PoliticalDefinitions

Quora Answer : Why does it seem like socialism is so poorly defined and few people can tell the definition?

Apr 13, 2018

If look carefully you'll find that's true of all political definitions.

The reason that political definitions are hard to pin down is because they are a matter of disagreement.

X likes "socialism", Y dislikes "socialism", both X and Y want Z to agree with, and join them. So both describe it differently. X accentuates the positives, Y accentuates the negatives.

It's not that one person is lying and the other is telling the truth. X and Y are like the blind men looking at an elephant. Each notices something different and fails to notice what the other sees.

But this is also true of conservatism, liberalism, fascism, anarchism, democracy etc. etc.