In the history of the world the government systems that have most abridged liberty and committed genocide--indeed, pioneered totalitarianism and genocide--have been theocratic or had the word socialism or socialist in the names by which they identified themselves. How a politician can today call himself a socialist and be viable really shows historical amnesia. But that is what Bernie Sanders calls himself. We also have here in Seattle a city council member who is proud to call herself a socialist. Truth can be so elusive, but one thing that ought to be indisputable is socialism's total ineffectiveness in solving the economic problem, its total lack of credibility. And here's a rule of thumb: socialism--a centralized or planned economy--is the economic side of totalitarianism. But it's back!
Now, today, The New York Times reminds us of this sobering history:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...ol-left-region
"The 'first wave' [of democracy] began with the American and French revolutions, and 29 countries became democracies in the period up to 1922. That number shrank to 12 with the rise of Communism, Fascism and Nazism. . . ." And so on; thereafter it has ebbed and flowed. So, it took us humans 200,000 years (since behaviorally and anatomically modern humans have existed) to first achieve democracy (albeit in the United States form with black slavery and disenfranchised women and the French form which wound up with an Emperor in about a decade following many beheadings), and it still ebbs, is ebbing now.
Now, today, The New York Times reminds us of this sobering history:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...ol-left-region
"The 'first wave' [of democracy] began with the American and French revolutions, and 29 countries became democracies in the period up to 1922. That number shrank to 12 with the rise of Communism, Fascism and Nazism. . . ." And so on; thereafter it has ebbed and flowed. So, it took us humans 200,000 years (since behaviorally and anatomically modern humans have existed) to first achieve democracy (albeit in the United States form with black slavery and disenfranchised women and the French form which wound up with an Emperor in about a decade following many beheadings), and it still ebbs, is ebbing now.
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