Albert Einstein was a....Marxist?!?

I was looking for a quote by Churchill about Socialism being for young ignorant people essentially, but I stumbled upon a quote by Einstein instead by accident, and this is something I have never heard of before. He wrote this in an article called "Why Socialism?"

"I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate (the) grave evils (of capitalism), namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow-men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society."

Albert Einstein, Why Socialism?, 1949 [39]

Wow, why have I never heard this before? I had no clue what Einstein thought about politics until now. I knew he was a deist, but I didnt know he was a open socialist. Here is some more great thoughts from a great man,

"Given Einstein's links to Germany and Zionism, his socialist ideals, and his links to Communist figures, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation kept a file on Einstein.[45] that grew to 1,427 pages.
Einstein considered Joseph McCarthy a danger to intellectual freedom."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_Albert_Einstein#Socialism

Now this is where it gets really good with his critique of Capitalism,
"According to Einstein, the profit motive of a capitalist society, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, leads to unnecessary cycles of booms and depressions, and ultimately encourages selfishness instead of cooperation.[3]
"In addition, the educational system of such a society would be severely undermined because people will educate themselves only to advance their careers. This results in the "crippling of individuals" and the erosion of human creativity.[3]"
This reminds me of something Karl Marx said on this subject, "The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and to write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money." - Karl Marx, that is essentially the same thing Einstein just said about education, I have a feeling Einstein was busy reading the Communist Manifesto instead of Mein Kampf lol.

"Unrestrained competition in a capitalist society leads to a huge waste of labor and causes economic anarchy, which Einstein denounces as the real source of capitalism's "evil":

The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil.[1]
Einstein predicted that under such a capitalist society, political parties and politicians would be corrupted by financial contributons made by owners of large capital amounts,[3] and the system "cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society".[1]"
He was spot on, the Capitalist Citizens United ruling has destroyed our democracy without a doubt, it is not even more so corrupted by financial contributions.

"The essay concludes with Einstein's analysis on how to solve these problems, namely through a non-bureaucratic planned economy:

"I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.[1]
Einstein asserts that a planned economy that adjusts to production would guarantee a livelihood to every member of society:"

"In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.[1]"
In his final words, Einstein cautioned that "a planned economy is not yet socialism", since it may also be accompanied by an "all-powerful" bureaucracy that leads to the "complete enslavement of the individual". It is critically important, therefore, to ensure that a system is in place to protect the rights of the individual.[3]"" As you can see, us socialists dont want Stalinists like Munter to screw everything up with a all powerful bureaucracy that enslaves the workers, Einstein warned of this even before Stalin did it.

"Regarding his motivation for publishing the article, Einstein believed Monthly Review would be a good forum for left wing ideas:

"Clarity about the aims and problems of socialism is of greatest significance in our age of transition. Since, under present circumstances, free and unhindered discussion of these problems has come under a powerful taboo, I consider the foundation of this magazine [Monthly Review] to be an important public service.[1]""


Well there you have it, by far one of the smartest men to ever live was a pretty hardcore Socialist. I think the right wing red scare propaganda is the reason most people dont ever hear about this, and just as Einstein thought, "Einstein considered Joseph McCarthy a danger to intellectual freedom." McCarthy was indeed a danger to intellectual freedom and him and Reagan are largely the reasons Socialism is not as strong as it once was in America, they threw "One nation under God" into our pledge along with much more propaganda to fight Socialism, along with ACTUALLY killing socialists in other countries who were not even armed or violent.

 

If this theory were true Einstein's leanings toward Spinoza style Pantheism would tend to make him unpopular with leading Marxists who were radically atheist.

 

This is evidence that people smart in one area are incredibly stupid in others.

 

I wouldnt be surprised. Just look at his race.

 

and a jewish culture upbringing put Einstein on the defensive path also then he drifted into
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Albert_Einstein

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism
a universal globalist commie view.

 

This reminds me of how a near death experiencer describes the world of two centuries or so in the future.

http://www.near-death.com/storm.html#a04

 

Well ill be honest, im glad you at least read the first sentence. Usually you dont even go that far.

 

Albert Einstein was indeed a Marxist.

With that being said, from reading his ideas on business cycles, he should have really stuck to physics.

 

Ding ding ding - we have a winner. Mods we can close the thread now. One of lifes little mysteries is now officially solved - well played sir wellllll played

 

Than tell Fox News to leave climate science to the Climate Scientists, how about that?

 

Fox news is great man. They are completely honest and trustworthy. Theu always abck up their claims with extensive research so are always right.

Pun intended.

 

Not exactly, I am a Marxist and I consider myself a bit of a pantheist. As long as you dont believe in religious Dogma Marxists tend to have no problem with religion. Our critique on religion comes from Islam Judaism, and Christianity but the eastern religions tend to be extremely peaceful and I havent seen any Communist condemning on Atheist grounds.

edit: Well to be more clear we dont have much problem with spirituality as long as you are not ridiculous with it, as far as im concerned religion is dogmatic by nature.

 

I am quite familiar with Einstein and his socialist pacifism. I am also quite familiar with your infatuation with Marxism.
Einstein was a government worker. He also needed a haircut.

 

I sure hope you're not posting this because you believe Einstein's knowledge about physics somehow makes him an authority on economics.

 

He is.

 

When Marxists stand up for climate hoaxes it is clear that the truth lies elsewhere.

Have you ever considered that it might just be the sun? How about that?

 

Thats funny I think the same thing about Fox, the things they attack I tend to defend, its actually how I became a Marxist in the first place.

Its a combination of a lot of things, but the simple fact is carbon dioxide traps heat, we are pumping massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the air and that is heating up the world there is no question, its just a matter of how much are we heating up the world and how can we reverse the process, the only answer is regulations because corporations refuse to regulate themselves and the notion that they ever would is a utterly false one.

 

If you were consistent with this argument you would tell Fox News and others like them to stop lying about climate change because they are not climate scientists, hell nobody would be able to have a valid opinion on anything that doesnt deal with their career if we used that logic which is pretty stupid. Ive always thought scientists and philosophers should run our government, not lawyers and lobbyists.

 

Ahh, so no need to read more than one sentence because you already know everything? Riiighht, gotcha.

 

It cannot be reversed by us. The climate's variations are not caused by us. The hoax is just one more part of our enslavement to ever larger, more intrusive government.

- - - Updated - - -

You are very shallow. Other than your one trick have you any others?

 

This is indeed encouraging!

Would you say that a communist might tend to be intrigued by the concept of universal salvation as elaborated on by near death experiencer Christian Andreason?

Do you think that a communist might tend to think that this concept of universal salvation would have an application in job creation, literacy, disease prevention, health care and distribution of wealth?


http://www.near-death.com/andreason.html#a04h

 

This may have seemed like a reasonable idea at the time (1949). However during the second half of last century we have witnessed the success of welfare capitalism and collapse of socialist economies, so it is no longer the case. Certain socialist elements in the economy are a good idea, tough.

 

If you expect this to contribute even a tiny amount to the argument for socialism then you're operating under an authority fallacy.

What bollocks! If anything McCarthy furthered the cause of the left by creating an obviously tyrannical figure the left could contrast themselves against.

As for Reagan, his legacy is (almost) entirely undeserved. Putting aside the rhetoric he was easily one of the Presidents most eager to increase spending. He just paid for it through borrowing and printing money rather than via direct taxation. Is he responsible for socialism having less appeal than the early 19th century would suggest? Perhaps in some small way - he did at least have a lot of pro-liberty rhetoric, even if he didn't deliver.

The two choices are not Reagan and socialism.

 

Einstein was not alone among Jews in that period.

We should remind that early Israel was quite a socialist country: we could name the "kibbutz" as the Israeli version of the "soviet", if we want to make a comparison. The kibbutz was conceptualized as a system to avoid the development of Western consumerism in Israel, so ...

 

Einstein got it right. What we are seeing now very much describes what he argues will happen.