Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The New Red Scare: Here We Go Again!

Enjoy CapitalismImage by Jacob Bøtter via Flickr

One would hope that the Red Scare (note the color red here) was history, past, gone away but it seems conservatives are at it again as the the "S" word is being pasted onto Obama, The Bailout and increased government involvement in our lives, now Health Care Reform.

I used to tell my students to tell me whether Democracy or Communism is good or bad. And naturally, they mechanically trumpeted: Communism is evil and Democracy good. Of course.

Then I would ask "What if corrupt people run a Democracy, and good people run a Communist system?

Vladimir Ilyich LeninImage via Wikipedia

Is the system good or bad, or do those who run it make it good or bad?" Kind of a rhetorical question.

I believe the much ado about the glories of Capitalism should have been settled once and for all with the debacle over Wall St., the banks and the collapse of the housing market. Bernie Madoff?

So who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Maybe a little Socialism would be good for us? Can't be much worse than the brand of Capitalism we've seen lately, que no? The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

2 comments:

Karla said...

I was raised believing the "S" word was a bad word ~ but it didn't take long after high school before I realized that the "real world" is rough! If it weren't for a little "socialism" my family might not have made it past a medical emergency.

Rick Rivers said...

Yeah, the Apostles and early Christians tried it and it seemed to work just fine. Just need an honest distributor of the wealth.
That's the hard part.