Einstein vs. Einstein
on socialism, capitalism, the individual and the State
(…he changed his mind sometimes)
The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor—not by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules.
~ Albert Einstein, Why Socialism? (1949)
vs.
It is no accident that Capitalism has brought with it progress, not merely in production but also in knowledge. Egoism and competition are, alas, stronger forces than ‘public spirit’ and ‘sense of duty.’ In Russia they say it is impossible to get a decent piece of bread. Perhaps I am over-pessimistic concerning State and other forms of communal enterprise, but I expect little good from them. Bureaucracy is the death of achievement.
~ Albert Einstein, The World As I See It: Culture and Prosperity (1954), p.88-89
An autocratic system of coercion, in my opinion, soon degenerates. Force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels. … The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the State but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; the individual alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.
~ Albert Einstein, The World As I See It: Culture and Prosperity (1954) p.13
Every individual should have the opportunity to develop the gifts which may be latent in him. Alone in that way can the individual obtain the satisfaction to which he is justly entitled; and alone in that way can the community achieve its richest flowering. For everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labour in freedom. Restriction is justified only in so far as it may be needed for the security of existence.
~ Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years (1950), p.19
People have this silly belief that just because someone is super brilliant in one given area of study that we shoul dheed their advice in all aspects of life. This is very, very much so false. I don’t think anyone will deny Einstein was a brilliant physicist, and a genius mathematician. But just because he was good at mathematics does not make him the all mighty source of knowledge regarding economics and politics.
Take, for example, the scientist who discovered DNA (his name escapes me at this moment). Yes, he was a brilliant scientist who made a ground breaking discover. However, he was also a hateful and bigoted racist who wanted to use DNA as evidence to support his claims that whites are genetically superior to other races, specifically Africans. Yes, he might be a great scientist. But that doesn’t mean you should value everything else he says.
You can apply this to anyone really. ESPECIALLY entertainers/actors/musicians.
Francis Crick and James Watson… Not that I’m a genetics nerd…. or anything…
