On a chat list to which I subscribe, someone claimed that Obama is not a socialist and anyone who claims he is is a racist or doesn’t know what socialism is. So, not being a racist, I figured I’d best brush up on socialism. I thought that I’d first put down what I know about socialism and socialists and then maybe, from that, I could work up a picture of what socialism is. Here’s what I know:
Merriam-Webster defines socialism as: “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.”
The definition provided by the dictionary function of my computer’s operating system says:
“a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole” — a somewhat broader definition.
These seem to fit within my own definition of socialism, but there’s much more. My own observations are that:
Socialists worship the god Need. Need is to be served unreservedly. Whether an individual deserves something is not as important as the individual’s need. Thus we encourage neediness at the expense of worthiness. When favors are handed out based on need, people learn how to be needy, indeed, may make themselves needy, the better to qualify for favors.
My daughter had her eyes opened when she (a gas station/convenience store clerk) tried to rent an apartment for low-income people. That she had a job and paid taxes disqualified her. She had to take a place at a much older, dilapidated apartment complex that had not been set aside for the needy. Meanwhile, idle layabouts of her acquaintance who had no jobs and produced nothing of benefit to society received subsidies to live in the newer, much nicer low-income apartment building. That she paid taxes in support of such people did not escape her notice. Thus is Need’s will done.
Socialists believe that the collective’s needs are more important than the needs of any individual making up the collective. They claim to be doing what’s best for “society” even as they violate the rights of the persons making up that society. Most curious.
Socialism — the needs of the collective — is what caused some societies to throw a virgin into the volcano or cut the beating heart out of a young man’s chest with a stone knife. “Some must be sacrificed for the good of the whole,” they say. I submit that unless the virgin and the young man go to their deaths voluntarily, it is murder. These days Socialists don’t murder our young people outright to procure their sacrifice to Need, they instead take their sacrifice by pieces and over a much longer time, but take it they do.
Socialists, while claiming the moral high ground, found their system on theft. Virtue, they believe, lies in taking from those who earn and giving to those who do not.
Socialists believe that no matter how much you give, it’s not enough unless you suffer privation; only then are you moral. If you do not suffer, you are not giving enough. You must suffer privation. Those who come by their privation naturally (the ‘poor’) are more moral than the rest of us.
Socialists believe in spreading the misery around to everyone. It is “unjust,” they say, that some have it worse than others. Socialists would rather that we all suffer the same to the same degree. That’s “fair,” they say. Socialists would prefer that everyone be moderately unhappy rather than that some be happy and some not.
Socialists believe that it’s okay to do Bad Things as long as it’s for a Good Cause. The end justifies the means. Thus is theft their method, though they refer to it as “taxation” and paying one’s “fair share.” I submit that being forced to pay someone else’s share is not fair; it is theft.
Not content to merely steal our money, our income, they steal virtue itself Charity at the point of a gun is not charity, it is theft. To the degree that they take money from us by force, they deprive us of the ability to help those in need of our own volition. Thus we are less able to practice altruism. The virtue that is altruism is replaced by theft and called virtue.
Socialists invariably put into place a class of overseers who are “more equal” than the rest of us.
Socialists believe that life is a zero-sum activity. Thus Socialists believe that poor people are caused by rich people; some people are poor because other people are hogging all the money. “Share the wealth” is their motto — not so much a suggestion as a commandment — “Share the wealth OR ELSE!” Socialists do not understand how wealth is created, only how to appropriate it.
If capitalism is based on greed, then socialism is based on envy. Of these, envy is the worse condition. While greed can be satisfied by simply working harder to earn more for oneself, without harming anyone, envy can be satisfied by depriving others of what is theirs.
Socialists make a claim upon my energies, upon the product of my industry. Thus they claim my life itself. I work and produce, I labor and my labors are claimed by someone else — everyone else. The fruits of my labors are not my own. I am left whatever the Socialists choose to let me keep. The collective comes first. Need must be served.
The dictionary definitions of socialism talk of collective ownership and control of the “means of production.” What are we citizens if not a means of production? A factory is just a building with machinery without people to run it. We are the means of production. And I do not, according to Socialists, have a right to the fruits of my own labor. The collective does.
That’s certainly how it is here in the U.S.A. You don’t get to choose how to dispose of those fruits, the collective does, and has first claim. My needs and decisions are subordinate to the collective. Should I decide to put money aside for my child’s college education or for my retirement, the collective will not forego my taxes to permit me to do so. The collective has first claim on my income. If, after serving the collective, there’s enough left for the purposes I intended, I am fortunate.
But the choice is not mine to make. I do not own myself, the collective does.
I have concluded then that Socialism is slavery. Slavery with a medical plan, perhaps, but slavery nonetheless.