The people of Spain have overwhelmingly voted in a Socialist government, and in November of 2004, the American public will do the same, barring a miracle of divine intervention or a sudden attack of good sense. Following Spain isn’t all that good of an idea in the first place, but the Spanish are making rapid strides in technology and they want out of Iraq’s “war” that is a sovereign nation’s religious conflict (Sunnis, Shiites, and other factions of Islam). Why Socialism will help Spain, other than some political promises to get Spain out of the Middle East conflict, is not all that clear.
What is Spain calling Socialism? What is the United States calling it? People should call it what it is: totalitarian government with a directed population and a predetermined mindset. To disguise the government’s control over popular thinking (which might be an oxymoron now) the government promises the people various and sundry goodies, and it is obvious now that people the world over prefer safety to liberty. Socialism will guarantee that they have neither while thinking they have both!
Liberty calls for personal responsibility for one’s actions and a vision of freedom for all persons under a responsible framework of basic law and order, one that is fairly well summed up in the Ten Commandments. Spain at one time was radically Catholic, now it is radically irreligious as a nation. The United States was founded on Christian principles even though the founders were careful not to make it a nation with any state religion. However, everyone in early America knew something about the Bible even if all they knew was that it was used in churches.
Socialism replaces God with the deity of the state.
As soon as that transition is made, there is no moral compass left by which to guide the affairs of men and nations, no absolute accountability that all men fear, and no impending judgment or any hereafter nonsense, we are reduced to animals seeking the safety of the herd under the leadership of the Great Caribou.
If people thought about socialism in that way, they perhaps could be insulted enough to want no part of it. However the snake oil of socialism is always sold to the people as a cure-all for the ailments of the people, most of which consists of greed and welfare handouts. We are no longer in an age that looks forward to the great hereafter, but one that lives in an eternal “now” and grabs for all the cash it can get, any way it can be obtained. Morality is of no concern; ethics is in the dictionary and virtue is an antiquated religious notion to be discarded. We want to feel good no matter what it takes to feel good, just do it.
No matter how many times socialism fails, and it has failed time and again in Europe and nations elsewhere, it still carries with it the universal appeal of something for everyone, generally without much or any work on the part of the recipients. The fact that people are under socialist control means less to them than the perception of security they receive from government handouts. A pound of potatoes for your liberty, folks, it’s a deal you can’t pass up. And they don’t.
Why is it people would rather feel “safe and secure” under harsh government control than to feel free? Actually, socialism gives the people the feeling they are free; the very word has come to substitute for communism, which has earned its due fear from people as being Stalinist. “Communism” stirs up images of the KGB, the midnight knock, execution squads, government force and human bondage. “Socialism” is a much kinder word, one that promises the redistribution of wealth so that no one must do without. In the United States, no one should have to do without universal healthcare (a new entitlement), or perhaps even a new car or home theater. Why should these be reserved for the rich? The government will redistribute enough of these “necessities” to keep people contented and fearful of freedom. The same is probably true in Spain. We live in a global age where the goodies made in one country are actually used all over the world, and everyone is making the same things for different companies, so that the labels “made in –” are meaningless now. They have to be made somewhere, don’t they?
Under the growing socialism in the United States, regardless of which party has been in control of the weak leadership and compromising politicians, “made in the USA” is of no worth. It has no more value than the old time religion that kept us a free people, with pride of workmanship and a high sense of responsibility and accountability. When socialism replaced God as provider, the state replaced God as final arbiter of good and evil. Since then, all semblance of true social order has broken down and we are setting up a nation that is no better morally than a colony of apes on a tropical island.
Darwin had it somewhat backwards. Man is not evolving, he came as the highest creation in the universe and has devolved into the most bestial, evil, self-centered animal in the world’s zoo.
Americans notoriously vote their pocketbooks as a whole. Of course there are people of conscience and a sense of responsibility, but they are the minority and generally the older people who recall the meaning of liberty and its value. When my generation is gone, there will be nothing to hold together any semblance of a moral nation, because the new generations have not been instructed in true values. They have been indoctrinated with the state’s values.
That’s the socialism for which Spain just voted, and for which America is most likely to vote in November 2004. The state will set the value system, indoctrinate the children in statism, and make them grateful for the state handouts.
The ludicrous part of this is that the heads of the socialist regimes want the power and money to control, and dole out as they see fit to retain their offices. The people believe they are receiving some sort of “fair” treatment because they get handouts. A bag of carrots for your liberty. Thus the rich are ruling the poor but not under the name of monarchy or communism which stir up perceptions of evil rulers. Socialists have portrayed themselves as the white hat good guys and the people say “yes, the hats are white.” So much for the power of words and perception to gain a single end: control.
Terrorism, of course, has been an invaluable aid in the collectivist march toward a one world order of elitists. The various acts of terror strip people of their minds and they crowd into worship centers first, to pray to an unknown “god” of some sort, and then they look to the government, liberty and freedom in hand, begging the government to save them at any price. Terrorism is really a priceless political convenience for the controllers, since it can do hundreds of times more, thousands of times faster, than movements, reason or subversion.
Socialists have much for which to thank the terrorists.
All of which should give people pause to think, if they could. In times of crisis, people seldom think, they react. Good politicians and psychologists know this, and as long as the people continue to behave in a predictable manner, then socialism will eventually control the world.
In fact, perhaps that is exactly what it is doing now.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”