Posted on 09/04/2023 12:07:39 PM PDT by karpov
With so many Americans now saying that they prefer to live under socialism than capitalism, it’s good to get a strong reminder about the true nature of socialist regimes. I’ve just read a book that does so.
When I was much younger – in the 1960s and 70s – there was quite a lot of news about Cuba: Fidel Castro’s seizure of power, the Bay of Pigs debacle, the Cuban Missile Crisis, people escaping by sea (and many perishing in the attempt), suggestions that Castro was behind JFK’s assassination, and so on. Today, however, one hears rather little about Cuba, and what we do hear is largely leftist propaganda favorable to the country’s socialist regime, especially how it has supposedly achieved equality and high standards in medical care. Otherwise, few Americans give Cuba a thought.
Dr. Miguel A. Faria, Jr. seeks to enlighten us about the actual state of affairs in Cuba. His interest is deeply personal – as a teenager, he and his father escaped from Cuba in a small boat. After settling in the U.S., he went to medical school and became a neurosurgeon. Dr. Faria has written several books including America, Guns, and Freedom. His latest book is Cuba’s Eternal Revolution Through the Prism of Insurgency, Socialism, and Espionage in which he relates much about Cuba’s history that needs to be known, and disabuses readers of the carefully cultivated idea that his homeland has turned into a tropical paradise due to socialism.
Let’s begin with the history. After the end of Spanish rule in 1898, Cuba began modernizing rapidly and by 1950 was among the most prosperous countries in Latin America. The Cubans adopted a constitution in 1940 that gave them stability and freedom.
(Excerpt) Read more at aier.org ...
The pilgrims tried socialism, and it obviously failed to work.
And the Americans adopted a constitution in 1788 that gave them stability and freedom.
A few years seems to make all the difference. Some lose the stability and freedom quickly, others a bit more slowly.
I’m convinced the so-called support for living under socialism is due to maybe three factors: Total misunderstanding of socialism and its history; desire to see people of higher means brought down, and; overwhelming wish to be supported by a government rather than working for a living.
All three perceptions are vulnerable to almost immediate crashing once socialism is installed, of course, but their lack of education prevents them knowing it.
It’s a shame that “Animal Farm” and “1984” are not required reading. Although, “Animal Farm” was on that list when I was in the 7th grade.
Be blessed Comrades
They ought to be required reading in order to graduate.
Every self-described socialist I’ve heard blathering about it doesn’t actually care a whip about socialism per se. All they talk about is how much they hate capitalism, because they’re usually just jealous of how much money other people have. That’s why socialism never works; because no thought is put into it actually being a functional system.
Bkmrk
Animal Farm was only 130 pages-thereabouts. It could get a teenagers’ attention.
“Atlas Shrugged,” was a wake up call.
5.56mm
I did read it. I see parts of it. The author was so flawed, it sorta spoils her message. But mostly the message is good in that capitalism works better than most other systems.
What do you think of Hayek and “The Road to Serfdom?”
5.56mm
Never read it.
Bob, I hate to tell you this, but we’re all flawed.
Except me of course.
Incoming!
5.56mm
Hazlitt’s “Economics in One Lesson” is the quick guide to this stuff—and that is the one that school kids should be required to read.
Okay I just saw it on YT. Pretty accurate.
The other simple and shocking little essay is Leonard Read’s
“I Pencil”:
https://fee.org/media/14940/read-i-pencil.pdf
Socialists do not understand the complexity of supply chains.
They can deny their existence all they want—but it is like denying the existence of the sun or the moon—just crazy.
There are various degrees of flawdom (if that’s a word). I’ve read a lot on Ayn Rand and her life was pretty sad. She was very bitter towards the end. It didn’t turn out the paradise she thought it would. She had no God (except self). She didn’t believe in pity, charity or empathy. She was self indulgent to the extreme. She believed more in lust than love. She was unabashedly unfaithful. Marriage was a vehicle and if it didn’t take you to your destination then it’s time to trade it in one that does. She could be spiteful and vengeful. But other than that, I’m sure she was a wonderful person.
Ayn Rand was an awful person—but stunningly brilliant in many ways.
She has some quotes are terrifying prophetic—way ahead of her time. Some of these sounds like commentaries written today. Here are a few:
“It only stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting the sacrificial offerings.
Where there’s service, there is someone being served.
The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.”
“We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.
“Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.”
“The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.”
“I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
“There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.