Eugene Debs - "I am my Brother's Keeper."
Eugene Victor Debs was a shopkeeper's son from Terre Haute, Indiana. He would become one of America's most revered labor leaders through his leading role in the Pullman Strike of 1894; he is considered one of the nation's great orators, and was a founder of the Socialist Party. Nominated for President five times, Debs received nearly a million
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Yes, I am my brother's keeper. I am under a moral obligation to him...
Well put, and I might agree. However, it seems like Socialism, when adopted by a government, tries to take this moral obligation and turn it into a legal one. When everyone is required to help their brother, the act loses much of its nobility, and I think we're all lessened as a result.
Had I been born in his environment, had I been subjected to the same things to which he was, I would have been where he is.
This seems deliberately naive; is he asserting that genetic variation makes no difference at all in an individual's capability? While it might be a Utopian ideal to imagine that everyone has equal capabilities at birth, this seems about as credible as the religious right's assertion that teens only have premarital sex because of society's corrupting influence. Some people are genetically lucky. It's not fair, but pretending its otherwise is sticking one's head in the sand.
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