Yet while socialists distance themselves from contemporary and historical examples of socialism, they usually struggle to explain what exactly they would do differently. Socialists tend to escape into abstraction, and talk of lofty aspirations rather than tangible institutional characteristics.
-Kristian Niemietz ( Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies)
That’s all we keep hearing – “you’ve never seen REAL Socialism because the right people weren’t involved”. Yeah, sure – and my Grandson still loves fairytales, too. Sorry, Socialist / Communist / Communitarian communes have been tried for centuries and not a single one could be considered to be a success. Certanly, the commune that Bernie Sanders was a part of didn’t think HE was the “Right Stuff” – they threw him out. You’d think he would have learned his Communist lesson but here he is, advocating for it at a national level.
Remember, it just hasn’t been the number of failed “experiments” (like the Soviet Union, ChiComs, Cuba, Venezuela, et al), it’s millions upon millions of people that were involved in promoting and “managing” Socialism. Seriously – if Socialism was such a great idea, you’d have thought that even just a few hundred people would have been the “Right Ones” to have gotten it correct, amirite? Sure, successful in start revolutions and civil wars – governing under such principles has turned out to be a fool’s errand for them but nothing but misery and death for everyone else.
And, like commenter Bruce Currie, they all avoid the question that Niemietz brings up – well, if it wasn’t right then, what would be right about it now?
They can’t answer because there isn’t any “right” answer. In fact, there is no possible answer because Socialism / Commutarianism / Communism requires a re-wiring of the human soul (which the American Left keeps saying is “evolving” or “educating” the rest of us) which most of us won’t allow because, well, we hate busybodies telling us how to think and how to behave.
That’s totalitarian in nature and that’s the only way that the Left can “win” for a short period of time. Because all it takes is some people to say “No!” and it starts to fall apart.
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
