Your beliefs are interesting but they are not evidence based. You have not defined socialism and you have not explained how socialism, whatever in your opinion it is, is more authoritarian than any other system. Is socialism a political system? Is it an economic system? I think before we go any further we first have to agree on what is the point of government in the first place? How would you define government and why would you want one or not want one? I would say government as it's theoretically based in the Constitution is as Lincoln described it, of the people, by the people, for the people. If one takes that statement to its logical conclusion, the Founding Fathers were implementing a socialist system. Did they imply that the government, which is to say, the people, own the means of production? No, just that government needs to serve the people or it becomes a dictatorship, a monarchy. People today rail against socialism and turn around and let fascism right in the front door, which is to say the merger of government (in this case a small group of ruling elites) with industry. Industry then writes its own laws, which means they dictate our behavior, which is exactly what's happening with all the testing that you're referring to. Corporations are doing that, and they're doing that to deny you medical coverage, jobs, credit (back in the old days), etc. Not only that, but they dictate what you watch on television, etc. etc. In other words, corporations are dictating not only your behavior but your belief system that you claim as your own. That's all coming from our current system, which is hardly socialist. Is any system subject to abuse? Of course, that's human nature, to abuse everything it can get its hands on. The FF gave us a beautiful system and we killed it, and they knew we would; as one of them said, "if you can keep it". So maybe the answer is to get rid of all systems? Then what? The fact remains that properly done, the countries with the highest standard of living today are socialist, which is to say the people are doing the best. For example, even nutritionally, Europe tends to use beet juice and the like to color their yogurts and other products. In the U.S.. the virtually corporate-run FDA allows artificial colors (Red 40, etc.). If you can cite anything to the contrary, then certainly do. Maybe the bottom line is one doesn't build much that's straight with the crooked timber that is humanity. Still, we have to first see the crookedness or we don't stand a chance at straightening it. --- On Mon, 11/3/08, Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: From today's paper To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: Monday, November 3, 2008, 5:06 AM >>The authoritarian aspects are the ones being used to *remove* anything good for the people ... Not exclusively. There are many other authoritarian aspects of our society that derive from manipulation of social programs designed to bring good results. High school kids forced to perform community service (what could be wrong with that?) are funneled into crony rackets as slave labor. Programs designed to bring more doctors to medically underserved areas are used to funnel medical slave labor for investors who buy and sell medical practices like Monopoly properties, thus ensuring the areas stay underserved. For every well-intentioned social plan, there are a pack of clever sleazoids waiting to turn it into a profit center. Often these sleazoids are in cahoots with legislators who draft enabling laws. Credit card companies (yay, Joe Biden of Delaware!) recently started lowering credit limits by careful screening of people's purchases and by investigating people's bank balances. For example, if you bought food with a credit card, that was considered suspicious. Authoritarian control and intrusion of privacy. More and more, our society is concerned with control. The control of people's lives. Drug-testing, credit reports, medical records, and a thousand other seemingly-useful systems that agglomerate into increasing authoritarian control. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html