From: Dehede011@aol.com
Date: Fri Dec 13 2002 - 11:18:49 MST
In a message dated 12/13/2002 10:12:09 AM Central Standard Time,
charleshixsn@earthlink.net writes: And noone that I consider a true socialist
would be in favor of any totalitarian government,
Charles,
I compare socialism to a river. It starts somewhere and it moves.
Eventually it empties itself into a river, a lake or an ocean.
If you look at the book Heaven on Earth you can witness a 200 year
history of socialism. Your movement has had several hundred socialist
communities and several dozen socialist countries. There is enough history
for us to form some general rules.
One of those rules is that you seem to normally start with bright
hopes and often with good intentions insofar as an outsider can judge.
However in every case that I know of the socialist community or nation
matures into increasing difficulties brought by what many believe is its own
ineptitude founded in its basic theory.
Sometimes you turn to dictatorship under one guise or another. The
dictators either turn more and more brutal or they are forcefully removed
from office. Once in a long while one is voted out of office as Daniel
Ortega was -- those countries seem to be the lucky ones.
Sometimes you seem to gradually fade into poverty and from there you
disband. I suppose those are lucky also.
But no where do I know of a socialist government that has matured and
still maintained a high standard of living for its people. Here in Chicago
it is no problem at all to find Swedes that have voted with their feet. If
one has the time the ex-Swedes will relate the evils of Sweden. I can and
have gone over the border to Canada -- while there I have watched and
listened. On the surface it is a beautiful country with a beautiful people
but as I plumb beneath the surface there is no way I can live there. And so
it goes, on and on.
The problem with the concept "true socialist" is that there is no true
socialist. You are people that have stepped into a river, you have entered
the flow and try as faithfully as you can, eventually you have to adapt to
the forces of the river.
This brings me to my greatest fear concerning socialism.
In HS I was an amateur boxer, later I was in the military. Those two
professions or pursuits contain a very high percentage of people that are
devoted students of their vocation -- there are others. I have enjoyed
listening to those people analysing their craft. They really dig in to learn
and to learn their weaknesses as well as how to eliminate their weaknesses.
Yet, this is something I never hear the socialists do. They seem
always to start with the presumption that they know how to build Heaven on
Earth. But, an analysis of their 200 year history, their several hundred
socialist communities and their several dozen socialist nations demonstrates
that they don't know.
Ron h
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