It wouldn’t be communism if it didn’t have gulags.
Ex-president *Batteries Not Included has spent the last six years wallowing in riches, and I doubt he’s gotten any wiser since he dropped this clanger. But this quote might stand forever as the dumbest thing he ever said.
Yesireebob–just use “what works” in communism. The fact that nothing works in communism has eluded him.
Oh–but he’s a Democrat: he likes communism! And wishes that we had it here.
Well, they’re tryin’, sunshine–they’re tryin’.
I read Barbara Tuchman’s The March of Folly when it came out in 1984 and have never forgotten it.
For a public policy or action to be classed as Grade A Folly, Tuchman set out four conditions: 1) It has to be contrary to self-interest; 2) it has to be the policy or actions not of an individual, but of a group; 3) it must not be the only policy available, and is chosen over many wiser policies; 4) decision-makers have to persist in their folly in spite of warnings and demonstrable failures.
Our Really Smart People, in addition to world-class, civilization-threatening follies like communism and socialism, have saddled us with any number of follies. Just to name a few: encouraging millions of people to come here illegally; purposely fomenting racial strife, in hope of political gain; shutting down the whole economy because of the coronavirus; using a massive, incredibly costly education establishment to “teach” things that are manifestly untrue; the Green New Deal–but you can think of many others on your own.
What I remember best from Tuchman’s book is her chapter on how the British managed to lose their American colonies: every step they took was a wrong one, practically guaranteeing failure.
It’s only by the grace of God that our country still exists.