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History Repeats Itself in the Venezuela Tragedy
Townhall.com ^ | September 9, 2016 | Jerry Newcombe

Posted on 09/08/2016 9:28:38 AM PDT by Kaslin

How many people have to die before the world, including many Americans, realizes that socialism never works, always fails, and kills people?

Look at the unspeakable tragedies that continue to unfold in Venezuela right now. People are scrambling just to get food to eat. Armed guards have to protect stores and trucks with food from being looted. Stories are emerging of people eating zoo animals and of Venezuelans feeling less safe than war-torn Syrians.

The amazing thing about this tragedy is just how avoidable it is. But it’s almost as if each generation in the last 150 years has to keep repeating the same mistake in order to relearn the same lesson: Marxism always fails.

Karl Marx, who died in 1883, spooks us even to this day from his grave. A headline a few months ago by Yuan Yang in Financial Times (6/1/16) declared: “Chinese students ‘brainwashed by western theories,’ say scholars: Professors call for more Marxism in economics courses.”

So the Chinese authorities are calling for more Marxism, not less, despite the deaths of tens of millions of human beings killed there in the 20th century due to Communist policies?

Everywhere Marxism is tried, it is found wanting. Why? Because it goes against the laws of nature and of nature’s God, and it goes against the laws of human nature.

Yet Marxism flourishes to this day, especially in academia and among the down-and-outers who don’t realize they’ve been had.

I was talking with a friend recently, who is the minister of music at a local church. In the early 1980s, he lived in Venezuela, as a professional musician and music teacher. He said it was a vibrant country with a growing economy.

But after a few years, the left-wing politicians agitated to move it toward socialism. Then came Hugo Chavez, who pushed Venezuela even further leftward---into the Communist camp. Chavez had the gall to say that Jesus was not just a socialist, but that He was a Communist.

What do the Marxists have to show for it? They can’t feed the people, despite some of the riches natural resources in the world.

But here’s the tragic thing: We have millions of young people in this country who were holding on to virtually every word of former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. They were following the siren song of socialism. Sanders articulated well many of the angst people feel today because of the view that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

Nonetheless, the solutions that Bernie offered lead us down the well-trod path of socialism. It’s not deadly at first, but it gets deadly when the state has to ensure that people will follow along with its edicts.

Recently, at D. James Kennedy Ministries, we presented a television special called, “The Problem of Socialism.” Some of the man-on-the-street comments in the program were typical of the feelings of millions of young people today:

For our television special, I spoke with Natasha Srdoc who grew up in socialist Yugoslavia. She told me, “People need to know that it has been tried, it’s a wonderful idea but it doesn’t work. In the end actually socialism runs out of the money because it promises free education, free healthcare, free everything.” They may sound like worthy goals.

She continued, “But somebody has to pay for it and it cannot generate that kind of a growth that you can accumulate that kind of tax revenue that you can pay for everything and have economic growth. It doesn’t work.”

When it doesn’t work, then comes the taxes and punishment by the state (which at the end of the day boils down to force). When that doesn’t work, under a totalitarian system, next comes the violence. It’s happened over and over and over to force on people something they don’t want.

Joshua Muravchik, former leader of Young Socialists, told our viewers that Marx and Engels, the co-authors of The Communist Manifesto (1848), were seeking first to dethrone God and then to attack capitalism.

Muravchik told me, “The Communist countries did prove to be the greatest killers of all time. We don’t have even to this day exact numbers.” 

When I think of the repeated failures of Marxism, I’m reminded of British poet Steve Turner’s line: “History repeats itself. It has to. No one is listening.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: communism; hugochavezlegacy; marxism; socialism; venezuela
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1 posted on 09/08/2016 9:28:39 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt

Cautionary Tale Ping.


2 posted on 09/08/2016 9:32:54 AM PDT by TADSLOS (Vote Trump. Defeat the Clinton Crime Syndicate. Reset America.)
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To: Kaslin

I’m sure many of the early Communist leaders were idealists who wanted a better and more just world.

It just didn’t work out that way because you can’t make every one equal and every one happy.

Human nature doesn’t like to be regimented. Eventually, you’re going to have to take away people’s freedom to make them fit an arbitrary social mold.

Communism always fails even in circumstances where people once supported it - like in the former Yugoslavia.


3 posted on 09/08/2016 9:34:11 AM PDT by goldstategop ((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever))
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To: Kaslin
How many people have to die before the world, including many Americans, realizes that socialism never works, always fails, and kills people?

If 100,000,000+++ in the 20th Century didn't do it, nothing will.

From Rudyard Kipling, a century ago:

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

4 posted on 09/08/2016 9:36:35 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: DuncanWaring

People have to learn the hard way the reality is nothing like the theory.

One of Tito’s most prominent colleagues, Milovan Djilas, split with him when he realized Communists were creating a New Class and making inequality worse than it was before.

Personally, I am of the view human freedom is far too precious to be sacrificed on the altar of the ideal society.

And social justice means different things to different people.


5 posted on 09/08/2016 9:42:03 AM PDT by goldstategop ((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever))
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To: Kaslin

Look at the unspeakable tragedies that continue to unfold in Venezuela right now. People are scrambling just to get food to eat.


Yeah, it sucks. But they voted these bastards into office. And to describe this as an unspeakable tragedy is laughable. It also denigrates real tragedy.


6 posted on 09/08/2016 9:44:43 AM PDT by sparklite2 (The game overs whether you play it or not.)
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To: sparklite2

They voted in Chavez and Maduro in free elections.

Venezuelans thought a socialist society could be built without a lot of sacrifice and there would be plenty and abundance - gushing like oil from the land.

I can excuse many things but not human stupidity. And stupid people starving to death - serves ‘em right.

Its not a tragedy when catastrophe is self-inflicted.


7 posted on 09/08/2016 9:49:12 AM PDT by goldstategop ((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever))
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To: appalachian_dweller; OldPossum; DuncanWaring; VirginiaMom; CodeToad; goosie; kalee; ...
TADSLOS :" Cautionary Tale Ping."

When the Socialist State has an incestuous relationship with the media ,
and when your professors in most of the colleges create breeding grounds for Socialism and Communism ,
then you will have successive generations of economic jealousy.

How do you react ?
You choose your friends wisely, encourage independent intelligence and education, study the history of human behavior,
anticipate and prepare for the unknown( but it's already known, in history).

8 posted on 09/08/2016 10:03:48 AM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt ( British historian Arnold Toynbee - Civilisations die from suicide, not by murder.)
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt
Tilted Irish Kilt :" ..anticipate and prepare for the unknown( but it's already known, in history)."

That is one of the reasons why "Common Core" doesn't teach accurate or in depth history.
They want you to forget history, because it repeats itself.

9 posted on 09/08/2016 10:07:35 AM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt ( British historian Arnold Toynbee - Civilisations die from suicide, not by murder.)
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To: Kaslin

It’s been said “The one thing we learn from history is that we never learn anything from history”.


10 posted on 09/08/2016 10:13:09 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Kaslin
It is telling that socialists are always more concerned with distribution of wealth than with its generation. That is inherently parasitical, and when the surplus runs out, so does the distribution, just as it has in Venezuela. Cleverly rationed, the socialist can milk that surplus long enough so that nobody notices the steady drain in his or her lifetime. Socialism is not, to use a particularly obnoxious neologism, "sustainable".

In fact, it's theft, and its modern stalking horse "social justice" is theft as well. There certainly are mechanisms through which a surplus may be voluntarily contributed to the collective - charity is far older than Marxism, and it's good for the soul that the Marxist denies we have. But the flip side of "to each according to his need" is "from each according to his ability", not according to his willingness to share. The socialist state will provide that motivation at the point of a bayonet. The more productive will always be the slave of the lesser, and the ultimate master will be the one who produces nothing at all. Why anyone would ever think that system would work in spite of a century of contraindicative evidence is quite beyond me.

11 posted on 09/08/2016 10:19:03 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: DuncanWaring

I wonder why none of the famous Venezuelan ballplayers in the U.S. have not come forward to say there’s a better way. Too scared I guess.


12 posted on 09/08/2016 10:24:08 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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To: goldstategop

The minute there is a leader is the minute someone thinks they are a better leader and their only goal is to get rid of the leader in charge.

End of experiment.


13 posted on 09/08/2016 10:26:23 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Trump is our Yeltsin.)
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To: Billthedrill

Well said.


14 posted on 09/08/2016 10:31:16 AM PDT by Made In The USA (Rap music: Soundtrack of the retarded.)
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To: Kaslin

Venezuela has an oil revenue problem due to lower oil prices. It also has a oil production problem because too much oil revenue was spent on government handouts and not enough on oil production and refinery equipment.


15 posted on 09/08/2016 11:07:24 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Kaslin

47% of amerikans .... as mittens said

93 million workers out of work

the socialsit globalist new world order have plans for us......
inclueing total loss of personal freedom...

hillary is part of the plan

WAKE THE FUP


16 posted on 09/08/2016 11:38:01 AM PDT by zzwhale (no way)
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To: goldstategop
They voted in Chavez and Maduro in free elections.

In all liklihood, only once -- the first time.

Recall that Chavez hired the dictator-loving Jimmeh Cahtuh to supervise Venezuela's elections. And, in all subsequent elections, there was evidence that the election results denied the popular will.

17 posted on 09/08/2016 11:46:48 AM PDT by okie01
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To: Kaslin
The Democratic vs. Republican Constitutions.
18 posted on 09/08/2016 12:36:08 PM PDT by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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To: zzwhale
You are a fucking idiot
19 posted on 09/08/2016 12:58:10 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Socialism means never having to say,
“Please get in the boxcar”.


20 posted on 09/08/2016 1:02:46 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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