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    The Soul of Man under Socialism
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    The Soul of Man under Socialism
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    The Soul of Man under Socialism
    Ebook49 pages1 hour

    The Soul of Man under Socialism

    By Oscar Wilde

    4.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Oscar Wilde-witty raconteur, flamboyant hedonist, and self-destructive lover-is most familiar as the author of brilliant comedies, including The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband, and the decadent novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. This selection of critical writings reveals a different side of the great writer-the deep and serious reader of literature and philosophy, and the eloquent and original thinker about society and art. This illuminating collection includes "The Portrait of Mr. W. H.," "In Defense of Dorian Gray," reviews, and the writings from Intentions (1891), including "The Decay of Lying," "Pen, Pencil, Poison," and "The Critic as Artist."
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStart Publishing LLC
    Release dateAug 20, 2013
    ISBN9781627933506
    Unavailable
    The Soul of Man under Socialism
    Author

    Oscar Wilde

    OSCAR WILDE (Dublín, 1854–París, 1900), poeta y dramaturgo irlandés, es considerado uno de los más célebres escritores en lengua inglesa de todos los tiempos, tanto por su provocadora personalidad como por su obra. Escribió relatos y novelas, como El retrato de Dorian Gray, poemas como el desgarrador La balada de la cárcel de Reading, y fue enormemente popular en el Londres victoriano por su exitosa producción teatral, como La importancia de llamarse Ernesto, y por su ingenio mordaz y brillante conversación.

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    • 3/5
      In this essay Oscar Wilde offers his vision of a libertarian socialist society. He argues that socialism will lead to Individualism - through abolition of private property:"For the recognition of private property has really harmed Individualism, and obscured it, by confusing a man with what he possesses. It has led Individualism entirely astray. It has made gain not growth its aim. So that man thought that the important thing was to have, and did not know that the important thing is to be. (...)Nothing should be able to harm a man except himself. Nothing should be able to rob a man at all. What a man really has, is what is in him. What is outside of him should be a matter of no importance.With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy Individualism. Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things, and the symbols for things. One will live. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."Because "all modes of government are failures", Wilde's envisioned society will be an anarchist one, as there's no hope for Individualism under pressures of authority:"Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things. Oligarchies are unjust to the many, and ochlocracies are unjust to the few. High hopes were once formed of democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. It has been found out. I must say that it was high time, for all authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and degrades those over whom it is exercised. When it is violently, grossly, and cruelly used, it produces a good effect, by creating, or at any rate bringing out, the spirit of revolt and Individualism that is to kill it. When it is used with a certain amount of kindness, and accompanied by prizes and rewards, it is dreadfully demoralising. People, in that case, are less conscious of the horrible pressure that is being put on them, and so go through their lives in a sort of coarse comfort, like petted animals, without ever realising that they are probably thinking other people’s thoughts, living by other people’s standards, wearing practically what one may call other people’s second-hand clothes, and never being themselves for a single moment. ‘He who would be free,’ says a fine thinker, ‘must not conform.’ And authority, by bribing people to conform, produces a very gross kind of over-fed barbarism amongst us."Same goes for Art:"An individual who has to make things for the use of others, and with reference to their wants and their wishes, does not work with interest, and consequently cannot put into his work what is best in him. Upon the other hand, whenever a community or a powerful section of a community, or a government of any kind, attempts to dictate to the artist what he is to do, Art either entirely vanishes, or becomes stereotyped, or degenerates into a low and ignoble form of craft. A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament. Its beauty comes from the fact that the author is what he is. It has nothing to do with the fact that other people want what they want. Indeed, the moment that an artist takes notice of what other people want, and tries to supply the demand, he ceases to be an artist... Art is the most intense mode of Individualism that the world has known. I am inclined to say that it is the only real mode of Individualism that the world has known."Wilde is an artist, and when he writes about Individualism, he writes about the freedom of artistic expression. His "political theory" might be somewhat naive, but what he says about Art makes perfect sense."It is evident, then, that all authority in such things is bad. People sometimes inquire what form of government is most suitable for an artist to live under. To this question there is only one answer. The form of government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all."Then again "what is true about Art is true about Life."I happen to agree with most of what is said here, but can't overlook Wilde's struggle with his own elitism, all the patronizing and the way he defines what it means to be human. Anyway, I love Wilde and this was an interesting read.____________________________________"Is this Utopian? A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at."