Or should that be statement of intent....We must never forget what we are about friends, comrades, citizens otherwise new horrors like Bolshevism, Maoism etc. will occur and our foes will have more propaganda to tap into and scare monger with.
I'd say we're about humanism, empathy and self-interest all in equal measure. At a time this may have informed liberalism in it's struggle against feudalism but since then the liberals have made their peace with the new Lords and Ladies of the Invisible Leviathan-Dictatorship, their principles compromised, humanism and empathy consigned to the trash can in favour of fanatical selfishness, ill gotten comforts and a new pernicious legitimist pseudo-philosophy and political bitterness. However from the failure of liberalism and the exposure of capitalism as a false utopia Socialism has arisen.
The problem is that time and again Socialism has repeated the sins of liberalism, compromising principle, confusing principle, losing principle. At some stage the socialist movement has decided, the state is more important than humanism, the institutions are more important than humanism, the party is more important than humanism, el presidenti is more important than humanism or an equally great sin has been the tendency to say we've arrived, this is socialism, when all that's taken place is a change of leaders, institutes, parties or statesmen.
I'm not advocating a suicidal wrecker approach that mocks every gain as a compromise, although this is distinctly lacking anyway, but just that we never again become advocates of 'actual existing socialism' that is an insult to every principle that informs socialism or defenders of 'workers states' that kill, imprison and torture workers. It is our place to defend socialism/communism not the state, party, politicians, statesmen or institutions no matter how successful we consider the state, party, politicians, statesmen or institutions they are never synominous with socialism/communism
