Thank you for that excellent essay. I would like to add two things.

One is that the real-world experience of the Soviet Union and other so-called socialist/communist states can color attitudes of people towards socialism, not mere “myth.” That does have to be addressed.

The other point I would add is that the radical individualism of anti-socialists really is the most complete nonsense possible. It follows from the utterly absurd notion that in forming societies human beings ‘surrendered’ the liberty people could enjoy in the absence of society, living as independent, self-sufficient individuals. Though the proponents of that fantasy can’t bring themselves to say it outright, they dearly want people to believe that at some point in human history such a ‘state of nature’ actually did exist.

Most emphatically, there has never been such a state of human existence. Humans are by nature social beings. We have always lived together in groups we call societies. The societies in which people have lived have been smaller or larger, simpler or more complex, more or less technologically advanced, more homogeneous or more diverse, but interdependently co-existing in societies together is how human beings have always lived.