Bhaskar Sunkara

Well, there's so many socialists out there and we can't seem to agree about anything.

So my definition, I'm sure, is really just my definition.

But I think at the minimum, socialism is about making sure that the core necessities of life, food, housing, education, and so on, are guaranteed to everyone just by virtue of being born so that those people can reach their potential.

And I think that's a minimum requirement of socialism.

Beyond that, I think socialism, especially democratic socialism, the type of socialism that I believe in, is about taking democracy from just the political democratic realm and extending it into economic and social spheres as well.

So if we think that democracy is a good thing, why do we allow our workplaces to be run in autocratic ways?

I think at the core, it's the idea that we have intrinsic value.

We are individuals that have unequal talents, of course.

We're individuals that want different things.

But this unique individualness can only truly come to light in a society in which there are certain collective or social guarantees.

So we could think, just like Stephen Jay Gould, the scientist and socialist, used to say about how many thousands of potential Einsteins or Leonardo da Vinci's that died in sweatshops and on plantations and never got the chance to cultivate what was unique and human about themselves and also never got a chance to have food

families and impart what was special and important to them to future generations and to posterity.

My own grandmother was born in Trinidad and Tobago.

She was illiterate.

Till her dying days in East Orange, New Jersey, she never had the chance to write down her memories of her life in Trinidad as a young woman and what it meant.

She, of course, had lots of children.

She was able to impart some stories to her children and grandchildren.

But I often think about what someone with her wit and intelligence could have done with a little bit more support.

I think you could do both.

There's always a balance between the two.