Albert Einstein’s brain, Roland Barthes once wrote, “is a mythical object.” His genius is immortalized in the public imagination through a single, elegant equation: E = mc². His theories of relativity, his wild grey hair, and his outstretched tongue define his image. However, far less known are his blistering critique of capitalism and support for socialism. An analysis of his lesser-known writings reveals that Einstein was not just a first-rate physicist but also a deeply engaged political thinker.
Who Was Albert Einstein?
Born in Ulm, Germany, in 1879 to secular Ashkenazi Jewish parents, Albert Einstein spent much of his early life in Munich before moving to Switzerland, where he attended the prestigious Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich. He graduated in 1900 with a diploma in the teaching of physics and mathematics but struggled to find work, before eventually securing a job at the Swiss Patent Office.
It was during this period that Einstein developed some of his most groundbreaking scientific theories. His “miracle year” (1905) saw the publication of four major papers, including works on special relativity and the photoelectric effect – which later earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics.
His contributions revolutionized modern physics and culminated in his general theory of relativity (1915). In 1919, the Eddington experiment – a demonstration proving that gravity bends light – confirmed Einstein’s theory and catapulted him to global fame.
Einstein fled Nazi Germany in 1933 following Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and sought refuge in the United States. Settling in Princeton, New Jersey, he joined the Institute for Advanced Study, where he spent the rest of his life working on his Unified Field Theory – an ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to explain the fundamental forces of nature. He became deeply engaged in political activism and philosophy until he died in 1955 at the age of 76.
Why Socialism? (1949)
In May 1949, against the backdrop of the early Cold War, Einstein published an essay titled Why Socialism? In the socialist magazine, Monthly Review. In this short, but powerful piece, he critiqued the “evils” of capitalism yet distanced himself from Soviet-style communism. Instead, he argued in favor of a rationally planned socialist economy as the ultimate cure to the world’s ills.
Einstein saw capitalism as a predatory system that by design created extreme inequality and left the vast majority in a state of economic insecurity. He was convinced that the way to eliminate injustice was through “the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.”
Although a professional scientist he was no technocrat. Einstein rejected the idea that science could alone guide human progress. He argued that while science could provide the means for achieving social goals, it could not define the ends of a just society. In his view, only a planned socialist economy and a strong democracy could guarantee individual freedom and human flourishing.
For Einstein, socialism was not merely about economic efficiency, it was a moral imperative, with a “real purpose” – to overcome the destructive, predatory, and exploitative nature of capitalism.
Einstein on Capitalism
Einstein’s critique of capitalism was both ethical and theoretical. He believed that capitalism was an inherently unjust system that allowed a small elite to accumulate vast wealth while the majority languished in poverty. In Why Socialism? (1949) he outlined three central themes of concern.
First, he argued that capitalism’s tendency towards monopoly lent a disproportionately small group of capitalists control over politics and the press, making it extremely difficult for ordinary working people to exercise any real political power. The result, he claimed, was an “oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society.”
Second, capitalism, according to Einstein, was inherently unstable. Its competitive, profit-driven nature led to cycles of boom and bust, crisis, chaos, and collapse. “The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today”, as he saw it, was “the real source of evil” driving inequality and social instability.
Finally, set out his concern that the “crippling of the individual” was “the worst evil of capitalism.” capitalism, in his account, reduced individuals to mere “cogs in the machine,” forced to undertake exploitative, meaningless, monotonous work. In this sense, stifled creativity and the eradication of personal fulfilment for the masses was one of capitalism’s most profound moral failures.
Einstein as a Political Thinker
While Einstein is best known as the most prominent celebrity scientist in history, he was also one of the 20th century’s most outspoken activists. Why Socialism? was not a one-off. Einstein was not afraid to voice sometimes unpopular opinions.
In 1953, at the height of McCarthyism, he defended the intellectual freedom of American communists and condemned the House Un-American Activities Committee in an open letter to the New York Times (Wulsin, 2010).
Einstein supported the cause of a Jewish homeland in Palestine but advocated a just peace – much to the frustration of certain sections of the Zionist movement. He believed that Palestine should become a bi-national, undivided, state where Jews and Palestinians would “live as equals, free, in peace” (Rowe & Schulmann, 2007).
He played a role in alerting the US government to the threat of Nazi development of an atomic bomb – helping kick-start the Manhattan Project – but later regretted it and became a fierce critic of nuclear weapons.
Throughout his life, Albert Einstein remained committed to strong ideals of social justice, democracy, and basic human dignity. Whether protecting political dissidents, advocating for the rights of working people, or speaking out against racism and war, his legacy as an independent political thinker is as profound as his contributions to science.
