List All Redeeming Values - If any A QUEST

Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 11 months ago to Politics
52 comments | Share | Best of... | Flag

In the discussion my use of 'best of'' socialism as cultural system and capitalism as a financial system caused some questions. Capitalism was much easier. If it's so bad why do socialists rely on it? Why has everything bad done by capitalists been condoned, demanded, and made legal by socialists. So the idea there is easy. Unfettered but controlled against the always present criminal class serves for a short explanation.

Then I turned to socialism....

QUESTION

List any and all redeeming values of Socialism including intended but not carried out changes affecting the nation - in any nation.

If not state, if you have some, ideas and perhaps a useful name for any and all of the needs that society should have and those which require some government.

I made it broad as possible as in casting a net rather than spearing a grouper.


Add Comment

FORMATTING HELP

All Comments Hide marked as read Mark all as read

  • 12
    Posted by khalling 8 years, 11 months ago
    society cannot have needs, only individuals. That's right-not a city, not a state, not a region, not a planet. No rights , no needs.

    "The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man’s rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man’s self-defense, and, as such, may resort to force only against those who start the use of force. The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud by others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law. But a government that initiates the employment of force against men who had forced no one, the employment of armed compulsion against disarmed victims, is a nightmare infernal machine designed to annihilate morality: such a government reverses its only moral purpose and switches from the role of protector to the role of man’s deadliest enemy, from the role of policeman to the role of a criminal vested with the right to the wielding of violence against victims deprived of the right of self-defense. Such a government substitutes for morality the following rule of social conduct: you may do whatever you please to your neighbor, provided your gang is bigger than his." Galt's Speech
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by Mamaemma 8 years, 11 months ago
      Great quote, K. No need for further discussion
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
      • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
        Next? Any other candidates for any redeeming qualities of socialism? How about any other qualities of something to replace?
        And the steps needed to get from one to the other. What are you prepared to do?
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by Zero 8 years, 11 months ago
          I grant the average Socialist sympathizer has a great deal of compassion and bases their world view around that ideal.

          I never fault them for that.

          But your INTENT is not enough. You must honestly examine the RESULT of your action as well. (For example, policies meant to ease poverty usually entrench it.)

          I grant they mean well. But I stop there.

          (And I can never excuse their insatiable desire to tell ME what to do - while mindlessly chanting "FREEDOM"!)
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          • Posted by Mamaemma 8 years, 11 months ago
            I think the average socialist sympathizer is trying to convince himself that he is a compassionate and caring person. But it is not possible to be a socialist or sympathizer and have good intentions. Scratch the surface and you will find an envious person.
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          • Posted by blackswan 8 years, 11 months ago
            Any time you find someone with "good intentions," who fakes reality in any manner whatever, don't walk, RUN away from that jerk. There are NO unintended consequences, when two minutes of thought would get you to the obvious conclusion. The "unintended consequence" IS the intended outcome, so that the ultimate outcome can be arrived at by the torture of 1,000 cuts; the first few cuts don't hurt so much, just like the first few unintended consequences don't destroy the economy. Everyone gets used to the new condition, and then they introduce the next thing, to have another "unintended consequence." Then they introduce the next new change.... Stop giving these schmucks the benefit of the doubt. They're destroying our society incrementally, sneakily, not all at once. The frog is boiling.
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by khalling 8 years, 11 months ago
          this seems to be a manipulating tactic. show your hand on this site and leave the cleverness at the door. What is your point?
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
          • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
            I thought a request for an education. the point was is there any redeeming value to socialism. if not as I suspect we move on to what replaces it. Let's look at what they represented as their goals earl on. A classless society. Only to adopt the ruling class as their first or second layer. Not a redeeming factor. One early definition was to bridge the chasm between haves and have nots. Was it as a goal in anyway redeeming. As an accomplishment it was a second failure. Does that mean the stated but soon abandoned goal was or was not worthwhile? To keep it simple I don't wish to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

            by the way I ordered your books. I'm much about looking for answers in the reality of fiction versus the fiction of reality.

            almost forgot your first point. I am seeking your cleverness having already confessed my own lack. I tend to be quite direct which is not necessarily easily recognized these days.

            If not the best of Socialism how about the best of a small ''d'' democratically elected large ''R" Republic form of delegated government with specific rules rewritten in modern grammar and enforced. For the last part you have to add responsibilities of citizenship to rights of citizenship and learn to treat government workers as employees not like royalty.
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by Bobhummel 8 years, 11 months ago
          Socialists are prepared to solve all the inequity in the world - with Other People's Money, with other peoples abilities and with other peoples lives. Just as long as they get to choose who gets what tiny bit is left over after they take all that they "need" for being our dear leaders.
          I can't think of a single aspect of socialism that does not want to destroy personal freedom. It is a toxic as " a little poison " in you solar powered drinking water.
          Cheers
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
      • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
        Radical reasoning. I accept the second sentence as a nominated candidate for a redeeming socialist quality. That's one.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by Zero 8 years, 11 months ago
          Actually, MA, the fifth word of the second sentence, "only", negates any association with Socialism.

          Socialism is hardly a system of government who's ONLY purpose is to protect the individual. Yet that was the express purpose of the sentence. To define legitimate gov't as restricted to ONLY that purpose.

          How do you figure to claim the concept for statist regimes?
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
          • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
            Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea, and not new to the group but since the socialist revolution in the US began circa 1910 or so a nation that turned into an police state since 911. Some more benign than others, but none the less a fascist police state. I only had to read the Patriot Act rules on arrest that through out probable cause and warrants relying on mere and unexplained suspicion.

            The old triumverate of Church, State, King was changed way back in the 1920's and 1930's to Government, Big Business, and very specifically Union leaders - not members. Compliments of none other than Benito Mussolini when he formed the Fascist Party. In the US it became Democrats, Republicans, and Union Leaders with a lot of trading back and forth. I confirmed it by paying attention to what they said, what they promised and what they did and did not deliver.
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
          • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
            Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea, and not new to the group but since the socialist revolution in the US began circa 1910 or so a nation that turned into an police state since 911. Some more benign than others, but none the less a fascist police state. I only had to read the Patriot Act rules on arrest that through out probable cause and warrants relying on mere and unexplained suspicion.

            The old triumverate of Church, State, King was changed way back in the 1920's and 1930's to Government, Big Business, and very specifically Union leaders - not members. Compliments of none other than Benito Mussolini when he formed the Fascist Party. In the US it became Democrats, Republicans, and Union Leaders with a lot of trading back and forth. I confirmed it by paying attention to what they said, what they promised and what they did and did not deliver.
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by dbhalling 8 years, 11 months ago
    What is good about socialism?

    "Zip Shit Over Infinity"

    Hank Rangar

    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
    • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
      New version is x+Y=Zero a definition of the last several generations. An older version from the old days back when it took more than one was ''don't mean nuthin, ain't no thing."

      From the days when dapping was racial but now it's being pushed as more sanitary than hand shaking if just the knuckle punch is used.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
      • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
        I just received a copy of 3 Days To Kill. There is a a sequence in their between Kevin Costner and the daughters boyfriend when they first meet that perfectly illustrates well worth watching and a great comedy.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 11 months ago
    The only proper use for government is the protection of it's citizens from the use of force, both foreign and domestic, a the providing of courts to settle differences. In a rational race, no government would be needed. Humanity has yet to come close to that. Perhaps in the future world of Star Trek, but certainly not now.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by samreginab 8 years, 11 months ago
    Let me test one more device on this esteemed group. Since socialism involves the redistribution of wealth from the haves to the have nots, let's change the discussion by changing the words. Let us cal them the earns and the earn nots, and see how its sounds. OK, one step further, let's test it out on scholastic endeavors. You made good grades, right? Had to if you like Ayn Rand, because your brains were actually in gear, and not idling through school. So let's say your class president came round and said, you have lots of A's, while Lazy D Dumass has D's. Surely you don't mind sharing your A's so he can have B's and C's. Of course you will have B's and C's, too, but come on, nobody needs what you have earned.
    Would you give LDD your grades, or offer to tutor him? The former makes no sense, so no-one would cooperate with it, yet somehow many buy into the redistribution of earnings. It's bizarre to me.
    I would however be glad to teach anyone how to provide value to his fellow man, in a manner exchangeable for legal tender.
    Once again, socialism? Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. Churchill got it right.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
    • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
      It was now called grading on a curve. Now they give Honor Roll status to near half the student body so they won't feel bad and stunt their growth. The next invention was the 5.0 student who gets extra credit for doing anything beyond regular class assignments. Kinda like the former Governor of California before Arnold. He had a Bronze Star. Everyone got a Bronze Star for going through one year without a court martial or a non-judicial punishment Article 15. To be a 5.0 student you had to get a Bronze Start with V for valor device or something higher. Even that wall was breeched by the touch feelies.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by gcarl615 8 years, 11 months ago
    I have read this entire thread. Some very insightful comments made. I have often thought that a simple list of what the government cannot do under the statement of " congress shall pass no law that" and "the Administrative Branch may not" needs to be part of the Constitution. Some of the language in the Constitution has been convoluted to let them do the exact opposite of the framers intent,
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by Zenphamy 8 years, 11 months ago
    By asking the question, you infer that you think there might be some redeeming quality. And by asking for something to replace socialism, you're playing the sophist.

    Socialism can only be rightly defined as pure evil. And it's founding thoughts and the men that espoused them were also pure evil with evil intent.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
    • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
      I'll second that or may be first it. I've been contending all along in my posts that people who support evil lesser or greater are nothing more nor less than supporters of evil. Nixon and LBJ got beat out by Obeyme for that title but I would bet there all pikers compared to the next one.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 11 months ago
    Strangely - I was musing about this last night myself. My first response to my inner question on the theoretical 'value of socialism' was that I could not think of a single thing that was positive. Then I went over history a bit more, in my brain, (this cogitation was started by some of the discussions on the Nazis with MammaEmma et al) and realized that there _was_ a positive value to socialism...if you can twist the concept of a deceitful and destructive deed enough to consider it positive.

    The value of socialism is that it presents an alluring candyland vision of the future that is philosophically the antithesis of a rigid, class oriented, totalitarian culture. Lured by this vision, the masses of genuinely starving and exploited humans, who are under the thumb of the autocratic rulers, are willing to give their lives to overturn and totally destroy the despotic system in which they and their families have lived for generations.

    This is what happened in Russia, China, and South America. (In China, the elite had been in control for literally thousands of years. The 'boss' level had changed, but the structure had not.) Of course, socialism cannot produce the paradise it promised because 'humans do not work that way'. (But that is a different topic.)

    So: The Value of Socialism is that it is capable of painting a bright enough picture of a hypothetical future that it induces people to overturn and totally destroy a totalitarian regime.

    Jan
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by Mamaemma 8 years, 11 months ago
      You had to think hard to come up with that, Jan, and you are right. The value of Objectivism is that it paints a bright enough picture to induce people to destroy a totalitarian regime. And then that bright picture would actually come true, unlike socialism, which is actually totalitarianism.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
      • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
        Great job but now add in Sweden, New Zealand to name the two leading socialist countries. One can hardly call them totalitarian and I see little evidence of fascism (do anything to control the citizens).

        Anyone up on those two countries and why they work or don't work? I can't say high taxes because when you add it all up ours are probably higher with all the embedded stuff. England on the other hand did not make it work.l
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by $ jlc 8 years, 11 months ago
          Humans are much better in cause-and-effect if the correlation is sooner rather than later. If you take an affluent country of hard working people with a good infrastructure, it will take a long time to drain the reserves and get to the 'will no longer work' point.

          This is what is happening in California. We have a great economy here (if it were left alone) and thus we can support a large number of parasites without the 'pinch' being too tight.

          Jan
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
  • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
    Might be a good time to end the socialism quest with a garlic smeared stake and go one with the other.

    The only redeeming quality Socialism had or has is found in it's failure to produce anything much less fulfill all it's promises.

    The promised goals however often do have value so which falls right into the lap of the representative Democracy AKA Republic as the tool we do have or any other form of society and it's government as a free gift and one that is not insurmountable as it would be to a socialist but surmountable (both good words).

    One reason I don't support either of the two socialist parties in power.

    However I'll leave this segment with the twin phrases of 'motor of the world' and 'means of production.'' Useful tools meaning much the same thing as this phrase. If they pretend to pay we'll pretend to work. Being ''men of the mind'' our pretense will be more productive as whatever is available will be ours. The means of production refers to the simple conclusion that everyone employed in any endeavor top to bottom must contribute for the endeavor to succeed. A combination of mind and muscle and that was depicted by John Galt as a track laborer.

    .
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by philosophercat 8 years, 11 months ago
    The problem is in your use of the term "redeeming value" and "needs that society should have" The only organism which can have values is an individual and the values which a society should have are those appropriate to an individual. The proper approach is to ask what is the view of human nature you hold. If you can describe what you think a human being is then you can begin to proscribe the characteristics of the appropriate form of government, Any Rand project a heroic view of man as a productive rational being pursuing values through reason. Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics in the section on Honor describes the virtues of the best man. Socialism destroys that which is the best in man. Capitalism is the result of the best in man free act to achieve his or her best. You cannot measure the ethics of systems by their consequences but only by the nature of man they are based on. Your quest is to find and define your view of the nature of man and then you will see where your values lie.

    If you test socialists personal views you will find they hate the human mind because it wants to be free. That upsets their plans for reshaping you.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
    • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
      Agreed but then socialism is not an economic system where as capitalism is all about financial matters. Mussolini before the split from Socialism to Naitonal Fascism asked Lenin to explain Marxist Economics so he could explain it. Lenin answered you can't teach it you can only preach it.Make sure you hold out some hope for understanding to your followers and let them know the party has people that understands and make it work. And that's what they have done ever since.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by philosophercat 8 years, 11 months ago
        Read Von Mises "Human Action" and "Socialism" . Humans to survive must trade. Capitalism is the system of free trade among individuals. Socialism is trade coercively regulated by third parties for their benefit not the producers. Locke is excellent on the moral basis of work as giving the producer the right to his labor. Ask what is the moral basis of taking the product of that labor and you will see socialisms foundation.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
        • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
          Been a while since I read Von Mises. I'm currently going through Bateson's Mind and Nature and finished The Great Adventure by Cruise about the NWMP mounties of Canada. It contains a rather detailed and graphic description of the 1800's and the settlement of the Canadian west.both the natives and the Europeans. Taken from actual diaries of the first mounties and others. It conforms in many ways the stories of my grandfather who moved from Minnesota to Idaho in the late 1800's. Particularly pay attention to the meaning of pacify for a perhaps more accurate assessment of human nature.
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by samreginab 8 years, 11 months ago
    Sometimes I think it is this simple. Don't ever trust a politician to do a damn thing, and if you have to have them, make sure they are less than a stone's throw away so you can keep an eye on them. DC is not in that category, so don't give them any money with any discretion on how it is to be spent. Socialism? Nope. Now they are not even accountable politicians. You have given the suckers control over your life and it is a short, slippery slope to tyranny. Always, always, always has been. Always will be. Winston Churchill had it right.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by W4DFS 8 years, 11 months ago
    Excellent place to inject an unasked question. To often we hear arguments for "pacifism" as an argument against both military & police in society / government.

    Please remind these poorly informed souls that George Fox, founder of "Quakerism" saw the importance and place of this imperative civic function. He never argued, in print or public, against his taxes paying for this protection.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
    • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
      I love pacifists. They do what their told to do when they are told to it. Even the Quakers served in the military as medics. Joan Baez did the same thing. however when the anti-war movement quit just prior to getting the draft banned she was suddenly left all alone. Women's movement did the same thing in the 1990s turning their backs on their sisters in favor of the nations Womanizer-In-Chief. The answer to that is equality in everything including responsibilities of citizenship. and yes Virginia There is a draft waiting in the wings. The other way is expand to areas other than military for people wishing to serve. I can't think of anything more scary than walking into an inner city high school classroom without body armor and a loaded weapon - and a pre-signed pardon. just to draw a picture of other opportunities.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
  • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
    I'm surprised no on was able to offer a replacement even with the rather broad hint. Realizing he comment on using Best of Socalism and Best of Capitalism was not a good choice thought to replace it with something better and hoped for a good answer. Still am. but until then I found the Constitution already provided it. the line about guaranteeing each state a Republic form of government. The word democracy was not muchyused in the 1700s as it implies a direct vote by everyone on everything. and didn't come into vogue until the 1900s and is questionable if used to that extent even with current technology - providing you trust electronics.

    So Capitalism is a financial system, Nothing virtuous about socialism no matter it is the system of choice in Washington DC I went back to that part of the Constitution and came up - so far with - the best of a democratically chosen representative government = a Republic. or the Best of a democratic Republic with the spelling as you see it.

    Second Phase.is how to keep it from becoming the same as we have today.

    Of all the changes I listed for consideration only one is sacred ground. Recall and Initiative at all levels in all States. Followed by any of the measures that empower the citizens with means to control government. I include recall to mean the Senators and 'Representatives elected as State delegates to the federal congress.

    the rest is negotiable and more than likely can be improved to attain the goal of citizens controlling their employees working in government.

    Absent a better idea it's an existing framework for all else we seem to agree on with few exceptions. Most of those are semantics.

    this is meant to stop question one and start discussion two. What Is the Best of Capitalism as a financial system in support of a a Republic chosen by democratic means? Or by any other means.

    Keeping in mind there are other options and the rest is informational.

    The military upholding their oath of office is still available should they choose to do so. They might do it because of their oath of office.I can't think of any other reason. I rate it less than 50-50. But all it would take is some leadership, a well written and acceptable five paragraph field order, and a spark - like being ordered to fire on citizens - with business as usual with 48 hours.Not particularly difficult and no requirement for tanks in the street.

    There are always options. The next one in view is the Protective Echelon being built and entrenched. Protective Echelon is English for Schutz Staffel.

    What's to stop any of it? Hmmm you just had three elections that indicated or were explained as the people choosing to harassed in airports by amateurs over retaining their civil rights. Another way to put it is the public being unaccountably held accountable for the crimes of twenty. Public meaning the entire nation. Easy to see whose paying the price.

    Doesn't look good.

    Still as i'm about to lose wifi again Best of Capitalism as financial support of the best of a representative form of government. Or any other way would care to present your ideas and ...dreams.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by $ WilliamShipley 8 years, 11 months ago
      I think the reason this argument is flailing around is that there is no such thing as a society. It's an abstract concept encompassing a wide variety of individuals of vastly differing interests and abilities. You can't take the society out for a beer and ask it what it want's.

      So, trying to come up with a governmental system to benefit 'society' is a fool's errand. Such talk is generally used to convince someone to act in other than their own best interest in the hopes of bettering this abstract concept.

      All that really exists is the individual -- and as individuals we all have different desires, needs, and skills. What government there is should be designed around supporting individual freedom and not trying to do something to the abstract 'society'. Individuals, acting in their own best interest, are far more effective than someone trying to 'plan' an efficient organization.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 11 months ago
        WS, I keep trying to invent the govt system which
        allows all of us to exert only voluntary actions
        in relation to it, and to one another under its
        umbrella. . Jefferson, Madison et al did a good job! -- j
        .
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
        • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
          At this point before the wifi fails again thanks to all who participated and TIA for those who will. johnpe brings us to that conclusion as does part of the constitution. for the moment I will stick with small d democratically selected large R republic form of representative government - as a start point ...
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  

FORMATTING HELP

  • Comment hidden. Undo