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Quasi-Socialism … A Concept Seemingly Impossible for Some to Grasp
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Disclaimer:
Bob Pritts is responsible for this content, which is not edited by the Wilson County News or wilsoncountynews.com. |
October 30, 2008 | 31 comments
In researching for another blog I wanted to write, I ran across some actual statistics that gave me the idea for this essay. The material concerns the number of passports held by Americans as of 2007. It also contains the actual number of Americans who traveled, during that very same year to Europe and Mexico.
Turns out that 74 million Americans have passports. Only 13 million traveled to Europe and 5.8 million traveled to Mexico last year. So that deductively means that only 24.7% of the total American population actually have a passport and that only 18.8% of those used them for travel … less than 6.2% of the total American population as a whole. And, a large percentage of these travelers made more than one trip for ordinary business purposes and seminars. Understanding that most likely half of the 18.8 million travelers were first time travelers on vacation, education excursions, tours, cruises, and the like, it leaves an astounding 81.2% of Americans who never left our borders at all! And, many of those have never and will never leave this country in their entire lives.
Why is this important? Apparently, as it stands now, a majority of our voting population has apparently decided to elect a candidate who eloquently promises them quasi-socialistic ideas as a means to a ‘change they can believe in’. He has quite masterfully presented his speeches with words and ideas that sound so good and are exactly what they want to hear at a time they are desperately seeking to get out of their, in many cases, self-inflicted problems in their personal lives.
What is quasi-socialism? The word quasi comes from Latin and simply means ‘as if it were, just as’. For our purposes, it’s the form of a government (Socialism) that seems like real socialism but is in fact ‘almost’ the same thing, a period depicting the incremental, slow process and progress toward a final goal. The definition of pure socialism is ‘a theory or system of the ownership and operation of the means of production and distribution by society or the community (the people) rather than by private individuals, with all members of society or the community sharing the work and the products’. I can assure you that through all my travels and life experience that none of the most visited Western European countries or México are even close to pure socialism … they are at various incremental stages of quasi-socialism. As a matter of fact, France now has a capitalist oriented president (Nicholas Sarkozy) and México recently elected a capitalist-minded president (Felipe Calderón) who are both fighting against tremendous odds to break the quasi-socialistic habits of their governments and people who fear changing from the past.
Using the statistics from the second paragraph above, I must assume this essay will be read by 8 out of 10 people who have never witnessed quasi-socialism in action. I believe it is appropriate to give you some kind of a sneak preview of some the change that in fact will occur in our country if we choose Mr. Obama as our next president, particularly if both houses of our congress become majority liberal under the leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
Since México is much closer to home and may be more familiar to most readers, I’ll share some real life experiences I have personally had over the past 30 years. This is best done by telling you true anecdotes about some of the people who are my personal friends. All of these folks are very decent individuals who have found themselves in a position of having to make do, as best they can, under control of a government that until this day has enjoyed a tremendous amount of control over their very aspirations and lives. I’m not using their real names as I don’t want any repercussions that could come about by them being ‘turned in’ to the government by someone with a socialist agenda who may read this. Yes, that’s just another ‘freedom’ benefit for the common folk living under quasi-socialist government rule! They can only ‘hope’ that no one finds out what they’re doing behind the government’s back.
First there is Esmeralda. I first met her in 1981 when she was only 5 years old. She was being trained in ‘street selling’ by one of her sisters (7 years old). She had beaded necklaces and bracelets strung all up and down both her arms for sale mostly to tourists. Her family peddled on the streets from early morning until late at night for a Mexican government ‘jefe’ (boss) who took all the profits and gave them enough to have one meal per day. Esmeralda’s background: she was born in the mountains of Guerrero just north of Acapulco; she is indigenous (pure blood Indian); her first language is Nahuátl, the ancient Aztec language but is also self-taught in Spanish; she has no birth certificate; her skin is much darker than the average ‘mestiza’ Mexican girl who is offspring of indigenous and Spanish (Spain) blood somewhere in their family history so she’s considered an inferior person; and, she has no formal education.
Now what is offered her by the quasi-socialistic government of México? She cannot attend government run public school because she has no birth certificate. She cannot seek medical care from government run hospitals. If she gets sick, she either has to get well on her own or die. She cannot participate in government supplied welfare programs. She is not subject to the minimum wage laws in México ($4.50 American per day), so if she makes $0, that’s what she has to live on. She cannot vote.
Now there is Estrella. I first met her in June of 1986. She is a certified public school teacher in Cuernavaca, México. She is obviously mextiza or she could have never gone to school. I got involved in a non-profit organization in Cuernavaca whose main contributors were retired people. Their purpose was to help Mexico’s indigenous receive medical care and education against the government’s wishes. They were living on their meager retirement checks from the U.S. and were placing every penny collected from contributor’s into efforts to help the indigenous. There were no administrative expenses. I thought that was quite Christian and even though not retired, started donating. My wife and I gave funds to purchase the concrete for a small school building to be constructed on a mountain top on the far south side of Cuernavaca. Others chipped in and purchased bricks, mortar, desks, etc. for the completion of this project. The parents of the indigenous kids to be served already worked 10-12 hours per day at gardening, maid service, or whatever for the rich, but still agreed to build the building at night. Hiring construction workers would tip off the government on what we were doing. Their wives carried water up the hillside in 5 gallon buckets to mix the concrete. Two years later the building was finished.
Estrella finally enters the picture. She too had heard of our organization and supported it with her approval … she had no money to spare. That was fine by us. We asked her if she could possibly help in the teaching expertise we were lacking. She agreed, although Mexican law forbad her to work outside the public school system teaching and training the indigenous. The consequences, if caught, would be the termination of her employment anywhere in the public school system of México. Every night after her day’s work in the city, she caught a ‘ruta’ (city bus) to the south side of the city. She transferred to another ruta that took her, ironically, through one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the city, finally arriving at a corner in one of the poorest sections of the city. She got off the bus at 4:00 p.m., walked up the hillside on a dirt path, arriving at our basic facility about 4:30. She was enthusiastically greeted by over 50 indigenous kids who had arrived just a short time earlier. She held school until almost dark, when she finally had to walk back down and catch a ruta to take her home. She never once asked for pay or any favor for her services.
I could give you dozens of true examples of people I personally know in México, France, Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, and many other quasi-socialist countries I have visited and worked in over the years. But, I think the above is representative of the ordinary people who just got caught up in government society they can’t seem to find a way shake off. Mr. Obama urges everyone to ‘Believe in hope, not fear’. Well, most of those people still have hope but they are more and more fearful every day.
In closing, I must perhaps aid some readers who may have misconstrued Esmeralda’s and Estrella’s stories by thinking that it is Mr. Obama’s program at work … more fortunate people helping the downtrodden by giving them a free hand out. They couldn’t be more wrong. The last thing in the world a quasi-socialistic government wants in an educated populace. They created the downtrodden and they want them to remain so. That way, they pose no threat to the current elite. Government is in control! If they get to thinking too much, they just may choose to rebel against a mostly corrupt authority.
After each learning session, the mothers and other relatives of those kids show up carrying pots of hot food and cold drinks for an evening meal. Each participant in this meal is also provided with donated multi-vitamins. The food was prepared all day from raw food stuffs that were delivered that morning by volunteers from our non-profit organization. The mothers and relatives work all day cooking the meal. Each child and adult is invited to sit down and enjoy perhaps the only real, nutritious food they have had all day. But, the catch is, they had to work for it. It was a hand up, not a hand out. The parents had to work to prepare it and the kids had to show up and work at learning in order to share in it. Any child who did not show up and try to learn is not welcome to enjoy the benefits that had been earned by others. That sounds cruel, but it’s pretty much our American Christian heritage. In Thessalonians ll, last chapter, Paul makes God’s rule perfectly clear as to our responsibilities as we go through life …”If you are able to work and will not, you shall not eat”. But, we’re not totally heartless. For any children who are physically and not able, but were willing and wanting to learn, we have a meal taken home to them.
It might just surprise you that I, and most of the people in the organization, are politically conservative. You know, the people liberals seem to want to say are non-feeling and cruel to the less fortunate. Turns out we’re demanding to those who can, and we have heartfelt feelings for those who can’t.
That’s just the way any good, successful government and its people have handled problems from the very beginning of its history as a nation. We are free market, capitalistic Americans! So why do so many of us seem to want to change that? Why don’t we, instead, expend our best efforts on getting rid of the flaws that have crept into our armor over the past few decades? It’s a far more worthy cause.
Give this some serious thought before you pull the lever or push the button next Tuesday. |
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