Michael Writes Me a Letter
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The Underlines are mine on Mike's letter to emphasize specific views he presents.
Mike wrote:
Hi, I stumbled into your page on a search for different perspectives on the ideologies of different types of government. I think that perhaps in you may have received some vastly incorrect information on socialism, due NOT to the view you express (your opinion is your own, and even if I disagree, I'll defend your right to say it to the death (Voltaire? whatever), but to the factually incorrect information you seem to be spreading. The first error that really caught my attention in terms of how misguided your sources must be was your first time on the 'links to socialist websites' page. Libertarian socialism is actually less socialism and more anarchy, so it's not a matter of 'socialists not being able to label things as they are,' but more of a misunderstanding of terms on your part. Also, much more importantly than this matter of labeling, there is not and never has been a socialist government in the world. So it is also a glaring error (at least in my research) to say that North Korea practices socialism, and further to blame the death of two million on it. Beyond this, your page seems to move further from fact and closer to blatant stubborn misinformation. "Conform or die" is very far from the ideals of socialism. I don't who you are referencing but I have yet to meet a socialist who wants to kill everybody except those that agree with them. Again, you seem to really have been done a terrible wrong by whoever gave you these faulty ideas. Freedom under true socialism would be much greater than any system in existence today: far above the oligarchy in the United States, far above the terrible oppression in places like the Peoples' Republic of China. I guess my point is that in my humble opinion, you seem to have been misinformed somewhere along the line.
Despite this, I can see where you acquired some of these views: by people that claim to be socialist, but are really out to form another old Russia, with themselves in the ruling class. Evidently there must be a lot of them out there for you to be so steadfast in your belief that socialism must be evil and oppressive. But I really think you'd do yourself a favor to read up on what pure socialism is all about. At least 3/4 of what I've found on the web is crap, but there are few good pages every now and then devoted to the essence and message of socialism. I'll be happy to give you some of the URLs of which I am speaking if you're interested.
I hope that I don't come across as egotistical in this letter. I am really asking only that you take a second look at this, and you may be surprised. I certainly was when I found out what it was really about.
Side note, purely a personal philosophy thing: Jefferson, one of the fathers of our wonderful Constitution that you referenced in your page, was a believer in a concept called 'social contract.' Essentially, this belief states that government is formed willingly by those who are strong enough to protect the weak. That's an oversimplification, obviously, but I think you may benefit from reading about it.
Again, I'm trying to keep this as friendly and nonoffensive of a letter as possible. Please, take the time to re-examine some of these views. I'm glad I did.
-Mike
My reply to Mike follows:
Subject: Re: Re: Your webpage
Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 11:24:18-0800
From: Robert Schatan<papillonart@earthlink.net>
To: Mike (surname and e-mail address withheld by me)Hi Mike,
Thanks for your comments on the content of the web I've created. My beliefs are very basic and follow closely the philosophy I carry to my patients as a nurse: if it works, makes their lives better, and hurts no one else, and is legal and ethical, then follow it. To paraphrase this in other words, I feel socialism 1) destroys incentives to excel beyond the mean, 2) that wherever it has become a dominant political force people have suffered, and that 3) the great bulk of times people are touched by socialism they yearn terribly for the freedom to have control of their own lives. Finally 4) Freedom is not provided by government civil service know-nothings who will destroy the lives of the people they supposedly "serve" in order to keep their beurocracy intact and growing.
Socialism=Big Government. Freedom=Limited Small Government.
Mike, understand this: I appreciate that you have taken the time to read some of the fine thinking that I've archived on my website. The authors of the articles are some of the brightest minds around trying to push back the flood of lies coming from our insane government. Our government IS SOCIALIST RIGHT NOW! It is taking 55% of your income. The "surplus" that Clinton bragged about last month was YOUR MONEY! It was already 100% spent on MORE SOCIALIST PROGRAMS! I wanted my portion of that money back. And the stupid spineless Republicans couldn't even get Clinton to agree to cut back the budget one percent. Do you know what Clinton crowed about YESTERDAY? That he was PROUD of the budget compromise and that "IT WAS A BUDGET BY THE PEOPLE". And guess what the compromise was....the mushheads were reporting this as a great victory....they cut the budget less than 0.03%. And Clinton called that a compromise. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THIS MEANS THAT YOUR WALLET IS GOING TO GET THINNER NEXT YEAR? THEY TAKE OVER ONE HALF OF YOUR INCOME NOW, THAT IS SOCIALISM, PARDNER!
Socialism=sheeple. The great conforming crowd that watches TV airhead news readers and thinks that they are giving the truth when it is government propaganda. The average news anchor is far more in tune with socialism than freedom. They question nothing and lie by omission constantly. I no longer subscribe to newspapers and only use the TV to watch video movies. The problem is that I know too much of the truth. People who lie to me are not my friends. In America people think that Oprah, Sally, Ricky, Tom, Dan, and Peter are their friends. God what empty lives they have!
I am always interested in new ideas. I would be happy to visit any URL's that you provide and gain insight from them. However, as you can see from my response to you that the only way socialism or any other system would be considered is if it were based on truth and freedom. So far freedom is best provided by the Federal Republic system that promotes self expression through capitalism.
Awaiting your response, Bob Schatan, RN
P.S.: Did you take a look at my wife's art first before you checked into my part of the website? What do you think of the overall look of the presentation? This is a hobby of mine and I enjoy the feedback I get from around the world on the artwork as well as the politics.