Change: Old Socialist Seeks Europeanesque ‘Strikes And Riots’

IBD's Capital Hill ^ | 12/31/2010 | David Hogberg

[Slyscribe]

Ron Radosh notes that socialist Frances Fox Piven is back in the Nation magazine calling for a revival of the “Cloward-Piven Strategy.” For those unfamiliar with that strategy, Piven formulated it with her late husband, Richard Cloward, for an article in a 1966 issue of the Nation. According to DiscoverTheNetworks, the Cloward-Piven Strategy “seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.”

[proxy_user]

That sounds like a great way to get rid of the socialism Europe now has, but I don’t think it will bring about the results they are hoping for.

[PhilosopherStone1000]

LOVE LOVE LOVE the smackdown that a very young Thomas Sowell gives her. Priceless.

[Christian Engineer Mass]

“a revival of”???????

Anyone with a whit of sense knows that’s what they have been doing for many years.

[bigfootbob]

DITTO

[DTogo]

Yes, the Obamulan hordes should start rioting, looting, and thoroughly burning their own inner city neighborhoods to the ground. Then move on to the suburbs and fly-over country where they would be put down once and for all.

The charred ruins of the inner cities can then be left for nature to consume like the movie "I am Legend."

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

There’s a simple but huge logical fallacy that they are counting on.

That is, by overburdening a welfare system, it will bring down capitalism.

I don’t suppose at any point, a little voice chimed in and said, “But what if you overburden a welfare system, and it causes a collapse of the overburdened welfare system?”

In other words, what if their brilliant scheme to destroy capitalism ends up destroying socialism?

At this point, they would likely angrily argue that, “the impoverished masses will rise up!”

Sorry. Impoverished masses don’t rise up. Revolutions either come from the rich, who buy change, or from the middle class, who force change with their impressive clout. Revolutions do not come from poor people.

So not only does their scheme totally stick it to the poor who are dependent on some form of government aid, but it ends up by destroying the welfare state that socialists have tried so hard to create.

I guess Cloward-Piven may bring about what the CATO Institute talks about.

[rbg81]

In other words, what if their brilliant scheme to destroy capitalism ends up destroying socialism?

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I think what they're counting on is, at the height of the anarchy, some fringe faction will claim it can fix all the problems and give everyone everything they ever wanted. Will such claims be realisitic? Of course not, but it might get them voted in by a chronically dependent populace. Once in power, they will intially pretend to fulfill their promise by looting the Rich. Once that has been cannibalized, dissappointment and dissatifaction will return. But by that time it will be too late--they will have consolidated power. And they won't have to worry about renewed rioting. Why? Because the people rioting in the first place will have be on the side of the regime. Everyone else will meekly go along, thinking they have no choice.

That's the theory anyway.

[griswold3]

you can never ‘loot the rich’. They are not sheep waiting to be shorn.

[SaraJohnson]

Europe swings around from National socialism, which they call “right” or fascism to Global socialism, which they call left or communism.

They don’t have the third option that we have - re-establishing the constitutional republic and knocking the elitist ruler wannabes off their pedistals and taking their money and power away.

[NativeSon]

I've said that to family that still lives in Philly. When the situation gets bad enough that the leisure class gets cut off, then it will get interesting.

I have brand new AR-15...

[webstersII]

“I think what they’re counting on is, at the height of the anarchy, some fringe faction will claim it can fix all the problems and give everyone everything they ever wanted. Will such claims be realisitic?”

Yes, and that includes the middle class in their view. If it gets bad enough then the middle class will be hungry, too, and when someone says they will give them food then they will support that person, no matter how evil they are. (I think FDR’s ‘chicken in every pot’ was sort of like that.)

But, I agree, that’s not how the overthrow usually comes about.

[reg45]

LOVE LOVE LOVE the smackdown that a very young Thomas Sowell gives her. Priceless.

Do you have a link or reference for that.

[Vaduz]

Seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands.

It’s working so far send thank you cards to Obama&Co.