Plenty of cults exist - every cult has its 'religious dogma', its idols, its 'prophets', its 'science', its 'proof' and its intolerant liturgy of demands. Cults everywhere: Corona, 'The Science' or Scientism, Islam, the State, the cult of Gender Fascism, Marxism, Darwin and Evolution, Globaloneywarming, Changing Climate, Abortion...
Tempus Fugit Memento Mori - Time Flies Remember Death
High taxes; diversity; cultural marxism; and historical rewriting. It ain't easy staying sane.
by StFerdIII
A reasonable definition of socialism from Webster’s is: ‘any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.’ This is a pretty broad but sensible definition which includes state ownership or control through regulated oligopolies of key industries; state manipulation of the media to allow ownership of production and incomes to be accepted by the populace; high tax rates expropriating half of people’s incomes; and government revenue trending towards 50% of national GDP. Modern socialism is just as oppressive as feudalism and just as destructive to civilizational development, individual liberty and freedom as any number of various orientalisms and despotisms.
It is tough to survive in such an ideological trap. Socialists, even given their gross failings of intelligence and comprehension, are cunning animals. The cultural Marxist warrior is skilled at perverting Western media and educational systems to turn mental processes and propaganda against Western society whilst promoting abstract and dangerous ideals such as ‘diversity’, ‘relativity’ and ‘equality’. The populist-socialist politician is cruelly efficient at gaining more power through a million little ‘increases’ or ‘changes’ which allow more taxation and power to be accrued by the center, all the while talking about ‘values’, ‘communal interests’, and love. The socialist-internationalist is adept at undermining national security, virtues and self-interests through insane but cunningly crafted messages of international ‘law’; due process and cultural relativity.
These socialist creatures and their utopian friends have created a more regulated and state-controlled world than even the most ardent Marxist would have dared to dream in 1920. The psychologically interesting aspect is that the population allows the modern state to create a problem, and then propose ever more state programs to try to correct the original mistake. This points clearly to a mass psychosis and flaw within the body politic.
The erection of a second program to correct the first mistake usually of course provokes even more problems, which the state, represented by well paid and well pensioned politicians, offers naturally to resolve with some grand name such as ‘the war on poverty or the national program to….’ The grand sounding scheme is met with media adulation; photo ops of toothy populists with an arm around various ‘victimised’ groups and the standard news conference at an old couple’s kitchen table, with the populists pledging undying love and support for said ‘value’ program etc. etc., while the old people weep with gratitude.
All it really means is that more tax money being sent to more unaccountable and usually unelected bodies, who deposit the funds in non-transparent accounts to fund non-competitive and un-reviewed programs, which result in un-audited and ineffectual financial waste or even fraud. But for the socialist-populist these programs erected to correct various ‘failures’ and contain the natural ‘dysfunction of capitalism’ [so they tell us] and they are sure vote winners. Even better for the socialists, over time these programs mutate into untouchable national programs and ‘values’.
So the vicious cycle of socialist engineering and cultural change accelerates. In most modern countries the increase in taxation since 1960 is well above 1500%. The increase in income during the same period is not nearly that high. For most citizens in most Western states income has lagged increases in taxation and the overall increase in government revenues for a long time. This is one reason for the decrease in fertility in the West. Rising taxation levels [and debt which means a future tax increase] and the necessity to spend 50% of your income to support the state, make raising a family in an expensive urban setting with expensive ancillary choices in education for example, rather difficult.
In most Western states the total debt of all governments including their off the balance liability [future program funding that is guaranteed but not accounted for] is around 3 times that of national GDP. In Canada for instance the Federal debt is $450 billion or so, which is only 33% of total GDP. But Federal off the balance sheet debt and liability is $1.7 Trillion – 50% more than the yearly GDP. Add in other levels of government and you have a large debt that drags down the economy, and living standards. Such a massive debt necessitates either future tax increases or [unlikely] large spending cuts. Much the same is of course occurring in the US and Europe.
Much of this of debt accumulation and government spending is to effect socialist concepts of equality. This is a dubious economic and moral project that has resulted in massive transfers and over taxation. A key problem is that these egalitarian programs are not controlled by the citizens since revenue transfers up and down the income scale and across any country are at the mercy of various levels of governmental bureaucrats.
For example 60 % of most citizens live in cities. In most countries however local city governments are not constitutionally able to raise enough revenue to support the needs of their growing populations. In this regard infrastructure and basic services suffer, while taxation on the few items that can be constitutionally taxed at the city level [property, purchases, user fees etc.] mount to crushing levels. To alleviate local urban financial problems governments engage in complicated transfers to fund cities; regions; or other areas that lack the ability to raise local revenues. In reality this leads to a loss of accountability and transparency and higher overall tax rates. It also allows local governments to spend money unwisely and accumulate large debts while blaming another level of government for some supposed ‘fiscal gap’.
Accountability becomes lost as each jurisdiction madly scrambles to increase taxes and fees with each level of government trying to grow as large and as powerful as possible. For the average citizen this leads to an incomprehensible network of laws; taxes; transfers; program responsibility and of course political fraud. An oft used and simple method to generate support for many politicians is to blame some other level of government for whatever the problem is [crime; homelessness; transport; immigration etc.]. Such populism is cheap and effective leading to all sorts of claims that ‘we’ are victimized by ‘them’, but it does nothing to sort out the core issue which is that the more government you layer on, the less transparent, effective and moral a system you have.
It is hard to live under socialism with its heavy, taxing, complicated, multi-leveled governmental structure. Excepting white males, it appears that everyone is part of a little grievance group, with a dedicated lobby effort to claim some public money to redress their mono-focused concerns. Governments rush about busy with creating alarm [cold alerts!, heat alerts!]; or hysteria [globaloney warming]; or bad ideas [socialized medicine]; or gross incompetence [transport networks, social redistribution]. Meanwhile for the average citizen the system just gets more complicated and corrupt and voting in elections becomes almost a meaningless gesture [which gang will be better than the others?].
Even more disturbing perhaps than the mindless economic and political socialism that passes for modern political-economy, is the cultural Marxism that daily assaults the senses. Post-modern Marxism which calls for diversity; equality of results; guarantees; complete security; and eco-love; while espousing anti-market, anti-white; anti-military; anti-historical, anti-corporate messaging, has seriously deranged the modern psyche.
Outside of war civilizations are never lost in one episodic event. They are lost by the countless incremental advances made by those who have a disturbed view of the world in which liberty, freedom and civilization are to be replaced by socialist sameness; greyness, government fear-mongering and individual mediocrity.
