The Dead End of the Spectrum
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Via HBL, I have learned that Walter Williams has
published a piece in Investor's Business Daily that asks an overdue and yet timely question:
... Why are the horrors of Nazism so well-known and widely condemned, but not those of socialism and communism? What goes untaught -- and possibly is covered up -- is that socialist and communist ideas have produced the greatest evil in mankind's history.Williams then recites the enormous death tolls of the Communist regimes of Russia and China during the twentieth century -- regimes that too many intellectuals have an affinity for despite their essential resemblance to Nazi Germany -- before making the following pithy observation:
You say, "Williams, what in the world are you talking about? Socialists, communists and their fellow travelers, such as the Wall Street Occupiers supported by our president, care about the little guy in his struggle for a fair shake! They're trying to promote social justice."
Let's look at some of the history of socialism and communism.
Today's leftists, socialists and progressives would bristle at the suggestion that their agenda differs little from those of Nazi, Soviet and Maoist mass murderers. One does not have to be in favor of death camps or wars of conquest to be a tyrant. The only requirement is that one has to believe in the primacy of the state over individual rights.None of this is news to regular readers here -- see the Salsman link. Nevertheless, it is encouraging to see that it stands a good chance of being heard by those who might need to hear it.
-- CAV
4 comments:
Here's the difference between socialism/communism and fascism: Under both systems the unruly peasantry that drinks the sort of coffee served in truck stops and gas stations is placed in its proper place - under the thumb of rulers who tell them what to do in order to prevent them from the sort of anti-social behavior that such backwards primates will inevitably commit if they were allowed to remain free.
But under socialism/communism, the behind the scenes elite consists of enlightened Good People who do NOT drink the sort of coffee served in truck stops and gas stations - people such as intellectuals, academics and others who have an appreciation for the finer things in life and do not allow themselves in any way to be influenced by or contaminated by the low tastes and vulgarity of the peasants that they rule.
Under fascism, the behind the scenes elites consist of those who, themselves, drink the sort of coffee served in truck stops and gas stations. Fascists are evil not because they oppress and sometimes kill - which the socialists/communists do as well but in the name of an Enlightened Good. The problem with fascism is that the people who are oppressed and killed often consist of Good People who do NOT drink the sort of coffee served in truck stops and gas stations. And, as such, it represents a reversal of the proper moral order. It is a case where those being oppressed ought to be leading the oppression.
And as for socialism/communism needing to oppress and kill unruly and unenlightened peasants and other forms of rabble - well, in order to have a truly outstanding cup of latte it is necessary to break up and grind a few coffee beans and to expropriate milk from the cow.
Hah! I was wondering where you were going with that until the end. Now I realize I was foolish to wonder what sort of milk one ought to drink with "fair trade" coffee.
The Left knows that the distinction between communism and fascism is bogus. The mainstream's failure to grasp their commonalities is a signal to them that they still have a chance -- a chance to develop another mutation of their old flu virus, that differs in its inessential surface proteins but not its nucleus, and pass it off as new and different, unrelated to the old diseases even as it repeats the same inflammation patterns of history.
They know that any keying on essentials, the real commonalities between all the forms of tyranny, stops them cold, present and future. It's why they hate Ayn Rand so damn much; she represents a source of ideological antibodies that key on the nucleus, not the outer shell, of their virus. It's why they won't engage her on ideas, why their entire effort is not to discuss her, but to wave people off. It's why, of all the institutions, the public schools are the absolute last ones they'll surrender.
Some conservatives despise Rand for exactly the same reasons, usually those of a theocratic bent.
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