Evaluating Social Democracy
A reader notes:
There is a huge conceptual misunderstanding in the world of politics and political philosophy. We keep hearing about the left and the right, which delivers a completely incorrect concept of reality. It is not left and right – it is – in truth – down or up!
Conservatism is higher than socialism which is higher in turn than communism. A society RISES up into conservatism. It degrades into socialism and then further into communism.
There are simply higher and lower wavelengths of philosophical thought. The highest possible wavelength that a person or a society can operate at, the better they survive and flourish.
Let’s truly educate people in this. Don’t use the terms left and right use down and up – or lower and higher. If you truly want man and his societies to rise it is vital that this is understood by those who lead.
It’s fine to be a conservative, but if you care to defend the values of conservatism, IMO you need to do a better job. Simply asserting that your philosophy is “higher” or “better” than another is a meaningless statement without defense or justification. If you were to say, for instance, that Christianity is higher than Judaism or vice versa, you’d need to explain that.
In particular, you should name the yardstick you’re using to measure “better.” The Danes, for instance, tend to be healthy, well educated, productive, and happy; moreover, part of what makes them so happy is that in their society there is no hunger, homelessness, untreated disease, or denial of education on the basis of ability to pay. They have no issue paying higher taxes if that means being part of a community whose government provides things of real value.
Denmark is not alone; Norway, Finland, Sweden, , Great Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand have all enacted socialist ideas and policies, and have seen success in improving their societies by doing so.
Craig,
“Denmark is not alone; Norway, Finland, Sweden, , Great Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand have all enacted socialist ideas”.
Yes, and most were in the mildest form and in time abandoned as being economically and socially stagnating and restrictive.
Britain was nearly destroyed by the over long failure of socialist policies. Had it not been for the determined and painful reforms of the Thatcher years the nation would still be wallowing in the economic doldrums and shabby poverty.
Socialism is a failed economic concept and inevitably becomes socially repressive.
The idea that the government can run a business better than private individuals in free and fair competition has been proven over and over again to fail miserably.
The Socialist ambition to make everyone equal, only works in so far as socialism makes everyone equally poor and miserable!