“Why Socialism?”- An Essay By Albert Einstein

einsteinThe below is an excerpt from Albert Einstein’s essay Why Socialism? (from the Monthly Review). This essay was originally published in the first issue of Monthly Review, in May 1949. Today the magazine is the oldest and largest Marxist magazine in the US.

I have now reached the point where I may indicate briefly what to me constitutes the essence of the crisis of our time. It concerns the relationship of the individual to society. The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence.

Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate. All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.

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One Comment

  1. Wow. I just read the whole article online, and it’s potent material. Thank you for the link.

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