I was planning to write a longer post today, but got sidetracked.
(Okay, honesty demands that I admit that this is just my way of saying that it was pouring cats and dogs today, and I wasn’t feeling too great because of this disgustingly phlegmy chest infection that I’ve got, for which I’m still taking antibiotics by the way, and decided instead to spend my evening binge-watching the living shit out of Archer: Dreamland. Which, by the way, is deliriously awesome.)
So here I will shamelessly ride on someone else’s coattails here and present you with our good buddy Razorfist’s take on Attempt #1,502,375,489 to make socialism work – this time, in Venezuela:
Nobody, but nobody, does colourful metaphors better than our friend Razor. And certainly nobody does a better job of making Angry Lysdexic Grandpa Bernie look more ridiculous.
I mean, seriously, Bernie Sanders looks like he was old back when Lenin started the Russian Revolution. And, be it noted, I’ve been to Russia. Four times, soon (I hope) to be five. I have a pretty good idea of what ordinary Russkies think of Communism. If you want a hint as to what that amounts to, take a look at my post some weeks back about how to swear fluently in Russian and other languages.
Socialism simply doesn’t work. Hell, I’m living in a country that tried to be a socialist democratic republic for a good 40 years after it won its independence from its EEEEEBILL OPPRESSIVE COLONIAL OVERLORDS!!!11!!
And guess what happened?
Yeah. Within those 40 years, this country systematically chased out most of its best and brightest talent, lost huge amounts of wealth as its richest people moved their money overseas, and kept hundreds of millions of its people stuck in grinding poverty. And, of course, at the end of that time period, the country’s economy was so thoroughly screwed over that it pretty much had to liberalise, or face going bankrupt.
Socialism is stupid no matter how it is tried. Doesn’t matter whether it’s the Russkies, the Krauts (yes, the Nazis were socialists, and yes, they were of the Left), the Cubans (what’s the acceptable derogatory term for them?), the Africans, the Chicoms, or the factory workers of the English Midlands, it JUST. DOESN’T. WORK.
Unfortunately, America is getting increasingly crazy, and its badly miseducated population of terminally stupid Shrillennials are rapidly reaching such a critical mass of economic ignorance and stupidity that they are willing to try it again.
That is, of course, part of Einstein’s famous (and quite apocryphal, as it happens) quote about doing the same thing over and over again: it is, quite simply, INSANE.
Actually, say what you will about Karl Marx – I fervently and sincerely hope that he is being spit-roasted over a very hot fire, alive, for all eternity in the very deepest and foulest part of Hell – but you cannot possibly deny one very positive aspect about him:
His ideas do a truly phenomenal job of killing Commies.
And that, I am sure, is something that all of us can get behind.
It’s nice to have unity and brotherhood during these troubled and fragmented times, n’est-ce pas?
2 Comments
The biggest problem with Socialism, and the reason it's so popular, is because, to be honest, it's just so ELEGANT, and it embraces the things that most people consider 'good'.
It is utterly wrong, as all simple and elegant solutions are always wrong, Most real problems are not gordian knots that you can simply cut to make everything all better. Complex problems take complex solutions, and complex solutions require WORK… Hard, constant, and unending work, to maintain.
So, looks like it embraces 'good', elegant, simple, beautiful, and utterly effortless. All it requires is to ignore a few teensy weensy little realities of human nature that are easy to forget when you are embracing 'progress'.
Scratch a socialist and you will find someone that wants to 'remake' humans into joyfully antlike slaves. Get rid of those pesky and inconvenient bits of human nature like self-determination, self-protection, desire, ambition, creativity, and will. Those things just cause pain, and we don't want pain, we want happiness.
Unless you are one of those 'elites' anyway. The best part of socialism is that ants don't rebel, don't try to think for themselves, and don't argue or complain when you want to have sex with them.
Make no mistake. The desire to be the top of the sexual heap, to have whomever wherever and whenever you want, is right at the core of all socialist movements. From Free love to feminism, from fat-shaming to struggle sessions, in the end, it is always about an elite puppet master that wants to at the very apex of the sexual food chain.
And too many fools just look at the elegant, effortless simplicity of his or her five year plan and think that if they go along they, too, will have unlimited access to prime sex, no material want, and never have to lift a finger again.
They honestly believe that EVERYONE can be Stalin.
The biggest problem with Socialism, and the reason it's so popular, is because, to be honest, it's just so ELEGANT, and it embraces the things that most people consider 'good'.
It appeals to the vanity of intellectuals, bureaucrats, and stupid people all at the same time.
Intellectuals find it a magnificent theory both because most socialists argue that it is necessary to put "a wise intellectual elite" in charge – Plato's philosopher-kings, basically.
Bureaucrats love it because it confers all power unto them.
And stupid people – note that intellectuals share significant overlap with this group – adore it because elevates and idolises their own selves.
Scratch a socialist and you will find someone that wants to 'remake' humans into joyfully antlike slaves
Correct. It's bad Rousseau all over again. And the intellectual rot goes back all the way to Plato. Really, the debates over socialism vs freedom always come down to Plato vs Aristotle.
As you say, socialism is all about throwing off the chains that bind Man – in theory – and setting him free to be his virtuous, joyful, natural self. But the reality always ends in disaster, because that is not Man's true nature. In reality Man is guided by both angels and daemons, can do both great good and terrible evil, and is flawed, Fallen, and broken.
A broken creature cannot be perfected, except through the direct touch of God, and socialists largely deny God anyway. Much less can any broken creature perfect itself. Letting broken creations attempt to perfect things is always going to result in disaster.