Is Socialism Irrelevant?
(First published in The Rising Nepal daily on September 21, 2021) Yuba Nath Lamsal Former American president and one of key actors in writing the US ‘Declaration of Independence”, Thomas Jefferson back in 1787 said: “Societies exist under three forms, sufficiently distinguishable- without governments, under governments and under governments of force”. Jefferson’s assertion was based on his observation of European society as he was serving as American ambassador in France. This speaks of the political and social conditions of different European nations and their behaviour. There were still some countries in Europe that had as Jefferson said ‘governments of wolves over sheep”. At times, other continents were much better and more prosperous than Europe. Asia (China and India combined) accounted for more than half of the global GDP until early 17th century. The industrial revolution that began in Europe made the situation ups and down from which Europe emerged as dominating w