i tire of trying to come up with titles.
i used to write quite a bit about politics here, but haven't really had the heart for it lately. Following the news has been very discouraging, and since my cruise in November i have not paid much attention to it. Today was my first day back in classes, and i had the chance to hear some Beck and Limbaugh. It used to be that communism and socialism were strongly looked down upon in this country and in the UK. Grand Junction's own writer darling, Dalton Trumbo, was red listed and had his work banned at one time. Now, i am not at all for banning books, plays, etc., and i think that certain senators were just trying to burn witches to save face as it were, but at the same time it seems that conservatives have somehow become the witches. The truth about communism and socialism isn't taught in schools anymore, and if one believes in freedom they are treated as if they are spiteful and cruel.
Some of the United States' first colonies made a go of socialism, and it didn't work. Everyone would put the fruit of their labors into a community pot, and everyone would take out of said pot equally. The trouble was that many people weren't putting into the pot at all (they were simply lazing about or working on mining schemes), while the people who were actually working at something useful were getting the fruit of their labors redistributed. Colonies were failing because of this. So they finally got smart and nixed the entire socialism scheme: if people wanted to eat, have a roof over their head, etc., then they had to work for it. All of a sudden the colonies were prospering!
Now, i'm no expert on the history of the UK, i'm just an American girl with predominantly German roots (and i know even less about that country's history), but i also have Slavic blood in me. A couple of semesters i gave a report on Peter Sis' book The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain. He grew up in a time where Czechoslovakia was ruled by communists, and all he wanted was to listen to rock and roll and draw and paint the things that he felt like expressing, rather than following the party rules about what acceptable art was. Czechoslovakia's government eventually fell in one of the most successful peaceful protests in human history, the Velvet/Gentle Revolution in 1989! i was eight years old at the time.
What's been bothering me is that David Tennant seems to think that socialism is good ("Scots know to eat what's good for them"). Now, as a freedom loving yank, i am all for Scotland having its independence, but i absolutely abhor socialism; in fact, i think that it would be better for Scotland to remain part of the monarchy instead, if socialism is the other option. In terms of evils, Republic is better than Monarchy is better than Socialist regime. i support the Labour line that Scotland should devolve (as my geography professor would have put it) and have more of its own rule, but i don't believe that socialism will help any country. Sure, it sounds bad that 7% of Scotland's population holds 84% of the wealth, but that's no reason to steal money from the 7% so that the other 93% can play around with what they didn't earn. In such a situation, no one will prosper.
In Einstein and Eddington, Eddington's sister went to Germany to offer aid because food and medicine weren't being allowed into the Berlin. She was a Quaker and didn't steal money from the government to do that, so far as i know (after all, it was Britain's government that was stopping those things from being allowed into the city). Fast forward to today, and where does most aid come from now? The Red Cross and Southern Baptists, all of which is funded by donations from what i understand. Who do you think is in Haiti right now picking up the pieces? People are making all sorts of donations, a percentage of what you buy goes to it at some websites, etc. The operative term here is donations. Most of us normal people make donations each year, whether it be because of our faith or because we want a tax break. The rich donate the most of all, even if they donate the same percentage of their income as the rest of us. Obama, the great redistributer of wealth, has been reported to donate less than 10% of his income in a given year, which means he isn't even tithing. Meanwhile, Obama doesn't only want to use the rich people's money, he wants to use the poorer people's money, too, in order to fund things like his version of health care reform, just for starters. It's bad enough that about 40% of my income goes to taxes like social security, now you want to take more? No thank you, Mr. President. i am not as knowledgable or articulate as some, but i do realize that what you're trying to do is not the best idea, in fact it's making a slightly bad situation unbelievably bad.
What bothers me the most about Tennant saying that socialism is good, is that he claims to hold to the Protestant ideals of always being able to do better. This goes along with the Christian work ethic of giving and working wholeheartedly, as if you're giving directly to God (which you are, according to Christ). Is he saying that because he has been fortunate enough to work his entire adult life that his money should get taken away and given to people who refuse to work? Who squander their money? The harder he works, the more he earns, the closer he gets to becoming part of that 7%. If he suddenly lands a contract to make a movie, and gets paid millions of dollars for doing so, does he suddenly become his own enemy? Tennant is very vocal about giving to charity, but what happens when the government takes away so much of your money that you can't live anymore, let alone give to anyone else? Aren't the people who are in that 7% mostly just like in America, people who earned the money from their own hard work? From what i understand, it's much easier to fall back into the 93% and have your children living just as poorly as you were when you started, if not more.
i doubt that anything i say can convince anyone, in fact i'm sure that everything that i've written is flawed in some way or utterly offensive, but i still cling to the cry: "Give me liberty, or give me death!"
ETA: incidentally, i believe that there's a wee bit of Scottish blood in my veins as well. i really wish i knew more about my ancestry.
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