Communism, Socialism, and the Concept of Individual Liberty: Aesthetic Reflections on Freedom

The concept of individual liberty is not fully compatible with communism, a system often criticized for its regimentation and suppression of individual rights. This is especially evident in how communists view capitalist ideologies, which they often perceive as “greed,” and thus as a threat to their principles.

Individual Liberty and Anarchy

Individual liberty can be more compatible with anarchy, a stateless society where the absence of centralized authority is presupposed. Examples like pre-state Iceland, governed by a thing (a form of assembly), exhibit remarkable levels of individual freedom. However, stateless societies often struggle with the defense of liberty, relying on individual migration rather than collective power, making their freedoms unpredictable and fragile. Despite this, stateless societies provide impressive examples of liberty under internal cooperation and the absence of enemies.

Communism and Socialism: A Means to Ensure Individual Liberty

Communism and socialism, while often associated with collective welfare and social justice, can also uphold the concept of individual liberty. Communists aim to create a classless society where individual freedom is intertwined with the common good. They emphasize community ownership and management of resources to ensure equality and freedom from exploitation.

Socialists similarly believe in establishing social arrangements that allow individuals to flourish within a shared framework of responsibilities and resources. In this context, individual liberty doesn’t solely mean the absence of constraints but the empowerment to contribute to and benefit from a cooperative society.

Passage from Oscar Wilde: Aesthetic Reflections

Oscar Wilde’s thoughts on individualism and private property provide a fascinating lens to explore the relationship between these ideologies. In his The Soul of a Man Under Socialism, Wilde laments the toll that personal property and the pursuit of wealth take on individuals:

"Private property has crushed true individualism and set up an individualism that is false. It has debarred one part of the community from being individual by starving them. It has debarred the other part of the community from being individual by putting them on the wrong road and encumbering them. Indeed so completely has man’s personality been absorbed by his possessions that the English law has always treated offences against a man’s property with far more severity than offences against his person. Property is still the test of complete citizenship. The industry necessary for the making money is also very demoralising. In a community like ours where property confers immense distinction, social position, honour, and respect, man being naturally ambitious makes it his aim to accumulate this property, and goes on wearily and tediously accumulating it long after he has got far more than he wants or can use or enjoy or perhaps even know of. Man will kill himself by overwork in order to secure property and really considering the enormous advantages that property brings, one is hardly surprised. One’s regret is that society should be constructed on such a basis that man has been forced into a groove in which he cannot freely develop what is wonderful and fascinating and delightful in him – in which in fact he misses the true pleasure and joy of living. He is also under existing conditions very insecure. An enormously wealthy merchant may be – often is – at every moment of his life at the mercy of things that are not under his control. If the wind blows an extra point or so or the weather suddenly changes or some trivial thing happens his ship may go down, his speculations may go wrong and he finds himself a poor man with his social position quite gone. Now 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."

Wilde’s words resonate with the idea that true individualism is not about material possessions but about the inherent worth and potential of the individual. Under a system where private property is abolished, individuals can develop their unique qualities without the constraints of materialism and the insecurity that comes with a dependency on external wealth.

Conclusion

While communism and socialism may not fully align with the concept of individual liberty as traditionally understood, they do offer a vision where group objectives and collective welfare can coexist with individual freedom. Oscar Wilde’s reflections on individualism and property provide a poignant reminder that true liberty lies within the intrinsic value of the individual, rather than in possessions and external achievements. In pursuing a true and healthy individualism, the collective benefits society as a whole.