Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism
Much of the history of the past 200 years revolved around a single idea. It was the vision that life could be lived in peace and brotherhood if only property were shared by all and distributed equally, eliminating the source of greed, envy, poverty and strife. This idea was called "socialism" and it was man's most ambitious attempt to supplant religion with a doctrine grounded on science rather than revelation.
It became the most popular political idea in history. Its provenance was European, but it spread to China and Africa, India and Latin America and even to that most tradition-bound of regions, the Middle East. While it never fully took root in America, its influence shaped the nation's political debate. At its crest in the 1970s, roughly 60 percent of the earth's population lived under governments that espoused socialism in one form or another. Then, suddenly, it all collapsed.
Because its goal proved so elusive, the socialist movement split and split again into diverse, sometimes murderously contradictory forms. There was Social Democracy, which insisted that only peaceful and democratic means could produce a harmonious commonwealth. There was Communism, which extolled the resolute use of force and dictatorship to propel mankind to a new way of life.
There was Arab Socialism, African Socialism, and other Third World variants that sought to amalgamate western Social Democracy and eastern Communism. There was even fascism, which turned the socialist idea on its head by substituting the brotherhood of nation and race for the brotherhood of class. And there were those - from early American settlers, to the "flower children" of the 1960s, to Israeli Zionist kibbutzniks - who built their own socialist communities, hoping to transform the world by the force of example.
I wishyou had hadCCs. For us, not well versed in history and Senior they are a need.
Statements like "Socialism seems inextricably linked to authoritarianism." without providing any evidence or logic is as suspicious an argument against socialism as it gets. I am sure there is a logical fallacy somewhere.
O.K. Apparently socialists don't like to be associated with people who called themselves "socialist", in the past. But the truth remains: Socialism seems inextricably linked to authoritarianism. Individuals will always seek freedom, which is fatal to socialism. It's that pesky Liberty.
The documentary makes the common mistake of confusing Socialism with Fascism. The leaders of so-called Socialist or Communist states called their systems "Socialism" but Stalin's Russia, Hiter's Germany, Mao's China, and other tyrants such as Pol Pot of Campuchea or the dictators of Venezuela or Romania, even though they claimed their countries were socialistic, they were not. They were Fascist states. The documentary should really be called "Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Fascism" except that Fascism is not dead, nor is Socialism, but true Socialism which exists in all the developed countries and partially in the U.S.
My question is, who is the greedy tyrant? A Socialist who wants to run everything and tell others how to live and what they are limited to do? Or a Capitalist who could supply it faster, cheaper, and better, IF govt got out of the way?
Obviously including health care, if you consider the very reasonable health care cooperatives in operation now, a fraction of the cost of Obamacare and typical insurance. Basically a form of direct insurance from a doctors group, cutting out all the expensive middle men. What? You didn't hear about those from your well informed Socialist media outlets? Nope just play more violins about the right for all to have health care at astronomical prices and force it upon the people scraping the lions share of the money to bureaucrats aplenty like a nest full of birds with their mouths open squawking and more so INSTEAD of insurance companies, brilliant. That IS the reality and results of Socialism.
They have to limit your information in order to make it work. If you truly understood Socialism and its design and formation, its chief promoters instruct their media and its other promoters to "lie, lie, and lie again because the people would never go for it if you told them the truth." Saul Alinsky, Rules For Radicals. One of Hillary's mentors and Obama's playbook.
What has caused the many trillions in debt of nations world wide causing currencies to devalue? Anyone? Socialism. Going into debt to buy votes. That IS the reality of Socialism. No? Socialism is only altruistic? Maybe that is what they taught you in school or what you desire to believe. But it never was and never will be. It cannot be. Any system that steals from one group to give to another group is by design, corrupt. And rife with opportunities for more corruption, like skimming by bureaucrats. The more Socialism, the more govt, the more unnecessary bureaucrats with nothing better to do than to devise ways to skim more for themselves.
Will you hear about it? Unlikely with govt run media. Which is the case today with the major media being the minions of the bankster elite Socialists who run the progessives of both the democrat (most all of it) and republican (a good bit of it) parties. Unless you go to independent news sites, you are Not informed, you are lied to in a major way.
WHO will the Socialists blame for all the problems they create when they wipe out Capitalism? Same as this majorly Socialist country does now! They will continue to point the finger elsewhere, toward the Capitalists, just like the Saudis and other Middle East countries do. It is those evil scum over there while we bathe in gold bathtubs and live in palaces. Much like Obama blaming Bush for all his intended failures. He was put there to cause failure and conversion to Socialism by Soros.
Why do people go into govt? Because they seek power, see advantage, lack creativity and hutspa to build a business of their own. If to solve a problem, to right a wrong, after they fixed that then they would leave. No they stay and take advantage of all the perks and become much like the rest. That is why short term limits are necessary.
If any system you devise, limits my freedom to start a business which competes with you or your govt, which in most cases can be done better, more efficiently outside of govt, then who is the greedy tyrant? The Socialist govt who wants to limit me and grab all the money and say who gets some -or- the capitalist who naturally seeks to provide what someone wants with no govt necessary to skim between me and the person who wants it?
Which is the greedy? The Socialist land agency head who took all the waterfront property and sells a spot to a fancy resort hotel that only the richest could afford for the mere deposit of a sum of dough into a numbered off shore account -or- the greedy capitalist fisherman who had his boat ties up there, feeding many through his efforts? That IS the reality of Socialism
It isn't that Capitalism doesn't have similar things occur, just to a lesser degree and which can in fact be challenged, because govt is not all powerful in Capitalism. Regardless of the motives of Marx or anyone favoring Socialism now, the reality is, Socialists desire to take over the distribution of everything and claim to make it more fair. Will they? Or are they just a jealous lot devising a means to get what they did NOT work for? Regardless of altruistic claims, that will be the result.
For those who refuse the straight facts and historical record about Socialism and cry about Sweden, Sweden, look at Sweden! Sweden is a mishmash of capitalism and socialism just like the usa has become, only tilted a bit more of Socialism, a matter of degree. What did it cost them? The people had no say in their govt allowing the muslim horde to come rape and pillage. Matter of fact some of the clueless stood welcoming them in at the border while being spat on. That IS the reality of too much govt control. The elites decide and you get to like it, like it or not. Can they vote out their beloved Socialists when the next indoctrinated elite running will vote the same way, because all the bankster owned media allow to get through the election process are part of the elite who desire to keep people in fear of each other, a known strategy to keep people on edge and worried about their neighbor rather than about what govt is up to next.
The belief that ANY govt, especially a Socialist govt is there to protect the people is one of the largest misbeliefs people have. Even if they suspect, the years of indoctrination of hearing the mistitled Agency names designed to make you think they are protecting you, when in fact the exact opposite is true. They protect their industry Against YOU. Only in extreme situations when people of large clout have been screwed do they act. Unless they can get a lot of PR from helping a little old lady and then they effort to get that into the news. You are not being protected by all these unnecessary Socialist agencies, they are swindling you, and like the Socialist media, you fall for it.
Food and Drug Administration, if they were there to protect you, GMO foods would be banned along with many other things, while things that could truly help cure cancer, like Rick Simpson oil, which used to be available about 100 years ago until he rediscovered it not so long ago, but essentially illegal because it is a concentrated hemp oil. We can get imported industrial hemp fiber but not grow our own? Whose brilliant idea is that? A true capitalist or a socialist govt who wants to protect their industry from much less expensive competition?
In the end, Socialism is all about getting rid of the competition, of various types, that is what it is all about. The end result is a higher cost of living, creating MORE POOR. That IS the reality of socialism by design. They are able to fool the unthinking into believing they are benevolent and helping the poor. They dribble a little to them to buy their votes and that is all. People sell their lives and votes so cheaply.
I have yet to see/read a govt school /media indoctrinated socialist see the forest for the trees and brush they are focused on. These entities emotionalize their audience and point the finger of blame at Capitalism while ignoring most all the facts:
1) Corporatism is NOT capitalism it is Fascism. Mussolini coined the term Fascism and later stated Corporatism was a better description.
2) Regardless of all the platitudes and emotion heaped upon Socialism, it is just a slick way for the largest corporations that have already cozy-ed up to govt to eliminate their competition. Or in a true Socialist state, for incompetent bureaucrats or cronies to those in power, who pretend to think they know how to do things better, to abscond with what others worked hard to build and eventually make it into a mess like any other govt run behemoth: Maybe we'll get to your needs, maybe we won't, just wait in line and shut up because we're the boss now, not you.
3) Contrary to the ridiculous comments at the top regarding "Human Nature is irrelevant", Human Nature really means everything. a) It means there will be just as much CORRUPTION or MORE with Socialism, because for all practical purposes, it is inherent in the design. When govt has more power, what does it do? It makes more unnecessary govt and ways to steal from people who actually do things, be it permits and fees for every little thing or legislating you out of business in favor of themselves in govt or a crony.
4) Even worse and the downfall of any true Socialist state, is lack of skin in the game. If you built your house with your own two hand, like my grandfather did more than once having moved from place to place, you are most likely going to take care of it. If govt gives you housing, a few will take care of it, many will not, hence the slums.
I've seen first hand people given a vehicle to use and not take care of it but when forced to buy it, take great care of it.
The great myth of Socialism is equal distribution of land. When someone else is born, or a million someone elses, where does that land come from? The Socialist bureaucrats of course dictate that they take a portion of someone else's place they have been living on, rather than their own.
There are many examples of Socialism at work on the farm over the 100's of years. There just is no incentive for people to bust their hineys when they see everyone else living off of their hard work. No food on the shelves is the result. If you are given a tract of land to grow food on and 3/4 of that food is taken for other people, while the remainder is "the govt's gift for allowing you to reside there to feed them", is your food going to look better than the rest because you tend to it better. If heavy rains are coming, heavy runoff onto your property is likely and time is short, what are you going to do? You are going to build a berm or dig a ditch to protect your portion first and when you are done doing that you are tired and call it a day. The capitalist who sells his crop for a profit has a stake in the WHOLE crop and tries to protect as much as he can. If someone is going to bring up the example of a Kibbutz, that would only work, IF every last person was forced to live in one and forced to work and do each assigned task well or starve. If not, Human Nature would take over and others would get lazy and ask, why should I work hard when Mr/s lazybones doesn't? Which of course is the exact OPPOSITE of all the cries for more Socialism, "to help the poor". In reality, Not to force people to work but to get more people NOT working, on the govt dole, so they can buy their vote cheaply and stay in power.
A prime example of no skin in the game: In low lying areas subject to possible flooding, where a lot of food is grown or people live, many of those areas in the usa have dikes or levees around them. In a capitalist farm area, those farmers are out all night taking turns driving around the dike to check for leaks and to help each other stop leaks in the dike with sand bags and such. What happened in the govt owned and run district, where they bought it and have caretakers on it to "support wildlife"? The dike breached due to lack of maintenance and much of the sacred wildlife drowned. In the next years they were contacting farmers to capture that same species off of their farms which survived due to the efforts of the farmers who had skin in the game, to put in their district again. Nice having a govt job with no consequences, when you can just go over to those who work for a living to get what you want. What happens when everyone is under that system? Nothing good, unless you like empty shelves.
The nature of elites is that they think they know best. They want to use socialism as a means of total control, because it requires that to do what they think is best. It will be MUCH easier for the elites to do what they want to do to you, via Socialism. Do a search for the Georgia Guidestones and read them. The elites want to reduce the population to under a billion. How can this be done without killing you? And that IS their plan. The benevolent Socialists who want to help the poor, like Bill Gates who favorite way of getting rid of people is through vaccinations. See his TED talk on youtube. Also invested in Monsanto to supply GMO terminator seed tech to South American areas. Socialism at its finest. It is and always has been a ruse. A means of one group to take power, because they know best. You shouldn't be free to do as you choose, you should only be free to do as we say and permit you to do. That is the Socialist mentality.
5) Does a Socialist govt care about you? Not according to their whole concept. "For the good of SOCIETY", Not for the good of You. So if there are poor people, what is their solution? GIVE them shelter, food, and money. What does that accomplish? BY DESIGN is creates MORE POOR people who like free stuff. If a Socialist govt truly cared about You, if you were poor, they would create an environment where you could obtain a decent job where you were doing something you cared about or at least could earn self respect.
The Human Nature of the poor is that few break free because their ego, to divert their conscience away from the truth, tells them that the world owes them a living and all the free stuff they get and tell themselves it should be much more. Socialist promote this fallacy to keep them poor and voting Socialist. If they truly cared, they would require results. Create a job rich environment. It is forever Symolism(BS) over substance. Socialists are always telling themselves they are good for caring but they don't or they would look at the results of years of incrementally increasing socialism which has caused most of the problems they attribute to Capitalism. Abject failure to truly care even a bit to see that better results happen. Over supplying poor countries with free food does what? It puts the local farmers out of business, creates dependency, and gives more power to the warlords who abscond with it. But it sure makes the Socialist feel like they are good and caring, while doing more harm than good.
Why do Socialists ruin the economy? To create more poor who would grow to like free stuff and vote for more Socialism, in hopes of gaining perpetual power via the larger voting block they created. That is Exactly what Obama meant by "transforming the nation".
Why do Socialist desire open borders? Same reason; more poor to vote for Socialists promising more free stuff.
6) Yes, the list of ills of Socialism can go on and on. Is Socialism immune to the Banksters causing inflation and deflation? Not at all. Those are the very ones who have been promoting Socialism. It makes their style of thievery much easier, less competition, no one is allowed to devise a way around them or anything, without the Socialist govt, which they own and control, without the govt approval. Is what is best for a bankster best for you?
7) It is simply a matter of computing: Garbage In = Garbage Out. Emotionalize and indoctrinate students, some who become the teachers who teach the teachers, into feeling instead of thinking and you have won another recruit into Socialism. Yes that was and is the Rockefeller and friends plan and why they poured so much money into Universities with the strings of accepting certain professors to go along with that money.
We no longer have an education system but a Socialist govt indoctrination system. Over the past 60 years these arrogant good for nothings have infiltrated most of govt and most of the media. You can read the results many of the comments above. Total ignorance of reality due to edited and limited information presented as facts and news. Limited and edit in such a way so that the viewer would come to the desired conclusion, and think they did so on their own, "based on the evidence"! And these supposedly "intelligent" types fall for it hook, line, and sinker.
One of these Socialist commentors claims "you can talk reason to anyone." Totally untrue. You cannot talk reason to many Socialist. Over the years they develop a world view that they wrap their ego around. You can talk facts, evidence, history, results, all day long and they cannot hear you. For some it will require them to starve before they understand. Others would just blame someone else like they do now.
The title itself is a joke, and a shameless anti-socialist propaganda.
Capitalist never can see the Communist Socialist send rice bread butter chicken beef milk to help the poor Capitalist
Propaganda much? I tried to watch all of it, but it was just too much nonsense. When they got to the part about how wonderful things were at the turn of the last century in the U.S., I nearly got sick. The BS detector rang itself off the wall. The credits scream "Think Tank Propaganda";
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR
Brittany Huckabee
HOST/ESSAYIST
Ben Wattenberg
American Enterprise Institute
I never watched this doc but as far as im concerned in the world today it is socialism for the rich (bank bail outs, corporate tax cuts and loopholes etc.) and capitalism for the poor.
The Socialists conferences in the west (4:00) show that the majority of the people advocating socialism seem to be leftist Jews. In the former Soviet Union the majority of Communist at the top were Jews. I wonder why so many Jews seem to be believers in this nonsense? What is it that makes some Jews want to create a Tower of Babel that makes an ideology a god over the people.
Socialism is good if you haven't own capital
It's amusing, that all these comments, declare that socialism works. Socialism has never worked. It didn't work before, or after, WW1 & WW2. It's on life support now, and modern socialism only thrives in Europe because of the USA. Now that the US is declining, economically and culturally, we see that Europe's socialism is finally coming to fruition; and it's falling apart everywhere. Cypurs, Greece, Spain, etc.
i have lived in Sweden, and I can asure everybody, that Sweden is the worst socialist piece of **** country in the entire western world. People don´t know that, but over half a million danes has been persecuted back to Denmark, when they tried to settle down in Sweden. And for what reason? It´s good business. Realestate thrives, bu the main reason for the swedish evil is, that there has to be made room for more muslims. They can´t get enough of muslims, which in the future will guarantee Sweden to be an absolute socialist muslim hellhole.
and for the record. Ayn Rand took both social security and medicare.
I would love just once, just one time, to enjoy reading comments following a documentary on socialism, in which Republicans could make an intelligent argument based on factual knowledge, and for pity sake, leave the christian religion (and badly understood scripture at that) completely out of the argument.Are they just obsessed with their own version of reality? The reason any social program does not work is because many people refuse to give up their ego for 5 minutes.
The propaganda is strong with this video lmao, sadly, 10 years ago I would have gobbled it right up, thanks Adam Curtis for setting me straight.
I come from Sweden, and I would like to invite you here, a country who hasn´t been involved directly in war for around 200 years. Come here, travel around a couple of months, and then tell me socialism has never had fair or humane objectives. And then let me ask you, sir, how many wars have the US been involved (started) in only the post WW2 years?
Being a person of social views I must say I enjoyed this documentary. Although it portrays capitalism as the ultimate destination. Theres a lot of history here and for a person who just began his journey with this ideology I'd definatelly recommend it. Plus it makes a clear distinction between socialism and later totalitarism - something that is commonly mistaken.
One thing bothers me and it's mentioned somewhere along this doc: how do we get people to contribute to a socialist society. I do favor movements such as Zeitgeist (thou some ideas are just sci-fi or simlply far-fetched) but it is very hard for me to convince myself that a great leap in human conciousness can be achieved. Everywhere I look around, folks just care about securing enough money for themselves and beyond that being entertained. Plus most of them are so spoiled and shallow, that the only word that comes to mind is 'id**t'. And you simply can't have them take part in any direct democracy or social democracy. The values that beam from media, educational system and elders are just wrong. And they are the values that capitalism helped shape. Just like socialism unintendedly contributed to totalitarism.
Both ideas seem to be wrong. Perhaps the answer is somewhere in between.
If we hope to interpret the complexities of history accurately or with any semblance of philosophical depth, shallow accounts such as this written, narrated and produced by fierce opponents of the content itself do not paint a picture with any basis in reality. This is still a worthwhile viewing if you can gaze through the fog of ideology -- knowing full well that history is written by those who won. The value here is not what's said, but what's implied.
"The American Enterprise Institute"????
Oops. There goes the old credibility thingy.
It is utterly idiotic to suggest that because Communism does not work, Capitalism automatically becomes the de-facto "standard model".
That aside, all the isms till-date have absolutely nothing to do with how humans have evolved over millennia and tend to evangelise utopian visions built on ever expanding layers of theoretical nonsense from armchair "experts". Short of an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, dictatorship, we have no solution to the problem that all the isms attempted to resolve. Recall the conversation between Neo and the Architect in The Matrix Reloaded. I think philosophically, that exchange puts the problem into perspective – choice. How do we account for the anomalous choices that do not conform to the standard model? Ignore? Engineer? Exterminate?
"The Architect - Please. As I was saying, she stumbled upon a solution whereby nearly 99.9% of all test subjects accepted the program, as long as they were given a choice, even if they were only aware of the choice at a near unconscious level. While this answer functioned, it was obviously fundamentally flawed, thus creating the otherwise contradictory systemic anomaly that if left unchecked might threaten the system itself. Ergo, those that refused the program, while a minority, if unchecked, would constitute an escalating probability of disaster."
Interesting program but coming from a very American point of view. One must note that both the "Standard of Living" and the "Quality of Life" is much higher countries with Social Democratic policies, namely Canada, Sweden, Denmark etc. The problem with pure capitalist economies is that institutions and corporations that are necessary to life are privatized. This privatization jeopardizes the "Standard of Living" and the "Quality of life" among middle and lower classes causing an ever widening gap between the aforementioned and the upper class. The U.S. with its powerful economy consists of a population that in comparison equal to or greater than Western Europe combined. When put to scale the reason behind its economic prosperity becomes a little more prevalent. What also must be said is that regardless of this economic prosperity the average debt is astronomical, not just with its government but with its individual person. This causes a sense of security in a debtor’s society, a security that can quickly be extinguished when the debt runs to high to control (As was seen in the bubble collapse of 2008 as Reaganomics proved a corrupt failure).
Social Democracy is on a course of resurgence within the Western World again as debts rise and bankruptcy becomes more prevalent. Capitalism is well and good and works, but must be kept in check by the Governments in which they operate under whom are elected by the people. Healthcare, Education, Transportation, Public Security and Utilities must be Government owned to keep a moral and ethical check on a society that is inherently selfish and ignorant.
This is a debate that will last well past our lifetimes as Utopia does not exist and equality is a pipe dream. That said, there is no reason we should not strive for a better life both individually and collectively.
I just like to comment on the Canadian Socialism thing, actually most Canadian socialists were Canadian and the first "socialist leaning" governments where not lead by the CCF and the NDP but rather by the various united farmer-labour parties across the nation in Alberta Manitoba and Ontario. Also i'd say in Canada socialism is on the rise as the popularity of free market ideals in Canada is declining and the popularity of the NDP is rising, which we most recently saw in the 2011 election with The NDP getting 103 seats and a nearly stratospheric rise to official opposition to the new conservative party (which has also in recent years moderated it's free market rhetoric)
No where in the Bible does God say you have to give what you earn.. He does say that we should help the poor.. but in no way does he expect us to give what we earn to people, in no way is it right for government to take from the rich or middleclass.. they already have been for decades, now they just want it all .. we are free to choose.. and America, has always been the most giving country.. even in our taxes, money goes to welfare, food, medical.. the problem is you can give people a hand up, but we should never be a nation of handouts.. We have generational welfare, SSI etc.. people become slaves to welfare.. There should be requirements that people must find work.. I guarantee you after not eating for awhile people will look for work.. We cannot save the world.. and Jesus said, "the poor will always be with us." How many countries have we helped.. and they hate us, how many have we helped, who now refuse to help themselves...We can no longer hold up the world... its time to be responsible for self..