Crazy like a fox

Richard M. Salsman has an interesting piece in aier.org where he suggests that the destructive nature of radical socialism is not seen as a problem by radical socialists. He begins with the destruction currently afflicting Venezuela.

Even socialist despots now concur with conservatives that socialism doesn’t work. A recent headline reads “Venezuela's President Admits Economy Has Failed.” The despot is Nicolás Maduro, who last month told the Venezuelan congress that “the production models we’ve tried so far have failed, and the responsibility is ours, mine and yours.” Maduro is an avowed socialist in the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. 

The point has been made before of course, but with Jeremy Corbyn and his cronies aiming to inflict radical socialism on the UK it is worth taking on board the reasonable assumption that they already know their plans and schemes will be destructive but don't care. Destruction is the thing, the dark core of a supposedly moral game. Mr Salsman applies a well-known phrase to it - crazy like a fox.  

Somebody once defined “insanity” as doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting a different result. It isn’t necessary to accuse socialists of being insane; more likely, they’re “crazy like a fox.” That is, they know their intended prey (capital) and they’ll do whatever it takes to seek it out, take it, kill it, and eat it, with nary a thought about the future.

Of course, one should never argue by impugning, without evidence, an opponent’s inner motives or intentions. But sometimes aims and goals are named explicitly. Even when not, it seems perfectly fair to conclude that whenever certain ideologues keep pushing for a social-political-economic system that invariably proves disastrous, they probably prefer disaster. Nihilists exist, after all. Many conservatives simply assume that they know the socialists’ motives, and without much evidence, presume that they’re benevolent.

Of course many non-socialists probably assume no such thing. Many are already aware of the destructive nature of political idealism, the noble cause which is far from noble and much more malevolent than the sales message.