A lesson not learned

A friend of mine once asked: "Isn't old-fashion and out of date to fight against communism?" I was wearing a button which said "Communism kills", and for him it seemed weird - the communism being dead and all that.

Unfortunately, it isn't so. In my latest post on this website I said a few words about my Left-Right theory, which is that generally all people can be divided into two simple categories, depending on what they believe in in politics. In my opinion there is no fundamental difference between today's "social democrats", "greenies", "liberals" (in the American meaning of the word), and so on. The mentality is still the same as with the communists in the beginning of the 20th century: The state can organize the society, and then we can see what is left to be "free". My way of thinking is the opposite - everything should be left free from government interference, except perhaps very few and special tasks (one, for example, being law-enforcement and protection of the private property right).

But the good-old fashion communists are still not extinct. In Denmark, a street-paper/internet-magazine called Socialistisk Standpunkt is published by some self-acclaimed marxists, and sold and I couldn't believe my own eyes when I read the following:

Hvis en kommende regering af arbejderpartier skal gøre noget reelt ved beskæftigelsen, må den have kontrol, dvs. ejerskab, over de væsentligste dele af økonomien. Gennem en demokratisk planlægning af økonomien kan man sætte en virkelig plan for velfærd og arbejde i gang, og man kan gennemføre den første betingelse for et rigtigt opgør med arbejdsløsheden: en drastisk nedsættelse af arbejdstiden med fuld løn- og personalekompensation.

There you have it - the state should own in order to control and organize. Regrettable, this thought-process is more widespread than many thinks, and it seems that all the theoretical and empirical data from the last 200 years hasn't made a dent in the unsatisfying belief in government-control over individuals and their companies/organizations.

Actually, the quote here above included the world "nationalize" in the print-version. I thought I would never see that word again in writings about the future.