Classroom Socialism

[Matt Black]

If you can...

 

[glfredrick]

This is a very misleading caricature of socialism. As an advocate of social democracy, I want to fairly compensate people for their work.

Parse "fairly" and "compensate."

Devil is in the details.

In fact, socialism is but one of the ways used by manipulators to arrive at a centralized utopian society where one (or a group) of uber-wise leaders administer the rest of the populace. The concept has been presented for over 3000 years in the works of philosophers and has yet to succeed, but each generation has some that rise up who are convinced that THEY are "finally" the uber-wise leader(s) required to get the failed utopian system to succeed.

Alas, they too shall fail for they all (ALL) fail to take into account so many very human tendencies, the drive for independence and autonomy, the innate desire to worship God (even if that desire is perverted or counterfeited into worship of false gods), and the very simplest of all facts, that we will seldom perform for the sake of others -- something Christ recognized (and cured by doing it FOR us) -- so as to increase someone else's lot in life instead of one's own.

Plato's Republic, Hobbes Leviathan, Marx's Communism, and other systems of like mind and practice have all been tried and have utterly failed.

The single best (though flawed because we humans are flawed) system ever invented by the minds of human beings is the America of the Framers and Founders, where the RIGHTS are seen as coming from God and not man, and where the free individuals consent to representative government with redress under Constitutional Law, and were there is an adequate safegard(s) in place to control any one wing of influence, whether legislative, judicidal, executive, state, or citizen. Some wish that "we could get more done" but in fact the Founders and Framers wrote a government that made "getting things done" almost impossible for a reason -- when things "get done" people get CONTROLLED. Better individual liberty and freedom to succeed or fail than CENTRALIZED PLANNING AND SLAVERY.

Now, however, we have done what Ben Franklin prophesied (if I might borrow that biblical term for a political discussion). We have become corrupted enough to where only a despot and tyrant can lead. We start with soft tyranny and advance to hard tyranny. We've seen the soft now for decades and we are about to see the hard -- perhaps due to the results of this election.

 

[glfredrick]

I think in the US, 'liberal' has now been silently prefixed with the word 'social', meaning that an American liberal will be in favour of same-sex marriage, abortion etc. They will also tend to be in favour of a more interventionist government economically ie: the precise economic antithesis of the sort of classical liberalism advocated by Smith, Ricardo, John Stuart Mill etc. 'Liberal' in the US from an economic POV tends to mean what we would call 'social democrat' er even 'socialist'.

There is cultural liberalism, religious liberalism, and economic liberalism, all of which can be wrapped up in political liberalism.

Currently, the term is synonomous with Marxist socialism in the USA (except by those trying to make it come to pass!).

 

[billwald]

Republicans oppose group classroom projects?

 

[glfredrick]

Republicans oppose group classroom projects?

Depends on which project and whom is fronting it... :smilewinkgrin:

 

[targus]

Republicans oppose group classroom projects?

That's your take on this thread?

Please return your test immediately to MENSA for rescoring. :laugh:

 

[Spear]

Thanks for the information, i'll now associate liberals with socialists-marxists. I think i'll understand some things a little better

But for what i used to call " liberalism ", shoud i simply use " economic liberalism ", or ie " capitalism " ?