How does this parasitical philosophy still exist? And I use “parasitical” as without a rich Engels to support him; there would have been no Marx.
Glen Reynolds asks the important question: But, like all viruses, it needs receptors to get inside. What aspects of our culture does it bind to? Just like COVID needs a spot on a cell in order to invade it. I think it starts with that hackneyed phrase that has now been taught for 2-3 generations now:
Sharing is Caring
And who doesn’t want to be nice and be helpful to others (generically speaking, of course)? It is the Collectivism started early, that “sharing” is a high-value attribute which may be a reason why the older norms of honest, truthfulness, courage, work ethic, and others aren’t being erased so much as they aren’t discussed anymore. It’s a redirection done with subtlety.
Reynolds added a message from a friend in his post(reformatted, emphasis mine, commentary mine):
Re communism. It’s because young people are idealists, and believe history is not relevant to them, because they invented everything when they discovered it. Including communism.
That would be their ignorance showing, to be kind. I could have just used “stupidity”.
It’s because people in bubbles like academia are sheltered enough that by and large they maintain youthful delusions. It’s because powerful people, never subject to the strictures of the policy they push, have long recognized that that the false compassion socialism and communism cloak themselves in are useful tools for gaining, maintaining and expanding their power.
Add to that people whose ideas which then get implemented by Law generally aren’t subjected to the deprivations those ideas serve onto others. That way, they can continue to hold up communism and socialism as Bright Lights (and assiduissly never talk about the downsides or just brush them aside with “no one has ever implemented TRUE socialism | communism yet!”. Er, yes, they have – to the extent that they can be and they have never ended up well.
To the young, the world is new. It is being experienced for the first time. Communism and socialism speak to their notions of fairness.
Sharing is caring, right? Communism and socialism is ALL about “equity” – everyone is the same and everyone gets the same.
Except for the elite nomenklatura – the new bosses that supplanted the “old capitalist” bosses. Which they never tell you, in keeping these young’uns ignorant of what capitalism is, that you were always able to escape a capitalist boss for a different one. The nomenklature you are stuck with forever (unless you shoot your way out).
And this next bit is why sound economics and history is no longer taught in our Government school systems:
Capitalism, property, the rights of other people who are not like them sound like something old people who never experienced this amazing new world talk about.
The problem is, some of our old people DID experience and came here. The rest of us learned from other countries’ experiences and history and figured out that “C & S” is all malarkey and a con for those who wish to practice their sleight of hand in taking your Rights to add their Power over you.
(HT: Instapundit)
