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Saturday, April 27, 2013

Remembrance of Socialism

I was in conversation with my eldest child this morning, drinking coffee, as you do, when he asked me how old I was when I "discovered" socialism.  He didn't believe me when I said I was three years old.  I told him the story which I will now relate to you.

I had just learned how to read, I was a spontaneous reader, and I used to watch TV with my parents.  One night Russia was in the news. Since I'd never heard of Russia I asked my mother about it.  Hey, I was a toddler and still not sure that I should never ask that lying witch anything!  She tried to explain Socialism to me in terms she though I could understand at the tender age of three.  She told me that people were told what they would be when they grew up and who to marry.  All choice removed from their lives.  I told her, in the innocence of the age, that I hated that.  She agreed with me that it was a hateful thing.

I can remember that conversation as clearly as anything, yet I can't tell you what I had for dinner last night.  Hell, I don't remember IF I had dinner last night.  But you can say that my mother had one positive influence on my young mind in that she reinforced my innate hatred for anything that smacked of Socialism.  I think it shows a little greatness in me that I hated the system and not the people.  I was precocious, what can I say.

I grew up in the last 30 years of the Cold War.  My first presidential election I voted for Ronald Reagan.  I never voted straight party ticket because that's wrong and narrow minded.  If I may hazard being considered a baiter, it's bigoted as hell.  I never understood judging people based on stupid things like the color of their skin or what religion they practiced.  I've always judged people on the use of their abilities. Yes, I judge and I hope that I am judged on the same criteria.  I'm what you could call a DNA based Objectivist.  It was not something taught to me.  I recognized it immediately when I picked up Atlas Shrugged and began reading it at age 16.  I've always hated Socialism of any type. I didn't say, Oh!  This is a new idea! Because, I'd already recognized it as living in me.

I remember watching the Film Threads in the early 80's and being horrified at the effects of a nuclear war on the entire world.  It scared the hell out of me.  I'm not ashamed to admit that annihilation scares me.  The thought of anyone else telling me how to live my life infuriates me to the degree I think I will actually start breathing fire.  I'm a person and I know what is best for me.  I remember doing the bomb drills.  I remember Civil Defense signs and drills.  I remember what a bomb klaxon sounds like and freak out because both of my boys use it as their alarm clock sound.  Yeah, really fun to freak mom out, guys.  I know where you sleep, little buggers.

But, even with that childhood in my past, I always knew that if that was what it took to wipe out Liberalism and altruism, then I could accept that.  My freedom to choose my own path in life was worth that.  Plus, I always figured mankind was too smart to do annihilate itself. These days I'm not sure.  I've about had it with our bubble-wrap society and would OK a nuclear strike on DC, California and New York without a second thought.  I'm in Texas, it would never touch me.

For those of you gasping and clutching the pearls, let me tell you straight up, I am not stealing their choice from them.  Not one iota.  I am merely showing them the consequences of their decisions.  Choices have consequences and those consequences should be carefully weighed before you make your choice.  Is screaming in my face that I'm a selfish bitch worth the punch in the face you're most likely to get after I'm done laughing at you?  If it is, then scream away.  If you're lucky I laugh and walk away.  If I'm in a mood then you're lucky to walk away with a functioning psyche.  Yes, I paid close attention in all the psych classes I was forced to endure. I see most of the choices people make as God given sanction to mess with their heads.  However, I'm told I'm not a socio- or psychopath because I do have extreme empathy. I just don't base my actions or reactions on that.  I'm responsible and don't mess with people just because I can.

I remember watching the Berlin Wall falling and thinking to myself, "We are in for some shit now."  I was not proven wrong. We slowly watched nation after nation turn on socialism like a reverse Domino Effect.  Watching the Balkans implode in the next 20 years was also on my list of Things Most Likely To Happen.  I'm not a precog.  Not even close, but historically speaking, it really was the most likely thing to happen.  How are you going to hold them back when Archduke Ferdianand was already dead?  And they were not likely to have happy feelings towards those in NATO since we basically handed them over to Russia at the end of WWII.  Anyone remember that one?  No? OK, then.

But now we're on the verge of turning to a socialist nation while Russia is going through the growing pains of a Free Market society.  Go figure.  I still reserve my right to make my own choices.  If one of those choices is to shoot every communist mofo I recognize then so much the better.  Sacrifices must be made and I find that one acceptable.

I wonder when I will be able to write Remembrance of Capitalism?

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