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October 08, 2006
Sunday
 
 
Socialism's irony
James Waterton (Perth, Australia)  Slogans/quotations

Via the excellent India Uncut, I reproduce this shortest - and most revealing - of short stories in its entirety:

Socialism (by Saadat Hasan Manto)

He loaded all his belongings onto a truck and was driving to another town when he was waylaid by a mob. Eyeing the goods greedily, one man said to the other, 'Just look at all that booty he is decamping with.' The owner smiled proudly, 'What you see here is my personal property.'

Some of the men laughed. 'We know.'

There was a yell from the mob, 'Don't let this capitalist get away. He is nothing but a robber with a truck.'

It is a partition-era tale, but still remarkably relevant today - it has been institutionalised and multiplied across society.

Comments

An amusing little contradiction at the heart of socialism/communism:  one's longing for an equal share of what others have arises either out of a longing to have something for oneself or else out of a longing to see all living in equally deprived circumstances.

Sic transit the 'nobility' of the socialist/communist impulse...


Posted by fooltomery at October 8, 2006 08:28 PM

Communists and Socialists are rife with stinking hypocrisy! Never fails to amaze me.

The most socialist newspaper in the country - The Independent - charges £1 per article, and they have adverts....

What really makes my blood boil is these incredibly wealthy "socialists" who drink champagne and drive in mercedez. George Galloway - prime example


Posted by j0nz at October 8, 2006 08:52 PM
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