My specific problem with this argument was the skewing of definitions, specifically the definition of capitalism. He maintained that most of the states involved in World War II supported capitalism, while I maintained that few if none supported capitalism. The obvious exclusion is the Soviet Union; however, I think he even agreed with this. Furthermore, he may see the Soviet Union as the victim since it did not participate in the war until Nazi Germany attacked it. However, this should not be construed to imply that my professor supports the Soviet Union. Undoubtedly, he finds its practices atrocious. He specifically brought up the fact that Stalin murdered 20 million of his own people.
With the Soviet Union out of the way, obviously Nazi Germany would be the next exception we could both agree upon. Unfortunately, this is not the case. He continued to maintain that Nazi Germany was capitalistic. In response, I pointed out that capitalism was based on voluntary exchanges between individuals; therefore, Nazi Germany, which used government force to maintain corporations could not be capitalistic. He then attempted to make a distinction between capitalisms, as if there are multiple categories. He said I was speaking about the idealist Adam Smith capitalism. I do not remember that much about Adam Smith from history school, I am sure my thought and his share some similarities; however, I understand the definition of capitalism as a wall between state and economy. I am not sure if Adam Smith understood this. In any regard, my professor then stated he was talking about real capitalism, which Nazi Germany is. In reality, he was still wrong. There is no separations between capitalism. There are degrees of capitalism; however, a state that is even just one degree below capitalism is not capitalistic. There is either the free voluntary exchange of materials amongst individuals, or there is not for there may be just one exception. Nazi Germany was rife with exceptions. The United States was also rife with exceptions because of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. I am sure Britain was similar. Italy also had a mix between socialism and capitalism; thus, making it not capitalism. Japan probably also had some exceptions. Of course, I only read small sections of the wikipedia articles for Japan, Germany, and Italy, so I could be wrong about some of them if not all. However, I am pretty sure I am right that World War II was not a war between capitalists.
In any event, I was addressing the problem with definitions. The problem with my argument with my professor was that we had completely different definitions of capitalism. I have no idea what he was defining, but it certainly was not capitalism. Unfortunately, he did not realize that what he was explaining was not capitalism. Of course, he did not make a mistake. It was not as if he thought one was supposed to take a left to get to the grocery store, when the grocery store was really on the right. The problem was that he really truly believed capitalism was something else. I am not sure how he defines it, but from what I gather he believes that capitalism is solely based on profit earnings. Therefore, if one gathers more profits with fascism and practices that, then that is capitalism. However, that is not capitalism at all. Capitalism has a completely different definition my professor apparently does not understand. Unfortunately, my professor will continue to stand by this false definition even if I provide him with the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition:
An economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market
Individuals must understand that words have exact definitions. There are, of course, several definitions to multiple words depending on how the word is used in a particular context. However, the word dog can not refer to an animal that is a cat. The word capitalism can not refer to an economic system that has socialist elements. If any word could identify any person, place, thing, action, description, concept, etc. then words would have no meaning at all. Additionally, individuals must also admit to the possibility that they can be wrong. They must also demand conclusive evidence proving their falsehood in order to realize it. Granted, I did not provide conclusive evidence. I did not show my professor this definition. However, from his stand point, he can never be wrong because capitalism is always what is in his mind despite what dictionaries say. This was evidently conveyed when he stated that I was talking about idealist Adam Smith capitalism. The objective in saying this was to maintain that he was correct, not to understand the truth. He maintains correctness on the definition of capitalism because he talks about real capitalism not fake idealist Adam Smith capitalism. I always admit I could be wrong. For example, I stated earlier that I could probably be wrong about how capitalistic each state during World War II was. However, if someone is going to prove me wrong, they must supply conclusive evidence. Obviously, that would not require too much since I only briefly read the wikipedia pages. However, I am sufficiently sure I am correct about the definition of capitalism, since I just retrieved it from a dictionary and it pretty much said what I had argued.
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