Posted on 04/09/2016 2:50:23 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
Thanks to Bernie and Hillary, Socialism is on everyone’s mind. These politicians, like so many in our media and universities, claim it’s a glorious idea.
Usually thought of as an economic philosophy, Socialism is more sweeping than that. It dictates how all of society must be organized. It claims to be fairer; it claims to deliver happiness. Socialism is a philosophy of life that, I’ll argue, steals the life right out of you.
The central vision, indeed the central requirement, is that everyone be equal and cooperative. Competition is evil. Striving for success is scorned. In order to obtain the promised benefits, you agree to be a cog in the machine.
What do you give up in this transaction? A lot.
In Socialism, everything you have, and everything you are, is given to you by other people. That’s the critical point. If you keep quiet and behave, authorities will pat you on the head, take care of your basic needs, and say you are a successful human being. You don’t earn or build anything yourself.
But what about having personal goals and working toward them? Isn’t that where most people achieve their greatest satisfaction in life?
The Greeks praised the pursuit of excellence, embodied in the word arete. An athlete, a painting, or a business can have arete. Humans are alive in order to pursue arete, that’s the Greek idea.
There are many kinds of excellence. The Spartans had a harsh military code, Buddhists taught the Eight Fold Path, Jews and Christians preached Biblical virtues, Boy Scouts have their code, Fortune 500 executives have other values. Point is, all religions and philosophies give you a challenging map to follow. You have values and goals that you pursue. Succeed or fail, working toward a goal is often more fun than achieving it.
In Socialism, you give up every goal that used to be considered worthy and ennobling. That’s the swindle. Socialist leaders enjoy this trade because they get to dominate everyone else. You get to be a peasant. You are supposed to settle for being a member of the herd. In return, you forgo the ambitions that traditionally motivated people: money, advancement, prestige, helping your family, a new car, etc., etc.
After almost everyone has agreed to be a member of the herd, who is still striving and achieving in their lives? The bosses, the ruling elite, the people at the top, that’s who. They get the satisfaction of working toward a goal, toward arete. They are players. You get to be a number.
John Dewey, America’s most famous educator, preached Socialist ideals 100 years ago. He hated individualism (which is a major factor in America’s success story). He wanted children to be cooperative and interdependent, and he wanted to stamp out everything that got in the way of that, for example, academic achievement that set one child above another. There goes education as normally understood.
The public schools have been a workshop, a research lab, for Socialism since before World War I. Everything that Sanders and Clinton hope to do throughout the society, John Dewey did in the public schools. His schemes have been devastating for education. On the positive side, they allow us an inside look at this brave new ideology in action.
Let’s zoom in on the central activity or moment in Socialist classrooms. The big shift, as you move into Socialism, is that you are not supposed to strive for or earn anything. John Dewey and all the other Socialists will tell you that such behavior is immoral.
Consider the individual cog. There you are, a bona fide member of the herd. Your name is John 6281 and you are pretty much identical to John 6282, John 6283, and so on. So, are you a success? Or a patsy? Effectively, you are a peasant who does not want to be anything else.
You may be as close to a husk of a human being as is possible to be. Which part of you is alive, other than your physical body?
Academics like to argue (disingenuously) about the distinctions between German Fascism and Russian Communism. They are identical in that nearly 100% of the people are ciphers forced to conform to endless rules and regs.
Inevitably, the social engineers that Hillary and Sanders are fronting for never know when to stop. Some historians say that totalitarian regimes killed 100 million people during the 20th century. Socialists and Communists always want more power for themselves. Your job is to do what you are told. For all practical purposes, you are a slave.
As for Socialism versus Communism, the difference is that Socialists try to convince you to surrender your freedom, whereas Communists forcefully seize your freedom.
Before you let Socialist dictators dictate your life, consider what you’re giving up and what they’re taking away.
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Bruce Deitrick Price / Improve-Education.org
The problem with socialism is that owing to human nature, everyone is not equal, in their dignity as human being, yes, but as to their attributes, talents, abilities, no. You can wish this to be true but it is not, and never has been.
not to mention, the socialist/communist two sided coin killed a hundred million of us in the 20th century.
All of these schemes are different names for state supremacy to be controlled by the state supremacists.
Good timing. A half hour ago I was looking at a video about Venezuela. It makes your point in 11 minutes. Actually going there sound like a death wish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOQb7Y5QVO8
Ayn Rand was an atheist. She was right in her observations of socialism and communism, but it’s an error to attribute to her a religious philosophy.
I wasn’t attributing her to any religion, that second part was about me.
It’s unfortunate that people with intelligence can’t figure out who our Lord and Savior is.
Right on ...
As an individual that may be true.
But in my observation if you are loud, obnoxious, and even violent as a group you will get special and preferred treatment. Be anti-social and get extra goodies.
FR needs a like button. Your post totally nailed it. I have a nighbor Up the road, from me she’s now a full Sanders, supporter. She goes on and on about the greatness of Democratic socialism. And she uses Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, as her model. As to how great of a utopia Democratic socialism, is supposedly is and how Sanders, is the long awaited messiah, to bring us to be a such thing it’s truly unbelievable.
Before retirement I spent 35 years in the IT industry. During the height of the cold war the Soviets were using 10 to 15 year old IBM computers that were smuggled into Russia. There was virtually no IT industry there, only engineers who knew just enough to keep the old mainframes running using scavenged parts. These were machines that would have been scrapped for precious metals in the US.
The competition and economic reward that gave America the best IT industry in the world was absent in the Soviet Union, so they made do with leftovers. — I will add that they were famously clever at getting maximum utility from the few IT resources they had.
If you look through the advances in tech industries like medicine, automobiles and electronics you see the same story. Socialism failed by stifling competition and reward. It fostered an environment where the brightest people were assigned to keep smuggled, obsolete western technology running.
Zero o zero says level the playing field and every body works hard and a lot of smart people and how much income is enough and do your fair share. Just look to affirmative action and government efficiency for your current relationship with socialism. Nothing shows this more blatantly than the current 1600 punsylvania ave ‘ minisyration. Slid on in on a leveled playing field and won the prize too.
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