January 15, 2011

Socialist delusion.

Dr. Sanity makes a good point about socialism and capitalism.

What I take from her piece is that socialism thrives on greed and envy as much as capitalism but it requires belief that greed and envy will disappear when the evils of capitalism are done away with. Unfortunately for socialists what they supposedly hope will appear is a version of homo sapiens that has yet to walk the earth. Socialism adores the idea of The New Man who rises or is forced or guided to rise above his former base self to take a seat in the realms of heavenly perfection. At least, that's the theory. Believe in the perfectibility of man and it's a trifle to believe in socialism and all the pleasures of collective life, even though it's quickly demonstrated that this means widespread misery.

Capitalism, however, requires no transformation of men into something they are not, but rather works with or potentiates man's actual nature so that greed and envy serve beneficial ends. The force of greed and envy in capitalism is beneficial because, unlike in the socialist scheme, the capitalist knows he cannot force customers to patronize his business but must persuade them to do so.

The socialist meeting an obstacle in his transformation of society need not clarify logic or make more seductive appeals to the customer – he need only apply greater force or more terrifying threats.

"Did you not understand me, Comrade? Allow me to speak louder."
Without a political or economic framework that is able to incorporate what we refer to as "human nature" into its calculations, all so-called "perfect" societies and ideologies will at best simply fail in the real world; and at worse cause untold human suffering. With the best of intentions (this is perhaps debatable), the social engineers of philosophy, political science, and economics have caused so much more slavery, misery and death on a grand scale--that the grandiose CEO's of the largest corporations can be considered mere pikers by comparison.
"Credentialed delusions." By Dr. Sanity, 1/7/11.

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