Ron rants on socialism.

Boy, I find it hard to believe that Bernie Sanders, after seeing what has happened in Cuba, Russia, Greece, Venezuela, and everyplace else socialism/communism has been tried, still intends to run on what’s basically a pure socialist platform in the next genelec. Hell, he’d be 80 years old in his first year on the job.

I’m 77 and know what loss of short-term memory is like. I often have to stop and think how to accomplish something I did automatically 20 years ago, such as fix a rear-tire flat on a multi-gear bicycle. Also have trouble making routine decisions about ordinary things, such as when to trim the hedge, when to wash the dogs, whether to shave or not.

Can’t imagine myself managing the last division I had before retiring from the USN — repair and maintenance of systems for ComSubPac, CinCPacFlt, Com7thFlt, CinCPac, and other major commands. Did it, did it pretty damned well, and got thru it psychogically unscathed. But I know full well I couldn’t do that job today even HALF as well as I did back then.

Hell, I’m not even confident that I could manage teaching 4 sections of students each semester with all that preparation, reading, grading, counseling, explaining, justifying, arguing. Did that, too. Did it well. Enjoyed it. But doubt I’d have the energy or the power of concentration and focus to do it today for more than one or two days a week, certainly not 52 weeks a year.

And besides, Bernie, why is it that you never got out of the hippie mindset and realized what a disaster socialism always turns out to be when practiced in real life instead of in liberal classroom discussions? Good grief! It’s as if you never read a history book or watched current events on TV.

Socialism . . . the very essence of failure and the dream ofignorance. The only thing it has ever produced regularly is the equality of suffering for the masses. As Churchill said, the inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.

The basic goal of socialism, at least ostensibly, is equality. Its basic tenet is that everyone should bask in the rewards of communal property and no one own or control more than anyone else, thereby eliminating greed and envy and deprivation.

Some believe income equality is impossible to achieve, but Castro’s Cuba shows that it’s surprisingly easy. Simply have the state confiscate all the money, property, and assets of the population and turn everyone into a pauper.

Everyone is equally poor, except of course, the power elite who do the confiscating. They live like kings, jet-set around the world, hang out with celebrities, and luxuriate on the Mediterranean. But to stamp out “income inequality” and make the masses economically equal, that’s how it’s done.

Socialism operates on the principle that if you are alive, everyone else is obligated to help you survive. Capitalism as practiced in America believes that you have the right to TRY to survive, to have nice things, to succeed in your endeavors, but it does not guarantee that you will.

As long as mankind is human, some will acquire wealth and power over others. Without awareness of something absent from your life, you won’t miss it. But once you see someone else with something interesting that you don’t have, you want it.

Life is not fair. Bad things happen to good people and bad people often become rich and powerful. Luck of the draw. To make everyone equal, the drive to succeed must be turned off. Incentive to produce surplus must be inhibited. People must behave like insects in a hive, driven by pheromones, mind control, and dependency.

But in essence, poor people can NOT be elevated into prosperity by confiscating the wealth of others. Anyone who receives food or money or medicine without working has to take it from someone who DID work for it, which means he has become a parasite, or a thief.

Government simply cannot provide things to anyone without taking it first from someone else. And when half the populace realizes that they don’t have to work since the other half does and can support them, the working half realizes that they’re being cheated out of half their efforts, so they quit, too.

Maggie Thatcher summed it all up very neatly: “Trying to cure the British problems with socialism was like trying to cure leukemia with leeches.”

Every country that has tried socialism or communism has basically failed to achieve the dream perpetuated by its philosophy and propaganda. What happens is that the people look at the US and say, “Boy, those guys have some really neat stuff. Why can’t we have things like that?”

Human nature – greed, envy, lust, energy, suspicion– all those things constantly work against the myth of equality that socialism depends upon. People are NOT created equal. Some are short, some are sick, some are lucky, some are evil. Equality in a nation of hundreds of millions would require either some very powerful behavior-modification drugs or a LOT of lobotomies.

In many ways, socialism (or wealth redistribution)is just another name for capitalism for people who aren’t lucky or rich. And I find it kinda amazing that in Venezuela people are starving and out in the streets protesting socialism while in the US fat liberals are out in the streets demanding socialism.

Another excellent Ron rant. I have a few tings to add. Bernie, like Karl Marx, has never held a real job. Bernie has three houses. Pretty good for someone who has never held a real job.

Venezuelans voted for their socialism. South Americans are really good at falling for the BS that is socialism. Chavez ruined his country, but he made a lot of money doing it.

Another quote by Maggie Thatcher regarding socialism. “Eventually you run out of other peoples’ money.”