"Socialism is for the rich, Capitalism is for the poor."
~ Ambrose Finnegan, Vice President Joe Biden's Grandfather.
I recently read a book entitled: "The Meaning of Marxism"
First know straight off the bat that I am not a socialist or communist. I agree with certain principles and ideas, but as a functioning government or society, it doesn't really do justice.
Haha, I liked that last sentence, so many ways to interpret it.
Anyway, I read the book on the suggestion of my friend Defne, she dated one of my best friends for a while and she came recently from Turkey. She is, if you didn't guess, a Socialist. Which is fine, for her.
I accepted the book from her, which she later turned into a gift (such crafty people, give a book to someone to "borrow" and then when they are getting ready to return it tell them it's theirs, I'd rather a person be straight up with me, but that's cool), and read most of it, I got really bored and tired of reading through the same exact ideas being expressed over and over again in new and mildly interesting ways.
Essentially, this is what I took back from the book.
Socialism = GOOD!
Capitalism = EVIL!
Really, that's all there was to it, someone could have shown me the above two equations and I wouldn't have had to waste my time reading that tedious book. Granted, if I read a similar book that looked favorably upon Capitalism, those equations would be interchanged.
I have read parts of the Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx for you illiterate people, and read works by Friedrich Engels, I actually just really enjoy their styles of writing. The German is really interesting.
Anyway, I will be more sporting and give a broader explanation of the knowledge secretly locked within the bindings of this book.
Essentially, the goal of Socialism is an admirable one, one I respect and am myself working towards, in my own way. We'll call this, "Salmanalism" (Salman-ism is something else, this word refers to incredibly bad jokes and puns that only I would say, carrying on...).
How Socialism works is well, nationalizing almost everything. From schools, to hospitals, to construction, to food distributors, to your mom. Everything. Okay, let's say I agree with this, then what? Well, okay, I guess I am guaranteed food, housing, education, and medical services. Sweet! What else do I need? How about some flexibility? I want to choose what I eat, where I sleep, where I study, and how I get treated, or even not get treated. Truly, socialism isn't this rigid or strict, you do have some choices. But we won't get carried away and say you are actually free. The government actually decides whether you are allowed to move around to different parts of the country, or move out entirely. See how we have Mexicans trying to sneak into the US? You would have people sneaking out of their socialist states.
The thing that gets me is, this concept is way to ideal. Also, it seems that it is almost impossible to see come to perfect fruition without an immense loss of life. Now, I have not studied every case, but I feel confident enough to assume that loss of life is part of every revolution. Even Ghandi's peaceful revolution of reaching independence from Mother England left the country in such a hostile state that scores of Muslims and Hindus died in vain. A very tragic loss of life. Let's not forget the Sikhs or Jains either, they are often overlooked due to their small numbers. Even Buddhists and Christians were killed. Such nonsensical violence always upsets me, violence period is terrible. Not all violence is physical either, remember that.
Their arguments against capitalism are enticing, but you can make anyone look bad by talking specifically about his bad qualities and not referring to his good qualities, which very likely may outrank his bad ones. I agree capitalism isn't perfect, no economic, social, or governmental institution is. If anything on this earth was perfect, it would be a miracle and only divine intervention would allow for such a thing. I do believe there are perfect people out there, literally perfect people. But I do not believe there is anything close to a perfect government. Nor will there be.
Muslim extremists claim their vision of an Islamic state is the perfect institution, for who? The overwhelmingly vast majority of Muslims, let's say 99%, disagree. Simply because "their vision" of an Islamic states is one that takes us back to over 1400 years ago, they wish to undue what has already been done. No sense at all in that. You must be progressive, working to unlock the secrets of the future through the acceptable means we have now.
Socialism is a system sustained by the already wealthy how did they become so wealthy? Capitalism. Capitalism is a system for the poor, why? Because even the pauper can become a prince.
~ Ambrose Finnegan, Vice President Joe Biden's Grandfather.
I recently read a book entitled: "The Meaning of Marxism"
First know straight off the bat that I am not a socialist or communist. I agree with certain principles and ideas, but as a functioning government or society, it doesn't really do justice.
Haha, I liked that last sentence, so many ways to interpret it.
Anyway, I read the book on the suggestion of my friend Defne, she dated one of my best friends for a while and she came recently from Turkey. She is, if you didn't guess, a Socialist. Which is fine, for her.
I accepted the book from her, which she later turned into a gift (such crafty people, give a book to someone to "borrow" and then when they are getting ready to return it tell them it's theirs, I'd rather a person be straight up with me, but that's cool), and read most of it, I got really bored and tired of reading through the same exact ideas being expressed over and over again in new and mildly interesting ways.
Essentially, this is what I took back from the book.
Socialism = GOOD!
Capitalism = EVIL!
Really, that's all there was to it, someone could have shown me the above two equations and I wouldn't have had to waste my time reading that tedious book. Granted, if I read a similar book that looked favorably upon Capitalism, those equations would be interchanged.
I have read parts of the Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx for you illiterate people, and read works by Friedrich Engels, I actually just really enjoy their styles of writing. The German is really interesting.
Anyway, I will be more sporting and give a broader explanation of the knowledge secretly locked within the bindings of this book.
Essentially, the goal of Socialism is an admirable one, one I respect and am myself working towards, in my own way. We'll call this, "Salmanalism" (Salman-ism is something else, this word refers to incredibly bad jokes and puns that only I would say, carrying on...).
How Socialism works is well, nationalizing almost everything. From schools, to hospitals, to construction, to food distributors, to your mom. Everything. Okay, let's say I agree with this, then what? Well, okay, I guess I am guaranteed food, housing, education, and medical services. Sweet! What else do I need? How about some flexibility? I want to choose what I eat, where I sleep, where I study, and how I get treated, or even not get treated. Truly, socialism isn't this rigid or strict, you do have some choices. But we won't get carried away and say you are actually free. The government actually decides whether you are allowed to move around to different parts of the country, or move out entirely. See how we have Mexicans trying to sneak into the US? You would have people sneaking out of their socialist states.
The thing that gets me is, this concept is way to ideal. Also, it seems that it is almost impossible to see come to perfect fruition without an immense loss of life. Now, I have not studied every case, but I feel confident enough to assume that loss of life is part of every revolution. Even Ghandi's peaceful revolution of reaching independence from Mother England left the country in such a hostile state that scores of Muslims and Hindus died in vain. A very tragic loss of life. Let's not forget the Sikhs or Jains either, they are often overlooked due to their small numbers. Even Buddhists and Christians were killed. Such nonsensical violence always upsets me, violence period is terrible. Not all violence is physical either, remember that.
Their arguments against capitalism are enticing, but you can make anyone look bad by talking specifically about his bad qualities and not referring to his good qualities, which very likely may outrank his bad ones. I agree capitalism isn't perfect, no economic, social, or governmental institution is. If anything on this earth was perfect, it would be a miracle and only divine intervention would allow for such a thing. I do believe there are perfect people out there, literally perfect people. But I do not believe there is anything close to a perfect government. Nor will there be.
Muslim extremists claim their vision of an Islamic state is the perfect institution, for who? The overwhelmingly vast majority of Muslims, let's say 99%, disagree. Simply because "their vision" of an Islamic states is one that takes us back to over 1400 years ago, they wish to undue what has already been done. No sense at all in that. You must be progressive, working to unlock the secrets of the future through the acceptable means we have now.
Socialism is a system sustained by the already wealthy how did they become so wealthy? Capitalism. Capitalism is a system for the poor, why? Because even the pauper can become a prince.
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