I Stand Corrected

Funny how you think you know what a word means, then you actually look it up, and you find that it doesn't mean exactly what you think it means. All the definitions of socialism that I found have to do with government ownership or control of the means of production and distribution. Our government certainly regulates the means of production and distribution, but that's not the same as owning or controlling it. The other government services I mentioned, like police protection and maintaining the system of roads and other transportation facilities are more properly called "ancillary to the means of production and distribution", which is also not the same thing. I don't think, however, that the "democratic socialist" governments of Northern Europe and Canada actually own and control the means of production in their countries either, yet people commonly refer to them as socialist. Interestingly, it says that Karl Marx described socialism as a transition stage between capitalism and communism. Maybe it loses something in the translation. Government collection and redistribution of money is also commonly called socialism, but I suppose that, technically, it should be called "social welfare". Maybe the other term I told you about, "collectivism", would be a more accurate description of what we have been discussing. In my dictionary, definition one is similar to the definitions of socialism in that it mentions the means of production, but definition two says: "emphasis on collective rather than individual action or identity".

Speaking of looking things up, this month's National Geographic has a short article about its own history. Specifically it's about the line of succession of its presidents, all of whom seem to be related to each other. The first one, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, helped found the Society in 1888. The second one was Alexander Graham Bell (yes, the one who invented the telephone), who apparently got the job by marrying Hubbard's daughter. It doesn't say when the Society started publishing the magazine, but it's third president, Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, was named editor in 1903. It doesn't say he was the first editor, but it doesn't say that he wasn't either. What it does say is that he married Alexander Graham Bell's daughter in 1900. Not coincidently, the title of the article is, "Why National Geographic is a Family Affair." As far as I know, their headquarters have always been in Washington, D.C. The only connection I can see to Britain is that Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish immigrant to Canada. He later relocated to Washington, but "kept lifelong ties to Nova Scotia". Did you know that Nova Scotia means "New Scotland"? I knew that.

So now I'm a monarchist? Where the hell did that come from?

Have a nice weekend anyway.