Shelley that patron saint of the left who saw one evil - the deficit,

Was the English Romantic poet, Percy Shelley, a socialist?

This question may sound odd, since according to the

Oxford English Dictionary the word socialist was not even

coined until 1833, that is, 11 years after Shelley died.

despite the fact that Shelley could not have been aware of what

we normally think of as socialist ideas, later socialists have

claimed him for their lineage. Marx himself admired Shelley, and

British socialists of the late nineteenth century looked back upon

him as a kind of patron saint of their movement.

Yet, what was the the nature of this oppression which Shelley railed against? 


Does he complain about the emerging factory system and the new working conditions it imposed upon English labourers? No

 Does he indict pollution, cut throat competition, unemployment, dehumanizing

mechanization, or any of the other supposed effects of the Industrial Revolution normally cited as having ruined the lives of the

English working class in the early nineteenth century?  No

The answer to all these type of questions is a surprising “no,” surprising, that

is, if one accepts the standard view of what the Romantics

objected to in the Britain of their day.

Yet Shelley attacks one principal target in 'A Philosophical View of

Reform;: the national debt of Great Britain. He holds the newly created system of deficit financing largely responsible for the economic woes of the English people, So all you deficit deniers pray at some other altar.


Source: SHELLEY’S RADICALISM: THE POET AS ECONOMIST


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