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Quote of the Day: What the Socialist Hears
Published in General“Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.” — Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
I have had a
liberalprogressive coworker tell me these same things time and again. I have told him time and time again this is untrue and explain what I really think.(Do you think me a monster ?) To no avail. He has been vaccinated against anything contrary to his world view. I then slink off and peal off my human suit and revel in my monster self.A relevant tale from Victor Serge’s fictional tale (wink, wink) of state control of agriculture and feeding the masses:
Why is it that that revelation of failure always seems to be “ironically?”
A brilliant book. The Guardian lamented its author’s obscurity:
Yeah, that’s why no one ever talked about Tolstoi. He wasn’t acclaimed because he painted an accurate portrait of communism.
Let me translate that for the author, who swaddles his unconvenient truth in perfumed lace: he was treated shabbily because he spoke the truth about the horrors unleashed on millions of people by the Guardian’s intellectual forebears, and the the “bien-pensant intellectuals” defended Stalin because they despised individual liberty for others, worshipped the application of state power against others, and wished themselves to be lords of their own land – for the good of society, of course.
Disposed to ignore such criticisms. How elegant a way to describe a group of comfortable leftists with all the liberties the West could bestow, turning up the gramophone so they didn’t have to listen to the beastly clatter from those excess people in the cattle cars.
As for the obligatory notion that many anti-communists were, it must be remembered, strikingly unlovely people, it’s indicative of the moral vacuity of the Guardian’s audience that a piece about someone who was critical of Stalin has to reassure the reader that those anti-Communists could be beastly, too. Really, there were excesses on both sides.
Idiots.
See also: Memoirs of a Revolutionary. I’m sure there are more but those are the two I have read so far.
I recently learned that the namesake of LA’s Wilshire Blvd was a land developer and socialist. He wrote a book called Socialism Inevitable. (Apparently prepositions weren’t).
In a Bugs Bunny voice, “What an Oxymoron!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Kh7nLplWo
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They also hear it in the reverse direction – if anyone mentions something that requires multiple people to do, they immediately conclude that it must be done by government. The idea of voluntary cooperation seems totally lost on them.