Not trying to derail your amendment pillow fight, but I feel like I should respond in kind to Mr edbikerii.
I'm sorry, I just hear too much of this from kids who are barely out of university. I have to try to understand that it is not their fault that they simply don't understand. Their brains have been trained by the socialist-biased public education system. The United Federation of Teachers is the largest socialist organization in the nation, and they have a lock on the minds of future generations who are required BY LAW to attend their classes and listen to their members. Rarely are dissenting viewpoints proposed to our youth. I have to remember that unless someone explains it to them, they may simply accept what they've been taught in school, as they really don't have much else to go by.
Pompous much? Since you are the voice of reason, please enlighten me.
Here are my thoughts on why socialism is bad:
Okay so they are your thoughts and we're agreed that this is not fact. I am pretty sure I said give me some facts, oh wait, there are no facts to why socialism is bad. Only opinions and theorys, that is okay, I'll still listen. Please continue.
Of course it is very noble to help others who are in need. We should all be charitable and try to donate our time, gifts, and money to charities that we know benefit mankind.
Well so far I agree.
Socialism is not about charity, however. Socialism is about government deciding who is worthy of our charity, and deciding how to control the charity. Socialism is about big government making decisions about how, when, where, how much, and on whom you must spend your hard-earned money. Socialists believe that only the elite "intellectuals" in the ruling class are capable of making those decisions, and deciding what's "best for the people".
"Now there are two "functions" in a democracy: The specialized class, the responsible men, carry out the executive function, which means they do the thinking and planning and understand the common interests. Then, there is the bewildered herd, and they have a function in democracy too. Their function in a democracy, [lippmann] said, is to be "spectators," not participants in action. But they have more of a function r than that, because it's a democracy. Occasionally they are allowed to lend their weight to one or another member of the specialized class. In other words, they're allowed to say, "We want you to be our leader" or "We want you to be our leader." That's because it's a democracy and not a totalitarian state. That's called an election. But once they've lent their weight to one or another member of the specialized class they're supposed to sink back and become spectators of action, but not participants. That's in a properly functioning democracy."
That's a quoted excerpt from the book Media Control by Noam Chomsky. The man who said that was Walter Lippmann. In case you are not familiar with him you can read a short bio on him here.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAlippmann.htmThis man had gone from socialism, to liberal, to republican, back to socialist. After spending his entire professional life, he had learned that the way our government was operating was in fact, not a democracy. I trust him and Noam Chomsky, a professor of linguistics at MIT for well over fifty years, than your wiki articles.
Also if you trace the Republican state of mind back to it's roots, you will see that the statement that you said was the core of socialism was actually the conservative manifesto. They thought that only those born rich and into power had the right and intellect to make decisions for the country.
Socialism is about the government taking control of how you raise your children because you are certainly not capable of making such decisions for your family. You don't really think that working hard and saving so that your kids can go to better schools is a good thing, do you? Socialism is about the government deciding which kids go to the best schools, and funding those kids' educations through taxes collected from The People. Pay no mind to the fact that The People have that much less money to fund their own educations, or their children’s' educations. That just makes the government control that much more entrenched. If your kid's views don't align with those of the government (including the public education system's teachers), rest assured that they are doomed to a life of hard-working frustration at the hands of government tyranny. That's because the socialist government knows "what's best for the people".
"... it's ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation? They're totalitarian institutions - you take orders from above and maybe give them to people below you. There's about as much freedom as under Stalinism." - Noam Chomsky
You are defending a society run by big business. Read the above quote and think about your stance. While we've all established that quotes are opinions, I think this quote hits pretty close to the truth. Not to say that Mr. Chomsky is absolutely right or that I am, but the statement above is pretty self-evident.
Socialism is, in fact, very closely tied to Marxism. Marx, in fact, called socialism "the first phase of communist society". Marx and Engels both argued that socialism is "the transitional phase between capitalism and 'higher phase of communist society'". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_socialism and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism. Also, read the communist manifesto, if your mind is strong enough to resist the appeal of getting something for nothing without regard for the long-term sustainability
It is some what close, but in fact, not the same. Also as Vinman said, Marx is not the be all end all. Plus I would like to note that I did in fact state "What's wrong with throwing a
little socialism into the mix?".
By the way... wiki articles are not fact, in my opinion. I am not saying the basis of the article is not correct, but any website that would allow a guy like you or me to write an article on anything we want from the movie Ghostbusters all the way to Quantum Physics, I don't trust.
Once The People are dis-empowered and weak, how can they resist government control? I could go on and on with examples of how socialists throughout history have done nothing but dis-empower the people they ruled (Adolph Hitler was one prominent socialist), and then proceeded on to tyranny. But then again, you should go google it, and empower yourself to make the right decisions.
When the people are dis-empowered and weak? So right now we are strong and flourishing? What power do you think we really have in our current capitalist government? When everyone has a price, who is the government really working for? Look at how long the war in Iraq has been going on and I am sure we can both agree that the majority of people want the troops out, yet in Iraq they remain. So where is the democaracy? You and I are both slaves to our job and wage. Yes, awesome, gotta love that capitalism.
Try this:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22what%27s+wrong+with+socialism%22&aq=0&oq=
You can site me some google websites all day long sir, but I'll take to the library. I suggest you do the same, get your head out of the media controled websites, read some books that are written by people out of the media circle.
Let me simplify. Big business owns media. Big business, which I am sure you will have something to say about this but remember were capitalists, so it's all about the money, owns the government. So wouldn't it be fairly safe to assume that the media's word is not to be taken without a grain of salt?
"Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state." - Noam Chomsky
I figured this would fit...
Next time you decide to respond to a post of mine, don't be so condescending. Thanks for your time.
