Posted by
P. Acosta on Friday, December 26, 2008 3:58:46 PM
Socialism, collectivism, communism, call it whatever you want, just do not call it new, in fact it may very well be the oldest form of government known to man. In recent history, there has not been a shortage of countries that have dabbled with this governmental experiment, leaving sufficient reliable results from which the civilized world can draw upon. Still in spite of its almost universal record of failures, demagogues in full possession of the facts continue to peddle to the masses the socialistic utopia of the proverbial “free lunch”. Knowing full well that by so doing, certain segments of society will always reward them with their votes.
A wise man said that “a method which fails repeatedly may possibly be wrong”, still far too many people do not allow facts to get in the way of their opinions, and treat facts as though they were… an inconvenient truth. In the 20th century, virtually every perverse doctrine that suffocated freedom, slaved the governed and threatened world peace, began as Socialism; this was true of Fascism, Nazism and Communism. Although the argument can be made that Socialism does not always progress into one of the previously mentioned doctrines, the fact is that Socialism will always (without exception) limit freedom and individuality by forcefully taking away from the population the fruits of their labor, and by imposing itself upon the private sector, this destruction of incentive ultimately produces slough and laziness, thus reducing personal and collective productivity to the detriment of society.
In 1847 Carl Marx wrote “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” however if Marx would have taken the time to study the American experience, he would have understood the error of his ways. In the early 1620s the pilgrims who were recent arrivals to America, experimented with Socialism, after a year of its implementation Governor William Bradford of Plymouth, Massachusetts wrote, "The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato's and other ancients applauded by some of later times; that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For the young men, that were most able and fit for labour and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense."
As a result of his finding and not having today’s bureaucracy to contend with, the Governor assigned private property rights of land to all members, and gave them the right to profit from their industry. A year after capitalism and the concept of private property had been established, the Governor wrote again. "This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content." In other words… capitalism worked!
The idea of demagogues promoting a socialistic agenda, was well understood and repudiated by our forefathers as well, back on 1787 Alexander Hamilton wrote, “A dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.”
Due to the nature of human behavior, is not difficult to conclude that governments, although a necessary evil, are by nature conducive to corruption, never was the adage of “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” truer, than when applied to the complexities of governing, consequently it stands to reason that the larger the government the more fertile ground there is for corruption.
Of further distress, is the inherent arrogance of the socialist, who believe themselves better equipped to tell the individuals how to manage their lives and how to choose what is in their best interest. On the economic front, their interference with the private sector, and their stated goal to control the nation’s industries, is precisely the type of actions that puts the socialist in a collision course with the essence of the American experiment, as well as with the liberties that our forefathers fought so valiantly to preserve.
All the information available today about Socialism’s shortcomings, would lead one to think that intelligent men and women, regardless of their political persuasion, would understand and agree that Socialism is a tried and failed approach to solving societies necessities, incapable of competing with the free market in generating well being for the same, yet sadly I suspect that the peddlers of Socialism will continue to promote their venomous doctrine of class warfare until the end of times, since the one thing that we seem to always have a great abundance of, is a steady endless stream of demagogues.