It’ll Work This Time

By Christopher Gage| February 8th, 2019

A favorite Saturday activity of mine involves chatting with a merry band of socialists who clot on a main street near me. Dreadlocked, dreary, and decked in alarming red, they implore every passersby somehow to stop U.S. “imperialism” in Venezuela. From outside Starbucks a mere 4,738 miles away.
Most of us drenched in false consciousness prefer shuffling around, buying things we don’t need, and documenting our largely pointless existence via Instagram. The apparent injustice roiling in South America doesn’t resonate. ...........

But the socialists are not. President Maduro’s Venezuela is “under attack.” When I ask how this may be, my socialist friend, an adolescent of 35, crumples his cheeks.  “Maduro was elected by the people, man. And I haven’t got time to discuss this, anyway.”  What is strange is that he didn’t have time to discuss a subject of which he took time to daub on a placard. And the time to stand on a shivering high street. Nothing says ponderous silence like bellowing into a megaphone.

I wanted to ask why 3 million Venezuelans had recently fled the country. Why 93 percent of those left live in poverty. Why nine in every 10 say they don’t have enough to eat. I have nothing better to do on Saturdays.

But my comrade slurred into incantations. Fist in the air. Garbled something in Spanglish...........Socialism is never sold on the reality which conjures millions to flee its wonder. Which is why its adherents try and try again. As if tinkering with the radioactive mixture will eventually produce limitless helpings of utopian broth............And when they fail, it’ll be the fault of imaginary oppressors. Of “imperialism.” Never themselves...............To Read More...