Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the deep problem with socialism and all its offspring is the foundational lie, that everyone can be indigent and rich at the same time. This is an example of what I call a glittering lie. A lie that is obvious but is so attractive it is believed anyway. A mundane example is when we buy a new car and think that it will make us happy. We know that in the long term it won’t, and indeed the payments could make our lives harder, but the idea is so attractive. Socialism is a glittering lie in this way. I suspect even the most ardent socialist knows in his or her heart that it can’t work, but they so want it to that they can’t help themselves. They are drawn to that foundational lie, like a moth to a bug zapper. The idea that one can loll about all day and at the same time be wealthy is quite magnetic.
A lie is a lie no matter how glittering or how much one wants it to be true. That is the reality of how swindles are done. Just as water seeks low ground, people seek easy money. If that were not the case, there would never be a pig in a poke, shell game, or a need for a bunco squad. The mark wants money for nothing, so loses the little money he or she does have. They lose it to someone who is working to get money for nothing. The swindler exploits the mark’s greed against him. They work hard to provide nothing. The same game is being played in the case of socialism. The socialist who seeks to run the despotism is exploiting the greed of the marks who throw themselves on bombs to usher in a new golden age. Maybe one that will last a thousand years.
The worker who picks up a hammer to smash is a mark in the socialist game. They have fallen for the foundational lie. The notion that indigence can lead to wealth. All the future layabout need do is smash the machine of wealth creation, then everyone will be rich. Nothing makes more sense than that! Yet it has always resulted in near universal poverty, not prosperity. Nevertheless, those who run the despotic machine of extraction that is socialism live like kings. Even in North Korea. There the apparatchiks are at the top of Pareto’s economic curve. Their high life is due to political favor, not merit, hard work, or entrepreneurship. This exposes the foundational lie of socialism, yet those who fall for it are blind to the example, and those who would be the apparatchiks adore that foundational lie.
Swindlers, like socialists, will go to great lengths to provide nothing for money. Such people eschew productive work for the swindle. This is probably for a myriad of reasons. Some possibly just like to pull it over on others, the thrill of a con, what they see as easy money, power, etc. A con artist will work so hard setting up a game that the same effort, applied legitimately, would make them filthy rich… instead of just filthy. This means the harder working, smarter, and heartless the swindler the higher they will go. The same is true of a socialist. It’s like Game of Thrones. That’s a swindle where most of the cons and patsies die horribly. This is because there can only be one Stalin, Mao, or Hitler. The foundational lie then is the bait they use to exploit human weakness.
This makes socialism a pig in a poke con. The socialist sells a bag with a squirming entity inside. He or she tells us it’s a piglet, but we can’t look… it might escape. So we buy it for supper. When we get it home we find it was a stray cat. So we go hungry as the swindler eats a nice meal. We are told that if we fight to give them unlimited power, we will eat for free. Then, once they have power, the marks go hungry as the socialists eat a nice meal. That is the nature of socialism. It’s sold on a glittering foundational lie, the notion that one can be indigent and wealthy at the same time. The truth is that only the political class will be indigent and wealthy… the rest will starve. This makes socialism a swindle. The leaders are the swindlers and the people are the patsies. Are you a patsy in their game?
Sincerely,
John Pepin
