(May 18, 2017 at 1:04 pm)Crunchy Wrote: As far as I can see there are no socialist or communist or capitalist nations anywhere on earth.
Every single one of them blends elements of these ideologies to one degree or another. Even the Scandinavian nations who call themselves socialist still have private property, a stock market, corporations, etc... A far far cry from the social ownership of the means of production.
Calling any US democrat a communist or even a socialist is just political theater. Even Bernie Sanders is not actually a socialist.
^^^^^^ This is where I am at, although I would not put it in these words.
I hate how our species sets up "formulas". It isn't that they don't work, you can point to any single point in history where they seem to, but it always comes at the expense of others. When humans argue political and economic ideologies and claim they work, my argument is always the same, "For who?"
What I end up seeing just like religion is that they all amount to "it works for me", which is a failure to see the bigger global historical picture of our species. YES, they all work depending on point of view. That is because our species a vast majority of the time adapt what our parents sell us, so we end up defending that which is local and familiar with.
Now, having said that, I value more the west, although it is hardly perfect and does have it's own baggage. The good side of the west is that our laws lean to protecting pluralism, but the downside is that it is just as easily manipulated by wealth and greed.
To me, labels of religion, political and economic issues are really nothing more than artificial labels humans hide behind ignoring, or flat out refusing to accept, in the end, it is all about making arguments to control resources.
