Socialism On The March!

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Growing up during the Cold War, I actually thought about the fact that one day all of the jingoistic Cold Warriors (on both sides) that were preventing peace, while ratcheting up hate and fear and spending trillions on ‘defense’ over all those decades….would some day be dead.

That until the folks with that mindset were well and truly gone the black and white reactionary views they represented would rule the world. Until they were no longer around to enforce the rabid anti-anything-remotely-resembling-godless-communism propaganda of the Cold War with a Stalinist Iron Fist, we could not move forward from a time long past and an enemy long defeated. That the deep, deep programming that extended to a nearly cellular level and the complete demonization arising from a struggle that truly was existential would rule our world. We would be stuck. Stuck in a mindset that rejected anything…and I mean anything that remotely resembled, had anything to do with, or could even be painted to look like the taint of socialism. And that we would be doomed to a world where a significant (though old, like me!) portion of the populace was poisoned by some of the most effective propaganda ever devised to live in fear of the Red Menace….even though the Red Menace was dead and buried almost two decades ago.

Now, with Cheney and Rumsfeld soon heading for whatever imaginative and exquisite hell they have fully earned and wholly deserve, and John McCain (forgive me!) about to get shot down again…

Here we are. On the cusp of embracing socialism….to save capitalism. And it is the very Republican party that has demonized socialism for well over half a century that is about to embrace it. Apparently, I was wrong! (If only by a few months!) Dick Cheney must be turning over in his grave! We are about to < gasp! > of all things, nationalize the Banking Industry!!!

We are living in an age of nearly absurd irony, my friends!

Not only are we about to commit the sin of Cuba, nationalization…we are this close to having a socialist health care system!

Apparently the Ronnie Raygun idea that government is the problem… no longer holds currency, so to speak. As Jerome a Pinko Paris puts it:

…. The very people that explained to us that governments were incompetent and had to be shrunk had no recourse but to go for government money, guarantees and action when they drowned in their own mess. The conclusion here HAS to be that (i) governments play a valuable role and thus cannot be continually starved and (ii) those that pushed the anti-government propaganda have to be seen as cranks, liars, fools or crooks, and treated with the contempt they so richly deserve – which includes no longer listening to their self-serving economic “advice”…

…That on what could be done with an investment of a trillion or so euros of public money in things like energy efficiency, public transportation, housing, poverty reduction. All of these things create massive positive externalities that benefit society as a whole, and would be especially helpful as we face the banker-caused economic downturn, collapsing real estate sector and high energy prices. If we can justify blowing a trillion on incompetent bankers that threaten to take us down with them as “investment”, then we surely can actually invest in the economy in ways that will benefit all and not just a greedy few.

The Cold War is over.

We are no longer living in an ideological struggle between two polar opposite economic theories, Capitalism and Communism. A struggle which came close to literally ending the world, in incidents like the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Communism, and especially socialism (proven to work in concert with capitalism in Europe and elsewhere) is no longer “The Enemy.” It is now national economic policy.

No matter how they spin it.

(Though apparently no one told these folks!)

So….can we drop the outdated hate, now?

In this huge and overwhelmingly complex world, government is….has to be….part of the solution. Government is supposed to take our tax dollars and use them for the Greater Good. It is the only entity, the only means for investing in and funding the large scale projects (like fighting the NEW ‘enemy,’ Climate Crisis, and ya know…hunger and stuff) that our modern world desperately needs. There are critically important things that the ‘private sector’ just cannot or will not do. Things that we need the government to do.

Of course, there is a problem! Giving that much power to government WILL lead to even more corruption. Only an engaged, educated, and involved citizenry can guarantee the level of oversight needed. The kind of oversight that the Republicans have been fighting against as they wage their war on government, all the while looting it for all they can take. More irony.

We are being thrust into a new world, we are being propelled into a new way of thinking about…everything. And after growing up in a world that could end at any second because of a difference in what comes down to ….philosophy….I for one welcome our new, hopefully more rational paradigm.

Whatever the hell it turns out to be!