television
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TV, that society thing was tried, it was called the Soviet experiment.
I actually think many of those guys meant well. Unfortunately they completely misjudged the socio-economic beings that we are. There was no unemployment in the Soviet Union. Little crime. You wouldn't have mindless violence in the deprived areas, in fact relatively speaking no deprived areas. No drug problem. In short - utopia!
That society you speak of gave us (Why do you equate society with communism?????????????)
- free health care for all
- Oppuntunity to get your self an education regardless of your ability to pay.
- An understanding that community makes us strong brings out the best in people, mindless greed brings out the lowest common denominator in us.
- Employment law to protect workers.
- etc etc,
But something was wrong. Western economies were pulling further and further ahead even moreso when Maggie and Ronnie reversed the socialist engines. The Soviet Union made a call - the society thing would condemn them to falling further and further behind - the capitalist model had won.
This is not a battle between communism and captitalism. A decent society find ways of creating wealth and redistributing it in a just way, it does not mean that people are not allowed to get rich, but that they see that in the end the blind persuit of wealth is utlimitally pointless.
If economic success is one of our goals it has been proven by experience to be best fostered by indivualism which can indeed be characterised by the denigrating terms you ascribe to it and it does bring its inevitable alienation - but the alternative of a collective economy with socialist values simply does not recognise the basic facts of human nature.
You judge the capitialist system according to its lowest common denominator (the pursuit of individualism) I judge humanity according to some higher ideals, the pursuit of justice for all, a fair and caring society where there is shared values of decency. Even on an economic level, rampent greed and individualism will untimaly lead to the distruction of the capitialist system.