Alan describes what politics and power involve, the forms of power and the internal contradictions of political power, and the implications of all this for political practice.

Alan explains why the profit-seeking incentive of businesses in a capitalist economic system is socially destructive. He discusses Marx's ideas about the exploitation of labor in his critique of classical economics, and then he makes the case that profits are mostly obtained by unequal bargaining power and the use of political power to back it up. He finishes by talking about the culture of a political movement, using Gandhi as an example.

Alan goes through the basic ideas of Karl Marx as presented in Engels' "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific." At the same time he critiques these ideas, pointing out their strong and weak areas.

Alan talks about his encounters with Marx's ideas over the decades, his  attitudes toward them, and some ways he would revise them going forward.

Alan gives simplified pictures of neo-liberal capitalism, progressive democratic socialism, state socialism, and market socialism, comparing who decides where resources will be invested for what purposes, who controls the work enterprise, and how basic necessities of life are distributed. He makes the case that a form of market socialism is better than the other two forms of socialism in solving problems of capitalism.

Alan reviews Bernie Sanders' new book, "Its Okay To Be Angry About Capitalism."

Final of three parts. Alan talks about how the study of Christian and  Eastern religious scriptures in 19th century Europe and America changed  views about religion. Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., were  influenced by these trends toward religious unity and social activism.  Alan then draws a few lessons for the future of socialism.

Alan discusses the development of socialism, focusing on ideas of  democracy, an intelligensia creating a science of social engineering,  and workers' resistance to early industrial capitalism. These all came  together in the clashing ideas of Karl Marx and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,  including their views of the value of religion. In closing Alan lists  some of the problems that socialism later encountered in the same areas  of democracy, science, and workers as the prime movers of socialism.

To address skepticism that a socialist vision is realistic, Alan delves into the the question of whether human beings are capable of living together cooperatively without the need of coercion from government. He ties modern insights into spirituality to the possibilities of developing capacities such as empathy and intuition, and discusses how this would require revision of Marxist ideas of the relation of economics to a cultural "superstructure" of ideas, ethics, religion and the like. He ends by contrasting the views of human nature and democracy held by American founders James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. In Part 2 he will trace these threads into the beginnings of the socialist movement and how the understanding of religion and spirituality has changed since the days of Marx.

Alan addresses three aspects of building a political party: beginning  it, creating a functional organizational core, and reaching a mass  public.