Socialist Response

Here's a response too large for the comment section of the previous entry. I emphasise that I do not believe in extreme forms of capitalism and think that capitalism is indeed responsible for some terrible things. However, some socialists apparently have a very misguided perspective of history.

Whoever wrote this garbage needs to read up on history. Who wrote this? A failed first-year arts student? Or some weed-smoking clown who reads too much Chomsky? My history ain't that great, but just for comedy:

To have Stalin there is telling alone of this person's seemingly limitedless stupidity. Stalin is a man both directly and indirectly responsible for killing over 20 million of his own people just to bring potato-farming Russia into the industrial age - meanwhile we're complaining about the 7-day work week of Victorian Britain. Incidentally, do we know what Feudalism was? Guess how many hours farmers and labourers worked back before capitalism came to town? The idea of a vacation, which I’m sure everyone here is familiar with, didn't exist a couple of hundred years ago.

The points pertaining to WW2 are mostly a result of Nazism (ie a form of socialism albeit a very evil and racist one) and the combat against this evil.

Hiroshima was the tactical response to an indoctrinated group of people who quite literally thought their ruler was descended from a sun god. It was either that, or a war of attrition.

Racism? Right... And no socialist (bar the Nazis of course) has ever been racist?

The great bulk of these wars and battles (Boer, Nanking, Opium) were a result of imperialism and colonialism, which are not mutually exclusive to socialism. The Russian Empire didn't let go of their annexed states once they became the Sovient Union. Also, China is still fiercely holding onto Tibet (as most whining hippies will know).

McCarthyism was an extreme response to an exaggerated fear by a madman (who, incidentally, didn't slaughter his perceived enemies like our socialist amigos Pol Pot, Mussolini and Stalin).

Exxon Valdez? Both capitalist and socialist countries trade in oil. Just ask the socialist clown Hugo Chavez.

The Mafia? Organised crime? So China doesn't have organised crime? Triads are just a myth? And Italy was never a socialist state?

Tuberculosis? Electric-chair? Pure insanity. What's next? AIDs? Cancer? The common cold? Or are they products of lizard-like aliens?

This is just off the top of my head. If I could be bothered doing some research, I would find even more gapping factual and logical holes in this poorly construed "argument". This sort of mentality is frightening, to say the least.

Cuba Rocks

You can't help but admire the communist Shangri-La that is Cuba:

The authorities allow Maribel Vidal to sell her handicrafts two weeks out of four to tourists visiting Camaguey, 550km east of Havana.

She used to be a teacher on 3000 pesos ($135) a year.

"I now earn 10 to 15 times more," but has to pay 50% tax.

Maribel says many of the other market traders are also university graduates.

She earns enough to "live with dignity" but wishes she could return to teaching.

I wonder why Cubans like Andy Garcia (who directed a film that didn't paint a nice picture of Che and co) and his family fled the country?

Problem Worsens

I once made a remark half-jokingly due to a lack of people studying maths, there's a surplus of decent-paying maths jobs out there and I should be able make lots of money. The morose bunch didn't see the humour, and thought I was being an arrogant bastard. I probably was. But regardless, every few weeks I read a similarly-themed article about the plight of mathematics:

Australia is losing its mathematical skills as school courses are hijacked by fads and divorced from modern mathematics as practised in industry and business.

At a time when economic growth is underpinned by jobs in maths-related fields, the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute says the teaching and learning of maths in schools and universities is in serious trouble and suffering from a lack of input from mathematicians.

Not only is the number of students taking maths continually falling, especially at an advanced level, but even students studying related fields such as engineering and science are taking fewer maths courses.

A PhD in arts, who also did her undergrad in maths, was complaining over maths PhD students having all their own offices and computers while arts PhD students rarely had their own office. I felt obliged to inform her that the country is not in a severe shortage of pretentious arts students and their ability to spell and rant about our depressing "post-Fordist" society. But meh.

Slow Friday

Not much happening in the office today. Slightly seedy. We won trivia at our local pub so we had to spend the bar tab. That reminds me, I'm so happy that Victoria has finally banned smoking in pubs. It's great. The other night I was waiting in line to get into a bar. Turned out it was just bunch of smokers. And to think I used to breathe all the crap in without realising it. Good times.

Lousy Film Tastes

People around here have lousy film tastes. How do I know this? Simple: nobody wants to see Transformers (well, at least with me). Last month I won two free tickets to our local cinema. Can you see any film there worth viewing over Transformers (or at all for that matter)? Just foreign and arthouse films for the cultural elite that dwell in Carlton. It's a travesty. Well, not all is lost. Surely people will want to watch Die Hard 4 when it comes out. Counting the minutes.