IDEALISM EVENTUALLY BUMPS INTO A DOSE OF REALITY

Occupy Wherever has been attended by a mix of participants whining about a mix of issues. Many of them are college students filled full of idealism, anxious to change the cruel world.

I have attended many a college commencement exercise. Most of the guest speakers started out something like this: Congratulations graduates. As you go forth, you have the opportunity to make this a better world … blah, blah, blah.

I’ve got news for those graduates and for the idealists among the Occupy Wherever protesters. The world is what it is, what it’s always been and always will be, and no amount of idealism is going to change that.

Take Karl Marx for instance. He was an idealist and his Communist Manifesto became a bible for those who were determined to make this a better world. Of course, to get there, Stalin had millions of Russians slaughtered. Mao slaughtered millions of Chinese as well. And the communist Khmer Rouge regime slaughtered millions of Cambodians.

In his own warped way, even Hitler was an idealist. He was determined to cleanse Europe by ridding it of degenerates, primarily Jews and Gypsies.

It may be simplifying it, but under Marxism wealth was to be redistributed so that everyone ends up being equal. It turned out that in the Soviet Union everyone was equal - it’s just that some people were a lot more equal than others. And, with the exception of the military industry, the less equals turned out some awful shoddy goods because they had no incentive to turn out quality products under the communist system. Awarding workers medals, ribbons and vacations for doing a good job just didn’t fly.

Today all that Marxist idealism seems to have been flushed down the shitter. The former Soviet Union has become a cut throat capitalist nation and China is well on the way to becoming one too. Cuba, the last major Marxist holdout, is slowly allowing capitalism to creep in. Despite the collapse of Marxism in Russia and China and its pending downfall in Cuba, colleges and universities all over the Western world are full of professors condemning capitalism and preaching the virtues of Marxism to gullible students.

Those Occupy Wherever idealists are dreaming. Their idealism is bound to bump into a dose of reality, and when it does, they will wake up and realize that the 1% are not going to share their wealth with the 99%. It just ain’t gonna happen! Income inequality will remain in place and the nation’s wealth is not going to be redistributed. As soon as the job market improves, the Occupy Wherever protesters need to go out and get a job so they can function in the world as it is and, idealism aside, as it always will be.