Socialism the cancer that keeps on taking.
Bobby
I suppose it may depend on how you define socialism. Some would say, rightly in my opinion, that the path taken in the Soviet bloc had little in common with socialism unless socialism's definition is authoritarianism which I'd define as the imposition of rules for their own sake which gives power to the rulemakers without any corresponding benefit to the society on which the rules are imposed. A monopoly supplier in the free enterprise system can impose such rules and in the worse case scenario can exert control over its unwilling customers in just as ruthless a fashion as in a "socialist" system. Imagine for just a moment the scenario where Esso controls all the country's or world's supply of fuel oil, the XYZ company controls all the water etc.
Our problem is that the "system" left to its own devices has a tendency to favour the rulemakers who may believe they always know what's best for the rest of us and very soon, left unchallenged, impose increasingly unjustified rules on the rest of us. The more we acquiesce and find ways of managing round such unjustified rules as at least one APUGer has suggested we do, the worse the situation gets.
We'd like to think that reasonableness, weighing up the pros and cons of any rule to be imposed, transparency and accountability etc will win the day.
Our history seems to show that this benign vision of the rulemakers behaviour is seriously flawed.
The kind of protest I was suggesting by a "nil entry" for the competition is merely a version of the successful action that occurred in the U.K. recently over the ruling caucus' approach to the abolition of the 10p tax band.
A revolt by some MPs and looming defeat for the government won the day but it was a close run thing and subsequently a revolt by the people in our local elections may( has is too optimistic a word) just have caused a genuine re-think to begin by people who always know best and may have become more unaccountable than they actually believe they are. The metamorphosis is quite insidious, both for the rule makers and rule receivers.
If you are a rulemaker then people who question the rules can be very tiresome and usually need to be told what is good for them eventually with vigorous enforcement if necessary.
2nd political joke: Campers are welcomed by the commandant at the Butlins version of a holiday camp in a totalitarian society.
" Welcome one and all to our wonderful camp with wonderful amenities where I guarantee everyone will have a wonderful time provided everyone does as he is told!
pentaxuser
that's the thing we should really be worrying about as the EU.