialism in the London Guardian comments section!
Here is what Friedrich Hayek says about socialism:
“I’ve always doubted that the socialists had a leg to stand on intellectually. They have improved their argument somehow, but once you begin to understand that prices are an instrument of communication and guidance which embody more information than we directly have, the whole idea that you can bring about the same order based on the division of labor by simple direction falls to the ground. Similarly, the idea [that] you can arrange for distributions of incomes which correspond to some conception of merit or need. If you need prices, including the prices of labor, to direct people to go where they are needed, you cannot have another distribution except the one from the market principle. I think that intellectually there is just nothing left of socialism.”
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