Political Silliness
Col Mike Walker, USMC (retired)
All,
Recently heard someone claim that socialism is "the greatest" because it provides public roads and schools, fire stations and the like.
Good grief!
Every society provides for the common good. That is not called “socialism,” its called governance!
Socialism came into being in the 19th century and its central theme is state control over the means of production. Socialism is about placing tremendous economic power in the hands of a small bureaucratic elite.
Conversely, societies acting for the common good (in a myriad of forms) have been around for all recorded history and before.
A Chinese emperor erected the Great Wall in the 3rd century BC for national defense. Another emperor had the Grand Canal built during the 6th and 7th centuries to enhance commerce and food transportation.
The Roman kings built roads and bridges in the 8th century BC. The Roman Republic did likewise in the 2nd century BC and the Roman Empire continued in the same vein for the next five centuries.
The form of government and economic system were and are irrelevant.
Democracies, oligarchies, meritocracies, dictatorships, even theocracies, tribes and primitive clans act together to some degree or another for mutual benefit.
For socialists to claim “sole credit” for public works is anachronistic nonsense (and for you brilliantly educated socialists, that is not a reference to spiders).
Saying you support funding for firemen or a new bridge no more makes you a socialist then it makes you a theocrat or imperialist or monarchist or a republican.
Societies did quite nicely in providing for the common good for serval millennia before the creation of a socialist philosophy and will do equally well in the future in its complete absence -- probably better.
I guess tricking the poorly informed works with a lot of people.
For those of us with a modicum of common sense and empowered with a reasonable education, the socialists' claim comes across as a dishonest con job.
Which is one more reason to reject its stale and tired tenets. Tell the truth.
Liar! Liar! Pants on Fire!
Mike Walker
Meridian, Idaho
