My Socialist Past

The American Thinker ^ | March 15, 2009 | Jeffrey Folks

[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?

[TXnMA]

"Very good comment, but I think you misunderstood my point."

Let me try again: All men are created equal -- but all "cultures" are not...

Closer?

[Trailerpark Badass]

BFL

[PeaRidge]

Another good comment.

[sweetiepiezer]

bttt

[PeaRidge]

Wrong conclusion. Try again.

[The Great RJ]

If, God forbid, Obama is re-elected in 2012, I see the US by 2016 looking much like East Germany complete with party informers.

[behzinlea]

You’re probably right that relatively few people will ever read this fine essay. However, I’ve done my part. I emailed the link to the article to my most well-connected, right-thinking friends. If they do the same, and I think they will, it could start a small brush fire of exposure.

[Osage Orange]

Surely you aren’t serious?

[PeaRidge]

Serious about what?

[GonzoII]

"To permit a large number of men to live free of charge is to encourage laziness and all the disorders that follow; it is to render the condition of the idler preferable to that of the man who works...." (qtd. by G. Himmelfarb, Roads to Modernity 179)."

Excellent Post!

[Jim Noble]

After all, what will they do with 50 million conservatives who refuse to cooperate?

History teaches us that it won't be 50 million.

We'll be lucky if it's 50 000.

[Molly T.]

My philosophy on the two parties is this...throw them all in a sack...when you pull one out....no difference at all...that old saying”you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours” does away with any shred of decency/moral core/conscience or LOYALTY to ones country, obviously.

There surely must be a special place for them all....I feel that over the past elections, it's all been pretty much cut and dried before we even went to the polls....like maybe the so called “leaders” met in a back room and said, OK, it's our party's’ turn to win this time around...I guess at 76 yrs. of age, my cynicism has caught with me.

[Osage Orange]

You know exactly what I was referring to..........

[Brad’s Gramma]

bttt

[PeaRidge]

You were referring to your interpretation of my comment. I asked what that was.

[ODDITHER]

“The difference between socialism and freedom is what we choose to make of ourselves from that time forward.”
The difference is that with socialism/communism it is what the state chooses to make of us,
Democratic Republic is what we choose to make of ourselves.

[Osage Orange]

Nope...you never asked that.

And I will ask you again...are YOU serious?

Last post from me...if you are going to play post tag.

[PeaRidge]

And your question specifically is what?

[Max in Utah]

My philosophy on the two parties is this...throw them all in a sack...when you pull one out....no difference at all...that old saying”you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours” does away with any shred of decency/moral core/conscience or LOYALTY to ones country, obviously.

We keep on re-electing professional politicians. This is what they do. It's their nature.

My idea of term limits: ONE TERM. They'll just have to work for their money the rest of their lives, like everyone else.

[Molly T.]

I agree with you 100%....my daughter and I were just having that conversation yesterday ....she said she thought that is the only way to get rid of all the corruption in the state AND federal gov. The clowns in Congress now are sure a far cry from the brave and patriotic men who traveled to Washington, D.C. and stayed one term...I’ve heard some would fore go any salary, others would go for ONE DOLLAR.