Posted on 03/26/2002 9:00:39 AM PST by ElkGroveDan
The human mind is capable of prodigious feats of self-deception — just ask Democrats for Socialist Action.
William E. Saracino
The minutes of the San Francisco chapter of the Democrats for Socialist Action (DSA) came recently into my possession, reminding me once again that truth, as the well-worn adage says, is often stranger, and funnier, than fiction. The minutes were obtained quite legally I assure you, but that’s all I can say. Admitting that California Political Review’s Unusual Tactics Squad (CPRUTS) in fact provided them would force my editor to hunt down and liquidate me for my indiscretion. So I remain mum.
The first question raised is why on earth anyone feels such a thing as DSA is needed. Are there really folks running loose who think the Democrat Party is insufficiently socialist? About all the California Democrat Party hasn’t done is superimpose a hammer and sickle on its Donkey logo and make “The Internationale” its official anthem. Virtually every bit of their platform could easily have been adopted by any Politburo anywhere in the world.
But this apparently is not enough for the DSA of S.F. One particularly amusing portion of the minutes describes a discussion entitled “What is socialism?” The easy answer — “usually Hell on earth” — seems to have escaped the deep thinkers by the bay. According to their minutes, two visions emerged from the discussions: one along the Soviet model, the other what was called a “market economy with progressive taxation” and a “slightly imaginary Sweden.”
Disagreement arose, apparently, over exactly what socialism would be, and also spirited discussion of “the merits and demerits of the Soviet Union.” It was then added that they shouldn’t get “too hung up” on the Soviet Union.
DSA’s philosophers must try to imagine what socialism “would be,” because they choose to ignore what socialism actually is: “abject failure,” “inhumane beyond words.” What kind of bottom line is that for Democrats for Socialist Action? And of course getting “too hung up” on the Soviet Union means “too hung up” on items like the Gulag, mass murder, failure to compete with free economies, and other embarrassments.
But with a bow to my Swedish granny Olga Olson, let’s deal with the “slightly imaginary” Sweden before taking up the recently-gone and unlamented (except in the confines of the DSA) USSR. For Sweden to serve as socialist model requires that it be much more than just “slightly” imaginary. Nothing less than total fantasy will do.
For the actual country is a mess. Chronically broke, it’s social services deliver just fine if you don’t mind waiting seven years for emergency surgery. It’s best and brightest are in a constant state of emigration. It is no accident that the first — yes, the very first — thing tennis great Bjorn Borg did after winning his first Wimbledon title was to become a citizen of Great Britain. He said quite openly at the time that this was to escape Sweden’s then 88 percent top tax rate, adding flippantly that “well, most successful Swedes do so you know.”
With a tip of the Wilson racket to my half-countryman Bjorn, let’s reflect for a moment on that statement. “Most successful Swedes do so you know.” What kind of a country is it that drives most or even a small number of its “most successful” citizens to become expatriates? The answer, of course, is a “workers paradise,” resembling the Inferno far more than the Paradiso of Signore Dante.
Sweden though, almost uniquely among hard-line socialist countries last century, at least maintains a decent, open, and democratic society. The vast majority of other socialist experiments have quickly become slave labor camps and economic basket cases, which brings us to the Grand Daddy of all socialist states, the Soviet Union.
Understandably, current socialists avoid getting “hung up” on the U.S.S.R. Every aspect of that society, studied with even a modicum of objectivity, verily screams “beware,” “warning,” “flee,” and “don’t let this happen to you.” Russia under the Soviets was Hell on Earth for all but the elite few. Combining an ideology that made no sense (Communism) with an economic theory that has never worked successfully in modern times (socialism), the Soviet Union and it’s modern day socialist heirs produced a textbook of human horror, material and spiritual poverty, and debasement all around.
Spreading socialist doctrine, the Soviet Union killed at least 50 million of it’s citizens. Its Chinese brethren, also pursuing the socialist dream, eliminated about 40 million of their own. It was socialism that erected barriers of concrete, barbed wire, and land mines to keep workers from escaping “paradise.” It intentionally starved millions of people. In China, it now forcibly aborts female fetuses as a means of population control. It viciously persecuted all religions, unwilling to allow any Deity to compete with the all powerful state.
Our Declaration of Independence says that the natural state of mankind is freedom. Thomas Jefferson was right. You don’t really have to believe in a God-given free will to see that free people, making free decisions in free economies, outstrip planned economies at every turn. You do not have to be a philosopher to see that capitalist societies provide for the well-being of all their citizens, in all aspects, far better than socialist societies do. But you do have to be blind to fail to see the human toll socialism has piled up the last 100 years.
A look at history would answer the DSA’s question of what socialism looks like — bloody, soul destroying, anti-human, and inhumane. That won’t change, no matter how hard DSA’s die-hards “imagine” it away. No imagining is needed. We know what it is.
Worth repeating.
Such a publication in California, I assume, would be even more so, in both departments. So, kudos to the writer, and to his editor.
Congressman Billybob
As President Reagan said
"How can you tell a communist? It's someone who reads MArx and Lenin. How do you tell an anti-communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."
"Nuff said
www.cppf.org
That is the goal of these "Socialists", to become the elite few. They are willing to con the masses with pretty words and promises in order to subjugate them simply to benefit themselves.
Take a look at the Democrat Party, its politicians and political consultants. They are the same. They even laugh about their lies, softening them by calling it spin and saying, of course, "every body does it." The Democrats are determined to take over this country so that they will be the elite few. They use lies and pretty words to buy votes from the masses. They must be fought just as determinedly as the Al Queda. They are just as dangerous to freedom and they do it all for themselves while pretending to care about others.
ALL TIME CHILLING QUOTE OF THE DAY :
The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism,
but under the name of liberalism
they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program
until one day America will be a socialist nation
without ever knowing how it happened----
Who do you think said that?
Norman Thomas, six-time Socialist Party presidential candidate
and one of the founders of the ACLU.
People,that's a bit telling isn't it?
Great article...Bump!
You do not have to be a philosopher to see that capitalist societies provide for the well-being of all their citizens, in all aspects, far better than socialist societies do.
That is not quite what happens. Capitalist societies do not provide for the well-being of their citizens. They allow their citizens to provide for their own well-being. And when they do so, coupled as in America until the New Deal, with the insistence that individuals must determine their own level of success or failure, they bring out the best in all people; and with that mixture of opportunity and self-reliance, most people realize their highest potential.
For more on the fallacies of Socialism, in all its evil forms, see The Lies Of Socialism.
William Flax
Saracino left out mention of the gazillion blinking lights out there in Kali last summer.
What a great past of which to be proud.That leads one to ponder why perhaps, they consume so much booze.
That's always made me wonder,WHY IS THAT?
Well,it's Thursday Night Now and I can see EVERYONE loves this thread.I wasn't taught the Chinese Murdered their own people when I was in high school.As a matter of fact,I didn't know it until acouple years ago.So much for Calif. public school history classes .Well, I'm still thinking about how much more,each year the Gov't is infringing on our rights,I just wonder what I can do about it,except to Refute it immediately when I see it!
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