Marx

17th June 2016

According to Bill Maher, America sees Socialism as Communism's gay cousin.

If you google Communism you will find it described thus: "A political theory advocating class war."
But, while Maher's joke might be spot on, google's definition is not. Karl Marx's political theories were not advocating anything. They were descriptive not normative. For class war, history needed Lenin and Stalin.

And yet in 2016, America still reacts out of fear whenever Communism or its cousin Socialism gets mentioned.  After all, it has a long history with this knee-jerk reaction. Take Macarthyism, one of history's greatest ironies, which led to just as restrictive a government as the regime it feared.  Not so long ago int his country, school children were hiding under their desks for fear of the "Red Scare."

All of which makes the rise of Bernie Sanders even more fantastical. He isn't even a Democrat, but more of a dreaded socialist. If this had not been America, I would have put my effort behind this man's campaign. But this is America, and although it did elect a black man for president, it really didn't like it - only now that he is on his way out are his favourability ratings reflecting the admirable job he has done.  America is further away from voting for an out-and-out socialist than it is from voting for a person of ethnicity or a woman. The fact that a mogul like Donald Trump could rise to prominence is powerful proof of that fact. It is also proof that Americans are motivated, not by the cool light of reason, but by fear.
I have friends who are toying with voting for Trump in order to speed on the inevitable collapse of the old boys' political paradigm. But that would be to make the same mistake the post-Marx communists made. Lets's just watch this unfold in its own time. It will happen. But voting for a patent idiot like Trump will only cause more bloodshed as the ship sinks.

That smoke you see is Donald Trump's rhetoric. The last cry of the dinosaur, as Michael Moore puts it.
If Marx was right, then one day the president of this country will be a socialist. History seems to have picked up speed, and who knows it might happen in my lifetime. But effectivelyAmerican Zeitgeist is about a hundred years behind the rest of the developed world. It is running around trying to police the world as though empires were still up for grabs. It is an adolescent country trying to grow up on a world stage. Rather like Justin Bieber.