Yes, those are harsh words in the title. I'm not being ironic. I'm not exaggerating to make a point. I mean what I wrote quite sincerely and perfectly literally, and I can back up my assertion with historical facts.
First, I need to offer my view of history. I view history not as a boring collection of names, places and dates, but as a laboratory where ideas are tried and from which the results of those ideas can be analyzed. If a social idea is proposed, it's wise to look back at history and see where similar ideas have been tried in the past (they almost ALWAYS have been tried) and see what the results were. Those results can often be counter-intuitive.
Far from being workers paradises, Socialist nations have to build walls around themselves in order to keep their own people from fleeing to other places. Socialist governments have killed more people, their own citizens, in the 20th century than all the wars we fought during that time. An estimated 12 million people were killed by the Nazis (National Socialist Party), 20 million by Stalin in the Soviet Union, 50 million by Mao and his successors in China, and more untold millions in Cambodia, Korea, Viet Nam, Cuba, etc. With such a horrific track record, how can anyone see Socialism as a viable philosophy? Well, I've identified a few different types of people who embrace this failed idea:
1) Some people are completely unaware of the results of prior attempts to bring about Socialist societies. It looks good on paper, it looks FAIR. They never take a look back in history to other places where it's been attempted to see how they worked out. They never see the abject misery and outright horror brought about by Socialism. It looks good in theory, so it must work in practice, right? Well, as they say, in theory there's no difference between theory and practice, in practice there is. These are the people who insist that Cuba is a wonderful place to live, despite the remains of rafts on the beaches of Florida or the untold numbers of Cubans who didn't survive that trip. For those who would claim that some of these people are merely ignorant and not stupid, I'd offer that the evidence is freely available and totally conclusive. If you're old enough to vote or order a glass of wine in a restaurant and haven't availed yourself of that evidence you're only ignorant because you're too stupid to become educated. I repeat, stupid.
2) Some people actually DO see the history of Socialism's failure, but they conclude that it simply has never been attempted properly. They think the problem is with the implementation, not with the underlying philosophy. They completely mis-understand human nature, that such a society can't work. People will always look out for their own interests, they'll always take the path of least resistance, and they won't labor for that which doesn't provide benefit. These believers will tell you it WOULD work if only the RIGHT people were given the job of making it happen. (Kevin at The Smallest Minority refers to this concept as "Do it Again, Only Harder!") Just because it's failed every other time it's been tried doesn't mean it'll fail this time, right? Albert Einstein's definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Crazy.
3) This next group of Socialism's supporters is vile. They see the human wreckage left behind by prior attempts. They see that the vast majority of people living in a Socialist society exist in a state of misery, and that many people will be labeled as "enemies of the state" and incarcerated or outright murdered. They also note that for the elite, the higher ups, the party aparatchiks.life is pretty good. Instead of being one of the many miserable ones, they expect to be among the few well-off ones. Instead of being murdered, they expect to carry out the ordered the murder at least, or at best to be the one who does the ordering. Down that road lies the worst excesses of depravity. If that's not evil, I don't know what is.
4) Then there are the people who believe humans just haven't evolved far enough to be good Socialists, but that we will. They believe that human nature is progressing to a state where everyone will naturally work to the best of his ability and give the produce of their labor to those with the greatest need. They believe, in that Utopian society, that no one will be lazy, no one will be greedy, no one will do less work than they can or take more than they need. Perhaps there are some people with this viewpoint who are willing to sit back and let nature take its course in human evolution, believing that eventually we'll reach that higher plane of existence, but I've never met such a person (who I would classify as stupid). Most such true believers in Socialism are more than willing to hasten the process of evolution by eliminating people who don't wish to be Socialists. Oh, they would never come out and admit that they'd like to see guillotines set up in the town square. They use such innocuous terms as "re-education" or "the greater good" or "you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs". Whatever euphemism they choose, the result is the same, the gulag, the concentration camp, the killing field. The truly disgusting thing is that these people can act with clear consciences, they're trying to bring about Heaven on Earth, and if a few people have to experience a living Hell to do so, well, that's just the price you pay.
I've never met a Socialist (or Communist) who didn't fit one of these categories, and I expect I never will. This is why I have such a passionate hatred for Socialism. It's a philosophy that belongs in the trash bin of history, but because there's a steady supply of people who are either stupid, crazy or evil it keeps being put forth as a viable system of government. It's the job of the intelligent, sane and good to keep defeating it every time it reappears.
