I’ve been researching the appeal of socialism and communism to younger people, or anyone, and it’s pretty clear and simple. All they read about, or are taught, are the theoretical ideals of such systems, where everyone is equal, there is no poverty, no illiteracy, and it’s one big happy kumbaya, sort of like an Israeli kibbutz. They don’t know such societies only exist on small scales. It would be impossible to accomplish such a thing here. It would collapse under the weight of its own costs, not to mention individual greed and corruption, within a couple years.
The youth of today have not experienced the former Soviet Union. They have not seen wealthy commissars walking alongside starving commoners, not to mention food lines and rationing of resources. They have not visited Eastern European countries during the Cold War when everything was in shades of gray.
Case in point: My dad was an engineer on assignment from his aerospace company in Iran right before the 1978 revolution. His young Iranian secretary was against the Shah (capitalistic monarchy) and was one of the protesters demanding his ouster, to be replaced with the Ayatollah Khomeini (socialist Islamic republic). Well, they got what they wanted, and my dad and his corporation had to high-tail it out.
A few months later, after hundreds of thousands of dissenters were jailed or executed, my dad’s old secretary called begging him to find a way to get her out. My dad was astonished. He asked, “Weren’t you one of those who wanted this to happen, and now you want to get out?”
She responded, “They lied to us. This isn’t what we were promised.”
That’s what happens, and it all started with those university students. It always does.
Arthur Saginian
Santa Clarita
