Quote of the day—Gary North

When Deng Xiaoping inaugurated an agricultural reform in 1979 which relied heavily on private ownership, he launched the most impressive period of economic growth that any large country has ever experienced. But that ended socialist economic planning. When, on December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev announced that the Soviet Union was going out of business, that ended the lure of socialism among the intellectuals. They had always clung to socialism because they expected that their class would exercise power in a socialist regime. When it became clear that the Soviet Union was too feeble to impose its will on the Russian masses, that was the end of their infatuation with Communism and socialism. It was always about power. It was never about the logic of socialism.

So, in this month, the 100th anniversary of Lenin’s Bolshevik revolution in Russia, we can rejoice in the fact that socialism is dead. From a theoretical standpoint, it was never alive. It was a corpse from day one. It was sustained by rhetoric, not logic.

Gary North
October 12, 2017
Why Socialism Is Dead
[Just because it is, and always was, dead doesn’t mean that there aren’t large numbers of people worshiping it and demanding, upon the pain of death to non believers, that others worship it as well. The Second Amendment helps guarantee you can exercise your First Amendment right to freedom of, or from, religion.—Joe]

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6 thoughts on “Quote of the day—Gary North

  1. It would be great if Mr. North were right, but it’s very obvious that he is wrong. The demise of the SU has not stopped the left’s infatuation with socialism, nor their dream of ending up as part of the power elite. It hasn’t even stopped their delusion that socialism can be “made to work”.

    • Delusions are often functional. This delusion gives the “intellectuals” belief in their superiority and their “rightful place” at the top of the political power “food chain”.

      Delusions also sometimes take several generations, if ever, to die. But with this conclusive of evidence the trend should be generally downward.

      • “…with this conclusive of evidence the trend should be generally downward.”

        The key word being “should”. What “should” happen and what will happen are often very different, because the motivations are very different.

        One could just as well say the “conclusive evidence” proves that socialists can get away with it over and over again, at least for a good while. It means there’s always the opportunity, using lies, false promises and threats, to strip a society of its wealth and vitality like a swarm of locusts. So don’t knock it– It works.

        That’s the rub then isn’t it? From the point of view of the predator, socialism works beautifully.

        We say it doesn’t “work”, and the predators look at us like we’re blithering idiots ignoring the obvious.

        Understand the motivations and goals, and only then can you decide whether it “works” or not. The human-shaped predator operates under a whoooole different paradigm from that of a real person.

        So it is that I say North’s quote is delusional. He may be a good man, the best even, and very astute and articulate, maybe even a genius, but he’s assuming the wrong paradigm, or set of premises.

        • It has worked. But I don’t think it is still working. The current Whitehouse administration and the makeup of the state legislatures as a whole is the least socialist in my memory. I believe this fact is recognized by the socialists and communists of this country and is the primary motivation for the hysterical end of the world proclamations and, literally, screaming at the sky demonstrations. Also, look at the age of their leadership and the lack of depth on their “bench”. They are a dying “breed”. They see the possible end of their political world and have lost control of their mental faculties.

          The insanity on display here will only increase the rate of decline of their power. More and more people will recognize they are crazy and avoid aligning themselves with the nut cases. It may be a generation or two more before they can be dismissed into the dustbin of history, but I don’t see a significant risk of them achieving apex predator power in our country again.

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