System vs People

It was commented that a movie adaptation of "Animal Farm" made an error in that it depicted the system as being acceptable, but corruption of the leadership was the problem. In many ways, I see this as part of George Orwell's commentary since it was not the system of communism that he tried to discredit. He lauded "Old Major" with the highest praise possible in the book as well as maintaining his allegiance to the ideal of Marx and Lenin throughout his life. Instead, he pointed to later greedy, slick-talking politicians such as Stalin who corrupted the ideals into something unrecognisable to what it was before.

In truth, this is the same with all political or other systems. It's all fine and dandy if it wasn't for the people involved. It's for this very reason that the system chosen and followed by society make the best use of people's natural and downward inclinations to force them up.

When the Pilgrims first landed at Plymouth Rock, they formed a collective, communistic society. Each person was assigned a part of the workload. However, not everyone fulfilled their part of the work. Thus the entire community suffered because of a few people's laziness, irresponsibility, or physical maladies. The next year, they reorganized to be "every man for himself". If you did plant, hunt, or build, you were going to go hungry. From that 2nd harvest, we celebrate Thanksgiving.

See the difference? Capitalism is more effective than communism, not because of its ideals, but because it turns people's natural inclinations onto themselves to give each person the proceeds of their own labor. This we then call society. This person is good at hunting. This one at farming. This one at building. Trading work, the hunter, farmer, and builder trade as agreed for the services each other renders.

The corruption we're now seeing in America today is from the corruption of society as a whole who through generations of ignorance, laziness, and irresponsibility have allowed dishonest politicians to heap more power, control, and pigishness to themselves. "A chicken in every pot" was a call to communism. IOW, "let the government take care of you". It's gotten to the point that it's been said as much at a roundtable discussion during one of Bill Clinton's campaign tours. "When are you, as our governmental father, going to care for us as your children?" The answer, "Just as soon as I'm done screwing the help." We then tried Social Security. It's becoming a fiscal nightmare of a money pit that will NEVER be rectified. Financial advisors after economists keep telling us to get rid of it, but noone will do it. It will be completely bankrupt and closed down before I reach 60. This collective retirement planning like all other collective economic efforts is doomed. We have to face the fact: "Take care of yourself. Noone, esp. not the government, can do it for you."