I recently began re-reading Oscar Wilde’s, “The Portrait of Dorian Gray.” It was prompted by two things actually: one, a friend recommended I see the latest cinematic adaptation of it (“Dorian Gray”), which I didn’t know existed and two, I came across a copy of Wilde’s essay “The Soul of Man Under Socialism.” “The Soul of Man...” reminded me of Wilde’s hatred of Socialism and the masterful way that he weaved his political views so seamlessly into his work; granted, “The Soul of Man Under Socialism” wasn’t exactly subtle.
“The Portrait of Dorian Gray” tells the story of a man who inhabits a stately London home while enjoying the extravagance common to those of his class. A friend paints his portrait and before long, Dorian Gray develops a deep hatred of the piece. That portrait will forever be the image of the beauty that he will surely lose as the years progress. Consumed with maintaining his youthful beauty Dorian delves into the dark arts and falls every more into depravity. Dorian has found a way to remain young and beautiful forever but the portrait begins to show his true soul and with each act of debauchery the picture grows more hideous. I wont give away the ending here since I would hope that you would either read the book or see the film. But in re-reading it, I suppose it was inevitable that a political connoisseur like me would see something deeper in a story that is essentially more to do with vanity and narcissism.
In brief, this story is a perfect allegory of modern socio-economic conditions. Consider the US where Socialists now control or dominate every area of society: labour, academia, journalism, religion, entertainment, government and the judiciary. Nearly 200 years ago, when the proponents of these ideas first began their crusade to reshape man and the world he inhabits they did so openly and honestly. Their romantic utopianism was a beautiful thing. But as time passed, they could not hide the hideous nature of their beliefs. Despite its desire to present itself as a purely altruistic endeavour on behalf of mankind, Socialism produced nothing but economic calamity, social decay, national and ethnic hostility, mass murder, internecine conflict, serfdom and one dictator after another (to name a few). By the mid 20th century, it was more important than ever to banish that image to the attic. The French Revolution and the flurry of bloody revolutions it spawned throughout Europe have been stripped of all traces of Socialism, Stalin and Lenin are forgotten, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge erased from history, Hitler posthumously relegated to the “political right” and every radical Socialist movement of the Islamic world is treated as nothing more than religious fanaticism. The errors of Socialism mount year after year and the degrees to which the adherents will go to hide those errors seem limitless.
But try as they may, the portrait still shows the hideousness of the idea and those fortunate enough to see it recoil in horror. They have thus far succeeded in hiding it from the world and themselves, but it remains there; a constant reminder of who and what Socialism truly is. Like Dorian Gray, I know that they occasionally gaze at that portrait in anguish knowing that the utopia that others see is only a masque to hide their true identity.
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