Soul of Man Book

This Oscar Wilde essay is one of the most prophetic and insightful works of 19th century political philosophy I have ever read. In this essay, Wilde talks about a world that we are only beginning to imagine now, over 100 years later. He saw the full potential of socialism and its possibility of freeing the human race once and for all. On the other hand, he warned us of authoritarian perversions of socialist thought that have become predominant in the 20th century, long after Wilde's death. He sees the individualistic nature of socialism, contrary to the collectivist and authoritarian one that prevailed. Wilde understands that socialism should be about eradicating poverty and lives accordingly. Terry Eagleton describes Wilde's political views:

"There is a sense, then, in which the true harbinger of communism is not the proletarian but the patrician, as Oscar Wilde, a man who believed devoutly in communism in between dinner parties, was ironically aware. What better image of the indolent future than the dandy and aristocrat? Wilde thus had a wonderful political rationalization for his extravagantly privileged existence: just lie around all day in loose crimson garments reading Plato and sipping brandy and be your own communist society. In what Marx calls pre-history, being idle means that you die; in post-history, it becomes the finest way to live."

The biggest economic fault of 20th century socialism was that, instead of making everyone equal, it made everyone equally poor. Wilde warned us about it, but no one listened. Wilde was an artist. In order to achieve freedom, you need to be an artist, not a politician. The revolutionaries of the 20th centuries were not artists. Rather, they sought to enslave the artists. That is why 20th century socialism failed and that is ultimately why capitalism will fail.

Wilde, as an artist in a capitalist society, sees how the needs of the public dictate the works of artists, therefore destroying art. He sees the democracy for what it really is: a dictatorship of the majority. He unmasks democracy as deeply egoistical and shows how people dictate the lives of others in such a system, claiming them to be worse dictators than Princes or Popes.

Wilde accuses the idea of charity for perpetuating poverty. This idea ultimately led to socialism as we know it: a system in which everyone is poor and afraid. As he was often accused of egoism because of his views, he replies: "A red rose is not selfish because it wants to be a red rose. It would be horribly selfish if it wanted all the other flowers in the garden to be both red and roses." Wilde does not want socialism in which the government tells you what to do. He sees that it is no different from capitalism in which society tells you what to do. His radical individualism does not hurt anyone. This precisely is what hurt people the most. Oscar Wilde was a free man, and in a society of slaves, that is the biggest sin of all.

When people see the likes of Oscar Wilde and Arthur Rimbaud as the real revolutionaries, rather than all the Lenins and Stalins of this world, people will finally be free. This essay is an excellent first step towards that realization.