Posted on 03/15/2009 2:46:56 AM PDT by Scanian
"Socialism, a luxury of the wealthy. To the poor, a suicidal creed ..." --David Hare, A Map of the World
Anyone who has lived inside the demoralized, unproductive, gray prison of a communist state, as I did in the mid-1980s, knows to what depths of impoverishment the egalitarian fantasies of socialism inevitably lead. They lead to decades of frustrated poverty and lifetimes of untreated illness culminating in early death. I remember the columns of death notices for men and women in their forties and fifties that appeared in the local newspaper. Gradually I learned to associate those death notices with the lack of fresh foodstuffs, the travesty of state health care, and the pervasive demoralization of an enslaved population drowning itself in cheap alcohol and cigarettes.
Gradually I came to understand that the condition of life under communism, so filled with repression, suspicion, and hopelessness, dragged one down into an early grave. Gradually I saw that within the communist state everyone-everyone except the leadership of course-subsists in a cage of gnawing bitterness and permanent defeatism.
Unnumbered lives were sacrificed on the ungodly altar of communism in the last century, not only in my temporary abode of Yugoslavia but throughout eastern Europe, Russia, and much of Asia, Africa, and South America, and now the American Left wishes to revive this monstrous ideology on our own shores. Every totalitarian regime begins with the same heartfelt promises of justice and equality, just those promises of fairness that Barack Obama has made the fixation of his political career. What tyrant, one might ask, has not risen to power on promises of benevolent change?
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
This is exactly the mentality Obama is trying to instill here.
For the liberal ideologue, poverty is not an economic condition per se, a temporary condition of low earnings that can be alleviated over time as those who are poor pursue opportunities and become better off. Rather, it is a permanent and reified condition: the poor are not just those who are earning less than others; they are those who have been made poor and who will continue poor, poverty being inherited in the manner that aristocratic titles may be in Britain. One acquires one's victimhood and retains it all one's life and passes it down to one's progeny, and just as aristocratic titles retain their own perks, so does impoverishment.
Americans have been taught for years to revere victims, give them moral superiority, and seek some way in which they may consider themselves victims, because that is the highest title of honor one may achieve. But only certain victims, of course, are true victims: only those belonging to a particular group annointed by the media and academic classes, and then promoted by the government because of their usefulness to it.
Great analysis!
Worthy of a bookmark.
The sad part about the deaths is the leadership actually wants people to die. It flushes out the unproductive and reduces overpopulation. Thus reducing over all costs.
The death camps will be operating 24/7.
After all, what will they do with 50 million conservatives who refuse to cooperate?
The kind of “stuff” that drew me to FreeRepublic, and kept me ever since.
The God complex is what I call it. Those who wish to take upon themselves or USURP that which was and is in the hands of our Creator and Savior, including the Glory.
Call it what you may, socialism, marxism, communism, liberalism, lefist, ruling class, elitism, democrat party, totalitarianism, pure evil, it all leads to the same thing.
Slavery and destruction of all that our Creator and Savior prepared for man and his habitation. Proverbs 25 There is a away that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
But, but, but, Obama is different. Sure he's a socialist, one who believes in "spreading the wealth around" with no consideration for whose wealth he's taking, but he's different from the typical tyrant described. Obama promised hope and change! Doesn't that mean we're safe?
If there really is 50 million conservatives that refuse to cooperate it will never happen. That’s an unstoppable army - if there are anywhere near that number that is...
This piece should be required reading by every member of Congress AND their staffs.
bookmark
Hear! Hear!
IMHO, a great deal of this modern day mind set can be traced back to the late 1950's ('radical chic') and throughout the 1960's ('down with the Establishment,power to the people'). The glorification of the "common man", followed by his ways, and manners, and attitude(s).
Surpring that so many went for such a stupid, phoney, thing as Communism.
The author paints a vivid picture of communism (and socialism):
“In the communist state as I knew it, the masses led lives of quiescent desolation if not grinding poverty, while the leadership, those who had sworn to sacrifice all on the behalf of the people, thrived in gated enclaves. The masses frequented state-owned stores with their pitifully bare shelves, while the leadership gained admittance to the “diplomatic” shops, well-stocked with imported goods. The masses traveled precariously in crowded, stinking, sweaty red buses, while the leadership glided smoothly by in sleek black limos.”
We need to paint the above pictures in the minds of all Americans. Pictures of long lines, empty store shelves, dreary public housing, etc., explain socialism & communism much better than just words. I'll bet there are thousands of these pics on the web, from Soviet stores to socialized medicine in Britain to public transportation in Cuba.
These pics need to be in commercials, on billboards, anywhere, & everywhere. Let the American people see where Obama & co. are taking us. Let even the ignorant have a chance to understand what is coming.
Most Americans will never read this article. Instead, they will get their daily dose of fairy tales from the MSM & our socialist gov’t. Conservatives MUST get the attention of America while is is still legal to do so.
I suspect it’s because everyone who goes for it is scammed into thinking they’ll be among those in charge, making sure the orthodoxy is enforced and reaping the benefits.
It usually doesn’t work out that way, but once in place, we can see how hard it is to dislodge. I have to think that ex-Communists around the world thank God that the USA was around to pressure the Communist systems into insolvency.
Of course, that backstop isn’t in action at the moment. I think apprehension is lurking just below the surface in a lot of touchy places outside the US.
It we aren't there already, we are damn close.
“Demoralized passivity” seems to best describe the Pub party right now. Rush might be the exception, but I'm not sure he considers himself a Pub. “Demoralized passivity” also describes America's reaction to the gov’t inspired meltdown of the housing market & mortgage business, & the resulting financial crisis & bailout.
I'm wondering what it will take - if anything - to reverse the socialist course we have been on since FDR?
I am not optimistic! The socialists control education, the MSM, the “money”, gov’t,.... Now the banks, home ownership, & health care. Their policies have criminalized common behavior & speech. The ruling class fly on private jets, while the people fly coach.
DAMN CLOSE!
They will not give up until they have made the United States a western Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
They wrap their filth in a pretty package and call it something like “utopia”. Inside is depression and death and destruction.
They’re washing the kids brains now of God and country. The college professors are sealing the job. The media are confirming it. The entertainers are glorifying it.
They can’t defeat our military - it’s too strong. But they know how to beat us. It’s an inside job.
Kruschev said, “When the time is right, you will fall into our hands like a ripe fig”.
Antichrist is gathering the nations to do battle with Jesus Christ at Amegeddon. They will lose. They are losers.
What a writer.
This is one of the best summaries of the evils of socialism and the mentality of the liberal left that is driving us to adopt this destructive form of government that I have ever read. A beautifully written article that should be mandatory reading for all Freepers.
One of my favorite paragraphs is this one that is a perfect summary of the mindset of the Barak Obamas and Hillary Clintons and Whoopi Goldbergs of the world:
"What they gain is the pleasing aura of their own role as patrons within a world in which there exists a cheaply purchased sufficiency for all and in which they themselves are fêted for dreaming it up. They have managed to grow up without ever laboring or producing any object of use and yet, as a result of the overabundance of the world they have inherited, they are able to extend a middle-class sufficiency to all those who wish to claim it. They expect, of course, to remain a great deal above the masses of the poor, but at the same time to enjoy the well wishes of all they encounter. What could be more pleasant?"
I think you’re right. Every liberal seems to think that they will be part of the decision-making machinery- the Politburo, if you will. Little do they know that the powerful people consider them to be peasants, just like the rest of us.
The other ironic thing about the support of socialism in this country is the willingness to believe that “we’ll do it right.” The reason all socialist countries go down the same path is because they all make the same decisions for the same reasons. So would our socialists.
hh
The roots go back further than that to the leftist intellectuals of the 20's and 30's and the extremely successful efforts of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party to infiltrate our cultural and political institutions. What you see now is a natural result of a nearly 100 year effort initiated by Marxists that has resulted in leftist control of our educational institutions, our media and our political leadership.
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