Many years back, when I was in Germany, I had many conversations about what a good life consists of. I do not wish to denigrate Germans, but they are with whom I had the discussions. Many of them explained that a “good life” was one where a person had a good job, a family, a nice “flat” (apartment or other home), nice clothing and perhaps an automobile. They did not understand how I, as an American could expect and demand so much more. Several of them told me that they felt my expectations could only lead to an unhappy life, because there is no way in the modern world people could still think in such a manner as I. To them, we should all accept a centralized government made-up of people, who with esoteric thought, control and for the most part determine the course of our lives. They were more than willing to embrace socialism. It was interesting, they also understood that communism, nazism, Maoism, and all the other totalitarian forms of government are fascism, were just variations on that theme. There has to be, as in any hive, a “queen”, “Great Leader”, “Führer”, someone who has the ultimate responsibility. To embrace such systems, people must allow themselves to be subjugated under the control of others.
The modern day “liberal” attempts to convince others that socialism/communism are different than fascism. They claim that fascism is “far-right” and try to deceive by magnifying, then arguing subtle differences in the definitions of socialism, communism, and fascism. The only differences between socialism, communism, Nazism, Maoism, and all forms of fascism are the names and the addresses of their leaders. “Libertarian” thought is “far-right”.
When the great Ph.D. thinkers in our “institutions of higher education” present their grandiose lectures of the great attributes of socialism, they always start by ignoring the flawed premise of such systems. They pontificate about the great egalitarian society that could be created where we all will live in blissful harmony, all our wants and needs fulfilled. It sounds so wonderful to those students of philosophy and political “science”. That is until the flaw is identified and someone suggests they gain a holistic understanding of what it is to be a human being, particularly one of American society and culture. We are furiously independent, free-willed thinkers, at least a large percentage of us. Socialist/fascist systems cannot survive if there is a large percentage of free-willed thinkers who are willing to protect their liberty. Yes, we do have in our society many who will go along with the promoters of socialism, as others have throughout the past century, whether it was Russia, Germany, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba, or Venezuela.
Those promoters are here in our country, playing on emotions, using the same old tired rhetoric of oppression of the masses, systemic injustices, and promises of making everyone truly equal in the next utopian society, as if humans were ants in some nest, driven only by instincts. Join or follow them if you wish. It is your right to have the opportunity to learn first hand how such people and their ideas have and will always bring about the shared suffering of humanity. It does not matter who brings forth these “economic” systems. The theme will always be the same, remove individual human identity, spirit, and self-determination under the guise of safety, protection, security, equality so that the collective can become all important and powerful, under the control of the omnipotent few.
After the defeat of the Wehrmacht at Stalingrad, Hitler made a statement that every believer or supporter of socialism, communism, nazism, Maoism, fascism and all the other totalitarianisms should learn and understand, because it is what you are agreeing to and signing up for, “What is life? Life is the nation. The individual must die anyway. Beyond the life of the individual is the nation”.
For those of you who think somewhat as I, who realize and understand the flawed premise of socialism, let us keep reaching for the stars, doing wonderful wild things, and living our lives with meaning and purpose, as free from the oppressors as possible.
A good friend of mine made me aware that socialism had been tried in the Americas nearly four-hundred years ago.
