Irritable Reality

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The Irritable Pundit

CNN seems to play a constant looped set of Obama speeches lately.  It is an endless drone of "Fairness... sharing the wealth... shared sacrifice... all of us working together." 

I, your beloved Irritable Pundit, have realized that we are now a nation lead by slogans.  However, the slogans are eerily familiar to any student of history.  At least those with a firm grasp on reality as opposed to liberal dogma. 

Yes, is said it.  Dogma has replaced reality among the left.  And why not?  All they care about it feelings, and reality simply doesn't "feel good", and so it is rejected utterly.

Far better than reality are the misty views of past eras that exist only in their fevered imaginings, or the great promise of tomorrows still dreamed.  These soft and comforting blankets are held with desperation in the pale soft hands of our leftist elite.  Reality is simply not as appealing.  It is sharp and angular, with uncomfortable points and weights, costs and consequences.  

Wait, CONSEQUENCES!?!? We can't have that now can we? Oh, I almost forgot, I am not a liberal.  Lets have some!  Yes dear friends, let us briefly examine the wondrous reality behind socialism, communism, collectivism and other such lethal nonsense.  I, as ever, shall be your humble and terribly handsome guide. Lets get to it!

Early American Socialism

Surprised?  Don't be.  Socialism in America was tried before, in the original Jamestown settlement actually. There were communal stores and staples from which each was allowed to draw supplies and foodstuffs. Work was assigned equally and communal fields were planted.  Each man, working together for the common good! Can't you just hear them singing in the fields?  All for one and one for all?  Doesn't it just sound wonderful?

Eh, not so much. 

In such a polyanish environment, human nature reared its head, made a few rude comments then went off to do what it does best -- whatever the heck suits its own needs. You see, it took no time at all for person A to realize person B wasn't working very hard at all.  Why should person A bust their kiester twice as hard when person B was lollygagging about?  It wasn't like person A got anything extra for working twice as hard as person B.  So, thanks to the layabout B crowd, the industrious A crowd stopped working as hard as they originally had. Which upset the B crowd greatly who demanded more effort from the others, though they made little themselves. In short order the supplies ran out. Oops.  There were many committee meetings, with grand speeches about everyone sharing the bounty and the work equally.  Such brave, bold collective determination led them to... starve, and they did.

Standing up among a host of hungry idiots, a rather Charlton Heston-like figure, John Smith, decided enough was enough and came up with a solution. He stepped in, divided the fields and the few supplies among each man and developed the new rule.  "He who will not work, shall not eat."

Eat the food you grow or eat karma? What a guy!

Personal accountability, ownership of the fruits of your labor (or lack thereof), and hard work became the rules of the day.  After much struggle, these principles (the true "first principles" ) overcame malaria, indian attacks, starvation, and a tiny little chigger that made the european flea look positively benign. Reality trumps socialism dear friends, as you can't eat soaring speeches about brotherhood.

Socialist Utopias

For example, Soviet eternal dominance wound up not so eternal or dominant, or Soviet for that matter. When crowd B realizes they have power they order many things to occur, but since its so easy to become a "B" (just don't work), there are soon few "A"s left to exploit.  Eventually the well runs dry and everything is abandoned. Sometimes, entire cities.

Russian cities, far away from the showplace of the capital.  Magnificent aren't they?

Side note: And lest you think I forget, there is one American city that has been run by leftists for generations. You are promised every form of assistance possible, for your entire life. They have a massive bureaucracy and have taxed producers to death (and beyond).  In any such enterprise, eventually the A player's leave of course, or are made poor, leaving the B players with no one to support them and it all falls apart.  No, it is not DC. Washington is awash in other people's money. It is Detroit.  If you are interested to see what's coming, go spend some time there.

In the meantime, back to our journey!

Chinese communism! Mao Zedong thought the previous ideas were unfair! Collective efforts would lead the way to a bright future! Around the time of the Beatles invasion of America, entire provinces in China were devastated by a simple lack of basic foodstuffs.   Its a thin future, but its bright!  Right?

Look at those empowered people (starving in the streets)! The Russians knew that anything other than collective efforts would be unfair, so they spread their ideas everywhere.  Here are some Ukrainian's enjoying the Soviet bounty.

Cambodia. What's that growing in the picture you ask?  Not much, but a lot is dieing, which is the problem. Pol Pot's attempts to create a collective peasant farming society resulted in the starvation and murder of 25% of the population. But hey, they meant well, right? Right?

The list, sadly,  goes on, and on, and on.  

Oddly enough, I've found myself challenged (silly people) on occasion when sending along links, pictures, books, and citations on the above.  I have been told, "That was THEN!  How about now?"

Ok, I'll play.

Here is a satellite image of North Korea, the modern day socialist heaven (top) and the cruel capitalist South Korea (bottom) at night.  Tell me, which is still in the middle ages? Where do you think it is easier to eat, today?

You can almost hear MC Kim "so ill" Jong sing, "I'm so lonely!"  in the dark, can't you?

European Socialism

There are of course the pseudo-socialist nations.  The "European Socialism" we keep hearing about.  Lets look at France (from a distance please).   The riots rarely make the press, and when they do its always "youths protesting".  But there are on average 400 cars torched EACH NIGHT.  And I would like to point out one interesting twist.  We, and our capitalist ways, have allowed European Socialism to survive.  Sad but true. Our defense of them, paid for with money, materiel and men, allows them to squander monies that should have been spent in their own defense.  We buy the tanks, they buy the bread and circuses that less and less often satisfy.  France would kill for our GDP growth even now, as their workers demand more money and less hours every week, barricading roads in endless and boring protests against not being given enough "assistance". Watching France meltdown in my lifetime is bad enough, seeing us join their march into obscurity is unacceptable. 

Oh, those crazy French kids! You just want to muss their hair, don't you?

Athens! Such a proud history!

Spain!  Oh such culture!

The wonders of Swedish Socialism!

Dear friends, the point here is those riots are not a rarity.  They are not an annual gathering of beer-based pride over a sports franchise victory (with few real injuries or damage).  These are angry, violent and never ending eruptions of Type B's, mad because they are not getting enough from the few type A's that are left. Apparently "It's just not fair" they have to work.  They protest louder and louder, destroying more and more, and feckless politicians cave. But inevitably there is less and less in the pot to be "shared" and the cycle continues and grows stronger.

Remember these images when you hear Obama promise fundamental change for the sake of "Fairness... sharing the wealth... shared sacrifice... all of us working together."   And remember John Smith and America's early walk down these paths.

Sorry lefties, John Smith's karma ran over your dogma long ago.

Till next week!  Adieu, mes amis. Je vais à la gloire!

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