PROMETHEAN ANTAGONIST

I realize that some would see my rants on socialism as beating a dead horse but, it’s not a horse...and it’s very much alive. I’d say that the main point of this blog is to take issue with socialism and the other permutations of statism that would deprive me, my family, and fellow citizens of the freedom to pursue happiness. I’ve despised this clique of autocratic busy-bodies from a very early age. They show up in our lives in a variety of ways. In politics and government they appear just as they do in daily life when we are confronted with parasites and control freaks who think their business is to mind others’ business. Their bogus claims of humanitarian motivations are beyond transparent, a leftist will use any excuse possible to justify their claim over other people’s lives. Whether a sloppy inconsiderate roommate who steals your food or a government bureaucrat who seeks to steal your life, they are all kindreds spirits in the mission to truly oppress their fellow man or woman. In the process; entropy. We are all, willfully or not, participants in the play between order and chaos. The sentiments of the left are the mouthpieces of chaos which is no more than a preamble to an excessive imposition of “order.” Not the order of a simple and serene routine in daily life but the order of imposed control.

There are different reasons one may recoil against socialism. I wouldn’t be foolish enough to think it is ever going to go away. One could argue that all of history is the sway of societal constructs between individual liberty and the perennial appeal of collectivist sentiments. Not to bore one with autobiographical testimony but, a few things in my past directed me onto the road of at least suspicion if not outright disdain for a worldview born of envy and power-seeking.

Some of us are not as geared to collective allegiance as others. Not because we are “selfish” or “uncooperative.” Some people just prefer a large degree of latitude in making the choices that direct their own lives. Allegiances with people and beliefs should be a pro-choice circumstance.

I and my sister were briefly in foster care as children — I was probably about seven years old. Our mother was ill for several months and our father worked two jobs. He was able to visit us and take us out for several hours a week before having to return to his work routine. The foster family we stayed at was miserable. Vetting in the day wasn’t so good (and probably still isn’t in many locales). The family had a few children of their own as well as a drunk grandfather. To make a long story short, my father came by on Christmas Eve to deliver some gifts which we would open on Christmas morning. Upon waking Christmas morning, the entire family of proto-socialists were gathered around the kitchen table. Having opened my gift, they were all playing with it. Now some would no doubt see it as selfish of me to not be overjoyed at the thought of “sharing” my “property.” From my perspective (and any sane non socialist-inclined person), this was no more than theft, an intrusion into my personal life.

The aforementioned events are not meant as a pleading justification for my adult political values. They are mere example of the type of worldly encounters one may have with the socialist mindset that sees property and value as things to be “shared” and distributed in spite of one’s personal choices.

There are of course other observations made in life that have colored my appraisal of the values we refer to as “socialist,” “leftist,” or “progressive.”

Almost everyone has had experience with roommates, family members or acquaintances at work who take it for granted that others exist to make up for their own misfortune, shortcomings, or incompetence. You budget your money appropriately, make choices as to what you want in the refrigerator and you keep finding your portions disappearing (another true story). You call them on it and instead of apologizing and offering to replace the missing items, they act shocked at your “selfishness” for not wanting to “share.” On the macro level these same clowns now lord over a society where hard work, organization, and responsibility are met with demands to “share” the fruits of your success. After all, “you didn’t build that” (to quote Obama when he chastised small business owners for thinking their successes were largely the result of personal choices, risks, and a steady devotion to achievement).

Masters of projection; ...Is it any wonder that the average leftist is so angered by “greed” and “selfishness” when their own interactions with the world are so often based upon those very things?

Extrapolate the personal encounters one may have with micro-socialism into the world of the overbearing structures of the bureau mega-state and its punitive authority and one can at least see why some of us are not enthusiastic about new sophisticated ways to steal and impose authority.

Socialism always begins as a deceptive docile belief in altruism by government planning. It then “progresses” to a Marxist-style desire to remake society, and ends as a Stalinist gulag with distributed destitution.

Anyone claiming that Sweden and Denmark are models of socialism is full of shit (they’re free market/capitalist economies where private property, action, and thought are honored).

Venezuela is an example of a socialist society where the state is losing its grip but still tries to maintain power. North Korea is a socialist state that has successfully imposed a rigid framework upon its population and continues to hold absolute power.

Millennials enamored with socialism should be careful what they wish for. Virtually every trendy academic philosophy of the last hundred years has been a footnote to standard Marxism. They are all mere methods of arousing and channeling the human emotions of envy, resentment, and vengeance to establish the authority to enslave fellow citizens. The leftist can only see two players in society, the oppressed and oppressor. Themselves and some nebulous entities that are vicariously oppressed, and a conjured oppressor.

The socialist just assumes that, once “the system” is brought down their more just system will replace it. With that vague endpoint in mind, the leftists direct their energies towards the means to that end — destruction of society as it is. The economic system, the cultural traditions, the moral sense of right and wrong. It must all be ripped down, punished, and eliminated so the Jacobin fantasy of personal purity can rein over every aspect of existence.

Collectivism/statism is a cancer, a poison, and evil force that has never brought good and has always spread a paralyzing rot from within.

Compulsion, coercion, and punishment. The socialist triad. Libertarians simplify this appraisal even further - “force.” Socialism is ultimately about force. It is the enemy of both free will and the individual pursuit of happiness. How it justifies it’s use of force is irrelevant to the endgame. In fact, the means and ends are the same; compulsion, coercion, and punishment.

Call it “fascism,” call it “communism,” call it “democratic socialism,” call it the “Democratic party.” Leftism’s goals are always the same. Say it’s for “equality,” say it’s for “race purity.” Say it’s for “mother Russia,” the “class,” “the people.” ...”It’s for the children.” Whatever the proclaimed motivation or goal, the method is always force and it is always achieved through compulsion, coercion, and punishment. And afterward, all a society under its ugly scheme will have is theft and victims of theft. No doubt the thieves of state began their mission while playing with other’s gifts at Christmas and stealing others’ food from the fridge. Nothing changes.

# posted by Promethean Antagonist @ 11:46 AM