The selfishness at the heart of socialism

Washington Examiner ^ | 30 Mar, 2021 | Hugo Gurdon, Editor-in-Chief

[MtnClimber]

Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion, has commented that he was “enjoying the irony of … [Sen. Bernie] Sanders supporters lecturing me, a former Soviet citizen, on the glories of socialism and what it really means ... In practice, it corrodes not only the economy but the human spirit itself.”

The soul-sapping nature of socialism was my subject last week, so I won’t go through the same stuff again, much though it bears repeating. Nevertheless, Kasparov’s comment led to further discussion of socialism after I reposted it on social media, and one respondent, a highly civilized left-wing friend I’ve known for about 20 years, said interestingly that without the “socialist impulse,” there would be no free education and healthcare and no pensions for the elderly.

I won’t quibble over the word “free,” for my interlocutor didn’t mean these benisons of modern society cost nothing but that the cost isn’t borne by the user in the form of fees. He knows full well that we pay for them with taxes and borrowing. And it can be conceded that they’d provide strong if not necessarily compelling grounds to support socialism if it deserved credit for them.

But does it? Does our impulse to help others start with a socialist impulse or any ideology? Or is the truth entirely different? Is socialism, which I think of as a set of arrangements by which central government delivers goods and services (of varying quality) to the public, actually an outgrowth or distortion of the deeper instinct of compassion? I don’t suggest that socialists are more compassionate than others, much though they often think of themselves that way. They obviously aren’t. But there’s a link between the political ideology and the human instinct, no matter how misshapen the connection has become.

[MtnClimber]

The true nature of the communist compassion and caring is on full display when they line up dissenters against the wall.

[MuttTheHoople]

When Socialists use the early Christians as an example of how it’s supposed to work, what they forget is that these Christians weren’t being Socialists, they were Subjects to an Absolute Monarch, one being Jesus as King of all Kings.

[JayGalt]

You win the internet today.

[Lurker]

“At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child — miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.” P. J. O’Rourke

L

[cgbg]

Good quote by PJ.

Socialism is based on envy—a couple of classics on this topic:

https://www.amazon.com/ENVY-Theory-Behaviour-Helmut-Schoeck/dp/0865970645

https://www.amazon.com/Anti-Capitalistic-Mentality-Ludwig-von-Mises/dp/1610161335

The Mises book is a fascinating study on why so many rich people are leftists—hint—many inherited their wealth and did not earn it, and they are envious of those with the skills and intelligence to actually _do_ something with their life.

[MtnClimber]

Ha! Yes, brats! Sniveling brats!

[manna]

BTTT

[ml/nj]

a highly civilized left-wing friend

People who abide the theft of the election and the militarization of Washington, DC, should not be our friends.

ML/NJ

[blueunicorn6]

I relieve myself of caring by turning it all over to the Department of Caring in the government.

This department then becomes a bureaucracy only caring about itself.

But I don’t care because I’ve turned all my cares over to The Department of Caring.

[arthurus]

Private charity has been actually outlawed in communist countries because it is viewed as an attack on the government and on Socialism itself.

[Wildbill22]

Several observations regarding communism;

-liberty and security are diametrically opposed in a zero sum equation.

-the sacrifice of liberty dehumanizes. The individual is sacrificed.

-there will never be enough of everyone else’s money to pay for it.

-and finally, communism is the politics of peer pressure. Individual thought is prohibited.