[rollei_list] Re: Grossly OT: California and Politics

  • From: Allen Zak <azak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 20:51:01 -0400


On Sep 29, 2005, at 1:43 PM, John Jensen wrote:

You have an interesting history of experiences with
communism.  Now, to provoke some controversy here, I
will repeat a good line - "Communism is nothing but
Liberalism in a hurry."


Provocation accepted.

That formulation assumes that "Communism" and "Liberalism" are part of the same political/economic continuum. However, the various iterations of socialism have nothing to do with "liberalism," which is part of a capitalist ideological arc that includes "conservatism." Both isms support private accumulation while socialism does not.

Grossly simplified, conservatism consists of: "Grab all you can and smash anyone who gets in the way." Liberalism is more like "Grab all you can and throw a few coins at the rabble to buy some social peace."
The institutions of state welfare sometimes resemble socialism but are usually established for other reasons. For example, Europe's first social security system, advocated by Karl Marx, was launched by Otto von Bismark, who was neither liberal nor socialist.

I hope this helps.

Allen Zak





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