As a conservative social worker, I stand out like a tar pit in a snowstorm. My family leans to the left like a genetic tower of Pisa and I live in a state that is heavily dependent on federal jobs. How this has happened is beyond me, but there it is. I’m surrounded. And baffled by what I hear.
When I’ve asked my friends and family why they want socialism, generally the response is terse: “To help people.” When I’ve asked why they reject the existence of nation states and hope for a socialist one-world order, none could provide a clear answer. Mostly they retreated to the sound bite: “It would be nicer.” “We have to share the planet.” Only one older family member had a clear position, “Because of all the atrocities perpetrated by nationalism.”
I countered by asking: “And would socialism eradicate toxic nationalism?”
He said, “I hope so.”
The Problem with Socia...
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So, I asked, “How does the state taking over production prevent future atrocities?”
He answered, “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. You’re being hostile.”
And that sums up many of the dialogues.
He was right about one thing. He will need a lot of hope because progressive ideology is based on one part wishful thinking and the other part, well, wishful thinking. Did Russia stop behaving like a nation-state after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917? Did it stop brutalizing its own people when the state took over production? Did post-Mao China retreat into its own borders and cease interfering in world politics? Did it allow unfettered immigration? Was anyone actually sharing anything? And, by the way, how’s Venezuela doing these days?
All socialism does, like its kissing-cousin, communism, is put a greater concentration of power in even fewer people than national capitalism does, and the corruption continues without any impediment because human nature remains unchanged and unredeemed.
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Millennials, as a group, don’t seem perturbed by the possibilities. They are even more affiliated with the progressive tenets of the Democratic party. They are strongly anti-national, anti-religious, and, despite being skeptical of institutions, they are more than happy to give ever-increasing power to the federal government.
The other problem progressive millennials have is that, as a group, they don’t concede that there is even such a thing as human nature, replete with base impulses. To them, humanity is perfectible (with a little government help and a lot of regulation).
The truth, however, is that human nature is bifurcated and fallen. As such, there will be atrocities and power grabs no matter what economic system we have. The question more appropriately becomes not which system is “nicest,” but which economic and social system best deals with the reality of human nature, its innate indolence and selfishness, its ambition and creativity, to corral and utilize all of it so the best outcome can be enjoyed by the most people. So far, based on worldwide experience, a gently regulated capitalism seems to produce the most good for the broadest segment of humanity.
