By Cliff Reece
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” Winston Churchill
“Socialism has a record of failure so blatant only an intellectual could ignore it.” Thomas Sowell
“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” Margaret Thatcher
“It’s easier to fool the masses than to convince them they’re being fooled.” Mark Twain
Socialism started with the rantings of a partially demented drunkard and wife-beater by the name of Karl Marx (pictured below). He was born in Germany in 1818 but died in London in 1883 after being permanently expelled from his native country.
He fathered 8 children from two women, his wife and his housekeeper. He advocated in his writings the destruction, dissolution, and abolition of the family in favour of a more broadly based communal socialist society.
He was lazy, jobless (despite a good education and relative wealth) and has been described as bitter, profoundly jealous of successful people, perpetually grieved that he achieved so little in life, and hateful towards humankind.
He blamed the “capitalist system” for his failure.
He was a heavy smoker and grossly overweight and died from bronchitis. For more than ten years before he died, he was troubled by boils that covered the skin on his chest, neck, buttocks, and back. Because of these painful, pus-filled sores, he could not sit for long periods of time.
Marx also suffered from liver derangement, eye irritation, hemorrhoids, and headaches.
When he was nearing his final moments in his armchair, his housekeeper asked him if he had any final words that she could keep for posterity. Marx responded, “Go on, get out!
Karl Marx’s failures and general disposition at least partially explains why he came up with the ludicrous ideas he promoted under the name of ‘socialism’.
He proposed that the best way of running an economy is to have everything controlled by a centralised bureaucracy and government.
Private enterprise was to be banned or so heavily controlled that small businesses would eventually fail as a result of corruption and/or excessive regulatory constraints.
Freedom of speech was to also to be banned – anyone speaking out against the centralised government were to be suitably punished and, if necessary, eliminated.
We are seeing this play out right now in socialist/communist countries such as China, and North Korea.
In these countries there is very little personal freedom; no free speech or free press and their governments own, or at least control, all means of production.
History has shown that socialism tends towards totalitarianism, corruption, and poverty. The USSR was the most notorious example of this—and Venezuela the most recent.
Liberal democracies – such as our own country – offer a far greater level of personal freedom. Citizens are free to own businesses and property; to pursue upward mobility; operate in a free-market economy and, most importantly have the legal right to freedom of speech.
Former British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, said that the inherent vice of liberal democracy/capitalism is that it is the unequal sharing of blessings, and the inherent benefit of socialism is that it is the equal sharing of misery.
And yet given all this, research shows that younger people in particular are being attracted to socialism. The main reason is seen to be that they haven’t learned how it destroys innovation, destroys supply of goods and services, and destroys the incentive to work harder or smarter.
Socialism, together with its extreme version communism has also led to literally millions of unnecessary deaths and a massive amount of human suffering especially in China, USSR (Russia and its former captive states), North Korea, Cambodia and Venezuela.
Another reason why young people in western democracies are falling under the spell of socialism/communism is that they have lived in prosperous times, generally don’t know real hardship, and are indoctrinated to believe success is evil and always at the cost of some other poor person’s suffering.
And many have attended universities where they have been indoctrinated with left-wing ideology.
Despite a history of economic and social failure in socialist/communist countries, adherents have become very adept at devising and implementing effective propaganda and they’ve also learnt that indoctrination should start at a very young age.
Russian socialist/communist leader Vladmir Ulyanov – better known as Lenin – proclaimed: “Give me one generation and I will make them Communists.”
We are seeing that played out today throughout the western world, starting in schools.
Only five countries have retained communism: China, Laos, Vietnam, North Korea, and Cuba. China and Vietnam have adopted the West’s capitalist market system in order to achieve success. The people in all these five countries have only very limited personal freedom.
There are many more countries with socialist governments and limited freedom.
So where does Australia sit in relation to socialism? The sad and alarming truth is we are rapidly heading down the path to socialism.
And that isn’t surprising given that our government includes many life-long socialists like Prime Minister Tony Albanese. More importantly, the ALP Caucus – where all the decisions are made – is now dominated by their extreme left-wing faction.
Former Labor MP Michael Danby and others within the ALP have confirmed this in recent months. Danby said just the other day on Sky News that the current Albanese government is “totally dominated” by the socialist left. And he should know after so many years in the ranks of the ALP.
And, of course, the Greens have gone well beyond socialism – they are now a firmly entrenched Marxist organisation in everything but name. Their ‘god’ is good ole Karl, the wonderful little guy described above …… pus-filled boils included. 😉
Their primary objective is to disrupt society in the tradition of Marxism with the intention of then gaining political power, as they have done in countries such as Germany.
As for the Teals, they don’t really know what they are……but as long as it doesn’t interfere with their garden parties and fashion shows they don’t really care.
Their single-issue global-warming crusade to ‘save the planet’ has certainly gained support among the pseudo elite living in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and northern beaches electorates.
But that will undoubtedly fade once their supporters become aware of how ridiculous that is in a country like ours that only produces just over 1% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
It will eventually dawn on these people that nothing they do will have any impact whatsoever on global warming. All it does is make their renewables-producing financial backers even richer.
The humorous but very apt descriptions below summarise the political options available to us:
Philosophers Corner
Socialism
You have two cows; the government gives you another one but then taxes you for the privilege of ownership.
Communism
You have two cows; the government takes both and gives you the milk.
Fascism
You have two cows; the government takes both and sells you the milk.
Nazism
You have two cows; the government takes both and then shoots you!
Bureaucratism
You have two cows; the government takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and them throws the milk away.
Capitalism
You have two cows; you sell one and buy a bull.
