Capitalism or Socialism?

[Azamat]

This issue has long been on my mind and it is highly beneficial for us to contemplate and discuss this matter instead of just taking reality for what it is and remaining apathetic towards this as it is very relevant to our cause and our future.

In my opinion, capitalism is one of the most toxic pills Kurds are yet to swallow unless we resist against for what would by many be seen as a temptation, albeit superficially. I consider a refined socialist economy to be our most sensible choice and I will now present the grounds for this view. I will start with the fundamental factors that define the inferiority of capitalism and the superiority of socialism which apply universally as they are purely theoretical and under no circumstances can be changed.

System of control

First off, the defining line between socialism and capitalism in any of its variant is the system of control. In capitalism, we can speak of a dynamic system of control whereas in socialism we can speak of a coordinated system of control. The main feature of the dynamic(capitalist) system is, ironically, its lack of control. It functions on the principle that people adapt to each other's decisions in appropriate ways, ensuring that they survive which enables us all to utilize the system from an individualist perspective. It is highly flexible and able to adapt to changes in the environment it is being accomodated by which ensures economic stability. A complex system of price signals and social connections is the instrument by which this is made possible.

The fundamental setback of this system is that its structure of countless tiny components with conflicting behavior automically enforcing and realizing flexibility renders it unable to be employed to serve collective benefit. Capitalists dismiss the notion of common benefit and interest while the most succesful and healthy societies in history have always displayed a high level of such elements. The unhealthy societies however, are characterized by conflicting economic and social processes, high levels of waste, inefficiency and an overal lack of coherency in the socio-economic activities. This is the result of everyone functioning from an individualist perspective without consideration of what effect his/her activities have on the collective and the environment. This is the model of Western, capitalist society.

The coordinated system of control(socialism) however, works quite differently and the accomodating society is very distinct from what is described above. Here, we cannot speak of activities and decision-making on an individual level laying the foundation for a functioning economy. Instead, we have central command units consisting of public panels, economic planners, computers, etc. coordinating the socio-economic activities and processes. This has many benefits which make it highly superior to the dynamic system of control. The dividing line between this system and the other is its decision making variants. In the dynamic system of control, everyone is meant to adapt to each others' activities/actions and the decisions involved here are of thus the reactive variant. When one looks at the functioning of such as system he will see a lot of conflicting activities and incoherency. In the coordinated system of control, decisions are made based on extracted information on the abstract views of the public(rather than their concrete behavior, another characteristic for capitalism and democracy which is inferior to decision making based on abstract concepts), material and technical data on matters such as resources, (the capacity of) utilized machinery, transport, etcetera. Decisions based on information belong to the proactive variant. It is fundamentally more efficient, it eliminates waste, and it especially is able to serve common benefit. The central control units oversee all elements involved in the operation and on these bases control it, whereas the dynamic system essentially operates blindly.

The abolition of money

The second fundamental setback of capitalism is its inability to operate within a state of material abundance. The advancements in the field of technology have made us able to produce goods and services to an abundant degree, that is to say, it is available to anyone in any degree required to satisfy their basic needs. In such a situation, the need to assign value to these goods and services dissapears and only the need for control of production, allocation and transport remains since it is not scarce and nobody needs to compete over it anymore. However, our use of money still assigns value to these products while in a state of ability to abundance. We call this artificial scarcity. The technology used to produce goods and services is not employed at maximum capacity whereas if we would abolish assigning value and the use of money, this would not be the case. Socialist economy does exactly that. The substitute to money would be an energy accounting system that grants credits to citizens which are deleted upon usage and unlike money, does not circulate(eliminating the possibility for accumulation which, if on a large scale, would result in the restoration of value). The information about purchases is sent to the central command units which forms a facet of the decision making process. The result will be a highly efficient economy, unprecedented in modern times, in which nobody lacks in food or any other basic needs. It would also eliminate the primary aim of profitibalitity inherent to capitalism and the price system which interferes with the aim of servicing the public resulting in disregard to quality(a phenomenon most evidently seen in the privatization of public services, such as public transport, healthcare, tele-communication, etc).

Economical, political and cultural domination by imperialist marauders

I would now like to move from the theoretical to the more concrete aspects of the vision that capitalism is inferior to socialism which apply to the Kurdish question exclusively.

It is widely known that embracing capitalism while in a state of weak economical and political power and experience while possessing large amounts of natural riches inevitably attracts the interest of foreign investors. The nation of Kurdistan is no exception to this rule. Under a cloak of deceit, distracting you with visions of wealth and prosperity, these foreign marauders will abuse your lack of power and experience by gaining a foothold in the economical affairs of your country and gradually appropriating it in its entireity. They will essentially integrate your country into their space of control, effectively taking away your ability to run your state independently and to make decisions without external approval. A weak and inexperienced state embracing capitalism will after this development find itself at the mercy of foreign powers who seek nothing but satisfying their own self-interest, expanding their might and proactively making sure that the world around them remains backward and primitive. The economic appropriation of developing states is a most effective method to achieve the latter, as economy is not only linked to politics(as I described above) but also culture. After they have economically(and automatically politically) established themselves in your country, they will use it to channel culture into your lives which is designed with the purpose of creating a degenerative efffect so as to dismantle the distinct cultural substance of a country which is the main drive behind a nation running independently.

It is thus highly recommendable that we reject capitalism while embracing socialism which, with its disassociative effect in the modern world, automatically evades the possibility of foreign domination.

Incompatibility of capitalism with Kurdish culture and values

In the cultural framework Kurdish people have historically lived, we can observe microscopic strains of inherent affinity to socialism. Such as the way Kurdish people organize their settlements in mountainous areas, which in essence are communes in which resources are shared collectively and money hardly circulates. Or our collectivist value of placing the interests of your group above the interests of yourself. There are countless other cultural elements inherent to Kurds that prepare for the adoption of socialism and straightly conflict with capitalism. The capitalistic mindset is alien to Kurdish people and when enforced on us, the results will be most unfortunate as it is not in our nature to work with it.

Conclusion

It is in our interest to reject capitalism in all its variants and adopt a socialist system instead. We will perfect what was previously tried. Socialism will be the guide that is bound to ascend us into a state of glory while we watch the rest of the world(and the West in particular) remain in the pit of human savagery and decadence that is capitalism.

[kurd-sthanam]

destê te sax be. te rind nivîsîye