I think I finally “get” what makes Socialists, Socialists.
For as long as I can remember, I have considered myself a Capitalist, with a capital “C.” I believe in free markets, free enterprise, personal responsibility, and the idea that, if left alone – free of government meddling, the system will self-correct. I believe that entrepreneurs are what made this country great. And I believe that it’s essential for everyone to have “skin in the game” – if you get something for nothing, you’re a ‘user’ and not a ‘producer.’
My believe system is an anathema to Socialists.
I’ve long been curious – what makes Socialists tick? I mean, it’s bloody obvious to anybody that Socialism is a failure as a governmental system. You have but to look no further than Cuba, or if you’re old-school, the U.S.S.R., or today’s Europe, to see that Socialism simply doesn’t produce the results and successes that Capitalism does. Yet, every time a Socialist program fails, True Believers in Socialism have the answer: more Socialism.
I remember in the brilliant BBC comedy, Blackadder Goes Forth, Col. Melchett calls in Blackadder to reveal the top-secret plan for attacking the Hun in WWI. The dialog goes something like this:
Melchett: Good man. Now, Field Marshal Haig has formulated a
brilliant new tactical plan to ensure final victory in the
field. [they gather around a model of the battlefield]
Blackadder: Now, would this brilliant plan involve us climbing out of
our trenches and walking slowly towards the enemy sir?
Darling: How can you possibly know that Blackadder? It's classified
information.
Blackadder: It's the same plan that we used last time, and the
seventeen times before that.
Melchett: E-E-Exactly! And that is what so brilliant about it! We
will catch the watchful Hun totally off guard! Doing
precisely what we have done eighteen times before is
exactly the last thing they'll expect us to do this time!
(For you Socialists out there, in the preceding example, Blackadder is the Capitalist, and Melchett is the Socialist.)
Now, you’d think that a country that has seen this kind of institutionalized stupidity and lived to tell about it, would be reluctant to keep butting their collective heads against that particular collective wall. And you’d be wrong. British PM Gordon Brown was in town from across the pond this week, to explain that what they REALLY need in Europe to get this Socialism thing really cracking, is to suck the Colonies into their scheme.
Thanks, Gordon. Really. Go have a muffin, and include us out, thank you very much.
Of course, we have bigger problems, Obama being the biggest. Hard to fight the scourge of Socialism abroad when your Fearless Leader is trying to bring it home to roost. But again, that begs the question of what motivates these well-meaning, but clueless idiots. And I think I’ve got it.
At the root of Capitalism lies an attitude of “let me alone and I’ll solve my own problems, make my own way, and win my own battles. I don’t need your help, nor do I want it. Too many strings attached. And don’t ask me to solve your problems, either. Your problems are your own.”
At the root of Socialism is a desire to run things…especially everybody else’s things.And that’s really the heart and soul of it.
Capitalists want a system where everybody can succeed, based on their own abilities. Socialists want a system whereby THEY decide who succeeds, based on their total control of the system.
Your average, garden-variety Socialist thinks they know better than you do, how to run your life. And they desperately want the chance to do so. When their plans fail, it doesn’t deter them one whit. Nope. They simply believe that they weren’t sincere enough, didn’t try hard enough, or (most likely) didn’t have enough control, and spend enough (of your) money to make the plan a success. Think about the attempts at Socialism in this country, and point to a success. I dare you. Try and find one. Medicare, Medicaid, The New Deal, The Great Society, Social Security, public Education – you name it, and I’ll point to a program that has been an abject failure. Tell a Socialist that, and they’ll respond with the argument that we simply didn’t spend enough money on the program to allow it to succeed. And if you boost the budget and it still fails, the same argument applies…no amount of money is ever enough to prove that a program is a failure. Ever.
Back to the BritComm, Blackadder, in the opening scene of that same episode, Private Baldrick is engaged in what seems like a sure-fire plan to achieve his goal, in this case, assuring his survival. (In an ironic turn, the guy that plays Baldrick, Tony Robinson, was at one time the President of the British Actors Union):
Blackadder: Baldrick, what are you doing out there?
Baldrick: I'm carving something on this bullet sir.
Blackadder: What are you carving?
Baldrick: I'm carving "Baldrick", sir.
Blackadder: Why?
Baldrick: It's a cunning plan actually.
Blackadder: Of course it is.
Baldrick: You see, you know they say that somewhere there's a bullet
with your name on it?
Blackadder: Yes?
Baldrick: Well, I thought if I owned the bullet with my name on it,
I'd never get hit by it, 'cos I won't ever shoot myself.
Blackadder: Oh, shame.
Baldrick: And, the chances of there being two bullets with my name
on them are very small indeed.
Blackadder: That's not the only thing around here that's "very small
indeed". Your brain for example, is so minute, Baldrick,
that if a hungry cannibal cracked your head open there
wouldn't be enough inside to cover a small water-biscuit.
Now wouldn’t it be lovely if Socialists would step up to the front, and put their whack-job theories to the test (without the rest of the country’s participation or pain, of course), and let them stand or fall on their own? I think that would be a cunning plan that I could get behind. So, Obama – wanna try Socialism? You first…just leave the country out of it. The rest of us know a bunch of bad ideas when we see them, and you, sir, have a rather large load of them.
Leave a Reply