Tag: Socialism

Quote of the Day – Socialist Utopias vs Earthly Reality

 

Socialism promises a utopia that sounds good, but those promises are never realized. It most often results in massive human suffering. Capitalism fails miserably when compared with a heaven or utopia promised by socialism. But any earthly system is going to come up short in such a comparison. – Walter E. Williams

Williams puts his finger on one of the biggest problems facing any society: the lure of utopianism.  Socialism promises utopia. Capitalism promises effort and chaos. While in practical terms capitalism delivers a better life than socialist systems, especially for the poorer members of society, socialism offers a more alluring future. The problem is compounded when young people grow up in a working socialist system (the family) and are taught in a socialistic system (the public education system and non-profit universities and colleges).

Quote of the Day – Socialism

 

A man who has not been a socialist before 25 has no heart. If he remains one after 25 he has no head.—King Oscar II of Sweden

That quote – in many different forms – has been attributed to many others. Versions of it have been attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, Winston Churchill, Victor Hugo, John Adams, George Bernard Shaw, Will Durant, and Robert Frost. I picked the King Oscar version for several reasons.  It is one of the oldest published version. It is hard for me to resist attributing it to the sardine king. (You, know – King Oscar canned fish, from Norway. Why the Norwegians chose to honor a Swedish king in that manner is a fascinating story in itself.) It points to a phenomenon which puzzles many: Why young people lean left and favor socialism.

Book Review: The Iron Heel

 

As book reviews go, this one may seem strange and incomplete. That result might be appropriate, since that was how I responded to the book myself. @philo suggested the book The Iron Heel by Jack London after I had somewhat recovered from reading 1984 and Animal Farm. (I don’t recommend reading dystopian novels too close together in time; you’ll be depressed for days.) But I was intrigued by this book’s premise and couldn’t resist reading it. How much worse could it be than 1984?

For a little background, Jack London was a devout socialist in the early 1900s, and here is what one reviewer said about his book:

The Iron Heel describes the build-up to revolution in the USA and the ruling class’s vicious response to crush it in blood. Its central fictional device is a memoir, the Everhard Manuscript, by Avis, a professor’s daughter who marries The Iron Heel’s key character, the socialist leader Ernest Everhard. In the world of the book, her manuscript (which covers the years 1912 to 1932) was hidden and found centuries later. By way of footnotes, inserted after her manuscript is discovered, London makes clear that socialism eventually triumphed – some three hundred years later.

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Africa is home to some of the oldest civilizations on Earth. Yet, by all metrics, it is the poorest continent. Whether it is GDP per capita, life expectancy, political freedom or literacy rates, Africa ranks dead last. Why is this? The answers you will often hear are white (European) colonialism, racism, corruption, lack of unity, […]

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Quote of the Day: Capitalism and Socialism

 

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” – Winston Churchill

How can you tell we are entering a socialist society in the United States? The tell is the amount by which shared miseries have grown. Fuel and food prices have soared. There are scarcities of critical items, including baby formula and amoxicillin, scarcities that once they start never seem to grow away. People are worried that what they say might get them fired or imprisoned. Not for actual crime, but for thoughtcrime. And violent crime is growing — as it seems to in every socialist society from the Soviet Union to Venezuela. (Of  course, the government denies that violent crime exists, except by wasters who oppose the government — January 6th trials, anyone?)

Booze and Socialism

 

My mate and I have noted our supply of various spirits is running out just in time for the holidays. What this means is undertaking a two-hour road trip to an adjacent state where we can shop in a pleasant, supermarket-style store stocked with spirits and wine from across the country and around the world. The knowledgeable staff will help us choose new brands based on our tastes. We will drop several hundred dollars and return across the river with enough to get through the long, dreary winter. I will try and find a good brand of cinnamon whisky which, in my experience, is a highly effective cold medicine.

We cannot get this in our home state. Why? Because our state has a “Liquor Control Commission,” a relic of Progressive and Prohibition-Era socialism that “appoints private businesses to act as its agents and sell its products in exchange for a commission.” In effect, it protects a crony market of crappy, hole-in-the-wall liquor stores staffed by surly, resentful employees, and limits beverage selections to those it deems worthy of being sold in our state. It also regulates what brands of liquor can be distributed within the state, which is why (I suspect) the only cinnamon whisky on sale around here is ‘Fireball.’ Which is… not that good.

Join Jim and Greg as they welcome better polling news for the likes of Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and and GOP hopefuls in the critical states of Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, and even Pennsylvania. They also notice the odd trend of Democrats like New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Washington Sen. Patty Murray refusing to debate their Republican opponents. And they may have sprained their eyeballs as the very rich Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard presents himself as a socialist who regrets becoming so wealthy and is now dedicated to saving the planet.

Join Jim and Greg as they discuss major news from three different spots around the globe. First, they are cautiously optimistic as new British Prime Minister Liz Truss promises to govern as a conservative and that means cutting taxes to grow the economy. They also cheer the people of Chile for overwhelmingly rejecting a new far left constitution that looks an awful like the goals of Democrats in the U.S. And they brace for a very rough winter in Europe as Russia says it will restrict energy exports until “the collective west” backs off its sanctions towards Moscow.

Join Jim and Greg as they welcome research from a left-leaning firm showing that a growing number of Latino voters are very concerned that Democrats are embracing socialism and other far-left positions – and it is translating into more Latino support for Republicans. They also sigh as President Biden yet again claims there was no better way to withdraw from Afghanistan. And Jim is briefly left speechless as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says the Congressional Budget Office score of the latest massive spending bill is “fake.”

 

Dave Seminara joins Brian Anderson to discuss the Buffalo mayoral election—in which the socialist Democratic nominee lost a stunner to incumbent Byron Brown’s write-in campaign—and the future of the Queen City.

Find the transcript of this conversation and more at City Journal.

Quote of the Day: Capitalism and Socialism

 

“Under capitalism, the rich grow powerful. Under socialism, the powerful grow rich — and everyone else grows poor.” – Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit)

Why is socialism growing more powerful in the United States? Because it directly benefits the gentry class: those running the country and those supporting them. This includes not just the political elite, but also the upper-middle-class, credentialed workers who work white-collar jobs – management and technology. The folks who can work remotely and get all their wants and needs delivered to their door.

The Inhumanity of the Left

 

With one disaster unfolding after another with the Biden administration, the focus in America (at least on the right) has been on mistakes, poor planning, confusion, and mismanagement, just to name a few problems. But buried inside all these missteps is an attitude that the Democrats would vehemently deny but permeates everything they do: They are inhumane, and they are either clueless about the implications of their governance or they simply don’t care. Their inhumanity dominates their actions in Afghanistan, the steps they’ve taken (or haven’t taken) on the border, and their handling of the pandemic. I looked up the Merriam-Webster synonyms for “inhumane” and selected the words that I thought best applied:

callous, cold-blooded, compassionless, desensitized, hard, hard-hearted, heartless, insensitive, ruthless, soulless, stonyhearted, unfeeling, unmerciful, unsparing, and unsympathetic

The Movie “Mr. Jones” Shows the Results of Communism

 

An orange is the only color in the scene. On a train bound for the hinterlands of the Ukraine, Gareth Jones sits among starving peasants. Stirrings of hunger prompt Mr. Jones to reach in his satchel for an orange. Every eye in the train car focuses on that piece of fruit. Mr. Jones, at this point in his journey, is unaware of the starvation being imposed on Ukrainians by Joseph Stalin. One orange, images a story Mr. Jones must tell. One courageous man. One cadre of self-serving Western journalists, covering the truth by silencing their pens. One megalomaniac dictator. One nation on the brink of starvation. One movie that will smash vapid idealistic visions of communism. If you want to know why history matters in the present, please watch Mr. Jones.

Mr. Jones displays exactly what happens when dictators subjugate a people and the journalists who are supposed to cover the story, silence their pens. Over one hundred million people died in the 20th century at the hands of despots. Many of these tyrants began their beliefs and practices based on atheism. To understand the 20th century, one must begin with naturalism, materialism, and yes, atheism. YouTube abounds with testimonies about the horrors. There are stories of some who hid others from discovery by jackbooted thugs, and some were spared bloodshed by Providence. Pick a dictator: Mao Zedong, Stalin, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Castro, they are all cut from the same cloth.

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Apparently, the 2021 Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute  Fashion Gala that raises money for the costume industry caused a raucous, which I guess is ok if you are trying to raise money.  With so much crap going on in our government, our country and The World Over (shout out to Raymond Arroyo), I should […]

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Click here to listen to the podcast! As Venezuela falls into the abyss of economic collapse – the economy has halved in five years, a contraction worse than the Great Depression or the Spanish Civil War – a simplistic narrative in the American press has formed, which starts with the Chavez regime seizing control of the […]

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Simon Kuper, writing in the UK publication Financial Times, had an article the other day with the title “Why the US is becoming more European”…a rather smug article, in my view.  He asserts that for decades, influential Americans looking at other countries used to ask “When will they become more like us?”…and argues that this […]

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Socialist Birds of a Feather: 1978

 

Democratic Socialists AmericaScott Johnson’s recent Power Line post on CRT took us back to 1978 and yet another commie lover. The American left has a long history of admiration for communist regimes, whether Russia, China, Cuba, or even North Korea. They see there an exercise of power such as they desire over us. The left is perfectly willing to say the quiet part out loud. We should take them seriously.

Scott Johnson was commenting on an important and clear recent explanation of how critical race theory led to Kendi. Johnson offered special insight into a very early advocate of CRT [emphasis added]:

Sibarium’s column struck a personal chord with me. He links to and quotes from Alan Freeman’s 1978 Minnesota Law Review article “Legitimizing Racial Discrimination through Antidiscrimination law: A Critical Review of Supreme Court Doctrine.” My last semester in law school I was a student in Professor Freeman’s Civil Rights course.

QotD: Socialism

 

Accepting Socialism is basically admitting you can’t compete in the real world. You’re saying “I’m willing to give up my liberty, my religion, and my dreams as long as the state will take care of me.” Accepting Socialism is accepting failure. It’s the complete opposite of America. – Quang Nguyen

Quang Nguyen is a refugee from Communism. He fled Vietnam and moved to the United States and today he is a state representative in Arizona.  If anyone knows socialism and the evil it perpetuates close up and personally, it is him. He lost most of his family to socialistic communism, and had to start over with the clothes on his back and no more. He pushed back in the Arizona legislature against those who minimized socialism’s threat.