" The economic reasoning
which "proved" this "law" was expressed in obscure and technical
language peculiar to the propagandists of the movement, and every page
of Socialist writings was studded with the then strange words
"proletariat" and "bourgeoisie."
Lastly, the whole world, outside the socialist movement, was regarded as
in a conspiracy of repression. Liberals (all capitalists), Tories (all
landlords), the Churches (all hypocrites), the rich (all idlers), and
the organised workers (all sycophants) were treated as if they fully
understood and admitted the claims of the Socialists, and were
determined for their own selfish ends to reject them at all costs.
Although the Fabian propaganda had no doubt had some effect, especially
amongst the working-class Radicals of London, and although some of the
Socialist writers and speakers, such as William Morris, did not at all
times present to the public the picture of Socialism just outlined, it
will not be denied by anybody whose recollections reach back to this
period that Socialism up to 1890 was generally regarded as
insurrectionary, dogmatic, Utopian, and almost incomprehensible.
"Fabian Essays" presented the case for Socialism in plain language which
everybody could understand. It based Socialism, not on the speculations
of a German philosopher, but on the obvious evolution of society as we
see it around us.
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