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Oscar Wilde was a major celebrity in the late Victorian era. He was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and short story writer. His works are known for their caustic wit. Wilde spent two years in a hard labor prison after being convicted of gross indecency. After Wilde read the works of Peter Kropotkin he became an anarchist philosopher. "The Soul of Man under Socialism" was an 1891 essay in which Wilde expounds a libertarian socialist worldview. According to Wikipedia, "In The Soul of Man, Wilde argues that, under capitalism, "the majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism-are forced, indeed, so to spoil them": instead of realizing their true talents, they waste their time solving the social problems caused by capitalism, without taking their common cause away. Thus, caring people "seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see" in poverty, "but their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it" because, "the proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible."
About the Author
Known for his barbed wit, Oscar Wilde was one of the most successful late - Victorian playwrights and a great celebrity. The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray are among his best known works. He is perhaps most famous for his trial, in which he eloquently defended homosexual love and was sentenced to two years of hard labor.
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First Sentence
The chief advantage that would result from the establishment of Socialism is, undoubtedly, the fact that Socialism would relieve us from that sordid necessity of living for others which, in the present condition of things, presses so hardly upon almost everybody. Read the first page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt
The chief advantage that would result from the establishment of Socialism is, undoubtedly, the fact that Socialism would relieve us from that sordid necessity of living for others which, in the present condition of things, presses so hardly upon almost everybody. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Forget all the things which are commonly labelled socialist for a moment and consider why or what its appeal could possibly be and you are unlikely to come up with anything much different from what Oscar Wilde does in this brilliant, over looked, small book.
Wilde waxes lyrical on what he believes could be the result of a permanent relief of poverty, similar to William Morris, here is an uplifting account of a world of improved social obligations. Reasoning that a world without the sorts of obligations compelled by sympathy for others in chronic states of want or poverty would be one where a more profound, convivial, civilised and altogether more honest individualism prevails.
Entirely removed from concrete proposals for policy, personal choices or practices this account has a certain sort of timelessness and doesnt appear arcane, antiquated or dated like a lot of socialist books. It certainly is the ideology at its most romantic, smiley and would appeal to any post-eighties reader who's a libertarian, or even libertine, at heart.
I would recommend this to all readers, politically interested and not so politically interested alike, to anyone more or less hostile towards much maligned and misunderstood (not least by its dearest supporters) socialism. It is a story of sorts and it has more literary than political merit, infact it is to contemporary politics what Jules Verne is to contemporary world travellers, cavers or submariners.
Wilde waxes lyrical on what he believes could be the result of a permanent relief of poverty, similar to William Morris, here is an uplifting account of a world of improved social obligations. Reasoning that a world without the sorts of obligations compelled by sympathy for others in chronic states of want or poverty would be one where a more profound, convivial, civilised and altogether more honest individualism prevails.
Entirely removed from concrete proposals for policy, personal choices or practices this account has a certain sort of timelessness and doesnt appear arcane, antiquated or dated like a lot of socialist books. It certainly is the ideology at its most romantic, smiley and would appeal to any post-eighties reader who's a libertarian, or even libertine, at heart.
I would recommend this to all readers, politically interested and not so politically interested alike, to anyone more or less hostile towards much maligned and misunderstood (not least by its dearest supporters) socialism. It is a story of sorts and it has more literary than political merit, infact it is to contemporary politics what Jules Verne is to contemporary world travellers, cavers or submariners.
13 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
"Socialism, communism, call it what you will" as Oscar Wilde puts it. It's very true the Socialist movement Wilde discussed in this essay is not the stereotypical view of current Socialism, certainly there are many parts of Communism held within these pages, namely that Government policy should run the economy of the country but then slipping in to Socialist idealism when saying that man should be freed fon the drudgery of manual labour and have machines do the work for them.
Yet in the same essay Wilde despairs at the fact machines have replaced mans' right to paid work, that a machine that replaces 500 men and gives the profit to one should either be destroyed or the profits divied equally between the displaced workers as they idle away at home I assume.
I love the Philosophy of individualism, the expectancy that all men should write poetry, sing songs and enjoy life to nthe fullest, while besmirching the demeaning capitalistic structure of hard manual labour which is a torture mankind should never have to endure. I love it as I have chosen a career path that allows me to express my art, to be completely unselfish in a way that seems selfish to the uneducated masses.
However histroy has shown this all to be a pipe dream, socialism, communism, utopia's do not work in the real world. For all I love this essay and so wish it could be the way of Wilde's idealistic thoughts, it can not be so. We cannot replace drudgery with machines to allow everyone to live their art as instead they would just wallow, unemployed, fixated on the next meal and roof over the head. Crime would not dissolve if owning property were a crime, it would lead to anarchy and even greater crime as people revolted against their freewill to own property.
Wilde simply does not understand that given the choice the masses revert to base instinct by stint of lethargy, not everyone seeks higer pursuits, many, the proletariat are quite happy being led, being stuck in a routine of manual labour to receive a pay packet and disengaging brains at the end of the day. Utopias are great in theory, but impractical and obsolete in reality.
An interesting and worthwhile read nonetheless as to the high ideals of man as long as read with a pinch of salt.
Yet in the same essay Wilde despairs at the fact machines have replaced mans' right to paid work, that a machine that replaces 500 men and gives the profit to one should either be destroyed or the profits divied equally between the displaced workers as they idle away at home I assume.
I love the Philosophy of individualism, the expectancy that all men should write poetry, sing songs and enjoy life to nthe fullest, while besmirching the demeaning capitalistic structure of hard manual labour which is a torture mankind should never have to endure. I love it as I have chosen a career path that allows me to express my art, to be completely unselfish in a way that seems selfish to the uneducated masses.
However histroy has shown this all to be a pipe dream, socialism, communism, utopia's do not work in the real world. For all I love this essay and so wish it could be the way of Wilde's idealistic thoughts, it can not be so. We cannot replace drudgery with machines to allow everyone to live their art as instead they would just wallow, unemployed, fixated on the next meal and roof over the head. Crime would not dissolve if owning property were a crime, it would lead to anarchy and even greater crime as people revolted against their freewill to own property.
Wilde simply does not understand that given the choice the masses revert to base instinct by stint of lethargy, not everyone seeks higer pursuits, many, the proletariat are quite happy being led, being stuck in a routine of manual labour to receive a pay packet and disengaging brains at the end of the day. Utopias are great in theory, but impractical and obsolete in reality.
An interesting and worthwhile read nonetheless as to the high ideals of man as long as read with a pinch of salt.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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8 reviews
16 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Different
8 Dec 2009
Format:Paperback
The average work about socialism talks about such dry topics as economics and politics. This essay doesn't do any of that. It goes into art, and even pseudo-psychology (one could say). It covers a broad variety of topics in a short amount of pages. I agree with almost everything said in this book. It's definitely worth reading and will really make you think.
Oscar Wilde: Theory on a Holiday
29 May 2012
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Oscar Wilde's The Soul of Man under Socialism depicts the tangential and unintended callousness of socialistic thinking when it is merely theoretical and future-based and is not also activist, revolutionary and focused on the present.
Wilde understands perfectly well that one of the principal goals of socialism is the elimination of poverty: "The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible." That might be the aim, but what should be done in the meantime to alleviate the suffering of the poor? In a word, the answer for Wilde is "nothing." He argues that charitable attempts to help the poor both fail to help the poor but also "prolong" the disease that cause poverty. The disease, of course, is the system of capitalistic exploitation. It is wrongheaded, Wilde argues, to use the fruits of capitalism to redress the consequences of its rampages: "It is immoral to use private property in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of private property. It is both immoral and unfair." While Wilde is confident that the ravages of poverty will cease in a future socialistic society, he opposes all palliatives for the poor and oppressed in the meantime. That is one of the consequences of confining socialistic thought to merely theoretical and future-based considerations and failing to also make it activist, revolutionary and focused on the present.
Wilde's socialism of "voluntary association" of the future is individualistic (individuals should be free to choose their own work), anti-authoritarian, and government-less (largely anarchical). In fact, Wilde sees authoritarian socialism as constituting a worse state of affairs than capitalistic exploitation: "If the Socialism is Authoritarian; if there are Governments armed with economic power as they are now with political power; if, in a word, we are to have Industrial Tyrannies, then the last state of man will be worse than the first."
Wilde extols the prospects of an anti-authoritarian socialistic society because of its potential to actualize individuality. But Wilde's individualism has a kind of hierarchy about it--one, it is impossible to fail to notice, that leaves persons like himself at the top: "These are the poets, the philosophers, the men of science, the men of culture--in a word, the real men, the men who have realised themselves, and in whom all Humanity gains a partial realisation." Apparently, those given to other vocations are not quite as "real" and can only partially realize these Olympian heights.
Soon Wilde's discussion of individualism acts as an unstable catalyst, causing him to veer into a wide variety of topics often inexplicably. But the topics that preoccupy him for most of the work are aesthetic and literary concerns, especially as they relate to the relationship between individualism and artistic expression. While this discussion has some merit and interest, it is difficult to imagine why these peevish considerations require the lengthy treatment they receive in a work entitled "The Soul of Man under Socialism."
My reservations about Wilde's work notwithstanding, I do think this is a relatively important work to read. While the work as a whole lacks a coherence that could have made it more effective, many individual passages are keenly insightful and highly quotable.
Wilde understands perfectly well that one of the principal goals of socialism is the elimination of poverty: "The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible." That might be the aim, but what should be done in the meantime to alleviate the suffering of the poor? In a word, the answer for Wilde is "nothing." He argues that charitable attempts to help the poor both fail to help the poor but also "prolong" the disease that cause poverty. The disease, of course, is the system of capitalistic exploitation. It is wrongheaded, Wilde argues, to use the fruits of capitalism to redress the consequences of its rampages: "It is immoral to use private property in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of private property. It is both immoral and unfair." While Wilde is confident that the ravages of poverty will cease in a future socialistic society, he opposes all palliatives for the poor and oppressed in the meantime. That is one of the consequences of confining socialistic thought to merely theoretical and future-based considerations and failing to also make it activist, revolutionary and focused on the present.
Wilde's socialism of "voluntary association" of the future is individualistic (individuals should be free to choose their own work), anti-authoritarian, and government-less (largely anarchical). In fact, Wilde sees authoritarian socialism as constituting a worse state of affairs than capitalistic exploitation: "If the Socialism is Authoritarian; if there are Governments armed with economic power as they are now with political power; if, in a word, we are to have Industrial Tyrannies, then the last state of man will be worse than the first."
Wilde extols the prospects of an anti-authoritarian socialistic society because of its potential to actualize individuality. But Wilde's individualism has a kind of hierarchy about it--one, it is impossible to fail to notice, that leaves persons like himself at the top: "These are the poets, the philosophers, the men of science, the men of culture--in a word, the real men, the men who have realised themselves, and in whom all Humanity gains a partial realisation." Apparently, those given to other vocations are not quite as "real" and can only partially realize these Olympian heights.
Soon Wilde's discussion of individualism acts as an unstable catalyst, causing him to veer into a wide variety of topics often inexplicably. But the topics that preoccupy him for most of the work are aesthetic and literary concerns, especially as they relate to the relationship between individualism and artistic expression. While this discussion has some merit and interest, it is difficult to imagine why these peevish considerations require the lengthy treatment they receive in a work entitled "The Soul of Man under Socialism."
My reservations about Wilde's work notwithstanding, I do think this is a relatively important work to read. While the work as a whole lacks a coherence that could have made it more effective, many individual passages are keenly insightful and highly quotable.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
of great historical value
20 April 2012
Format:Kindle Edition
Ill try and type on my puny K three keyboard so bear with me here. This witing is about an ideal very popular in his time. Socialism has been incorporated into the US and other free world governments everywhere. Like any great concept it had to be blended with its polar opposite capitalism. This was most evident in the sixties and Nixons HMO programs of the seventies. Hey it gave birth to a compromise that led to a golden age of todays unprecidented easy lifestyles. Any person would be insane to want to go back in time and live their hardships. Think about it.....
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