Do you hang out on social much? I don’t, but I wandered into the “world wide web” the other day, and I spotted something that made me laugh. Which is generally a good thing, because laughter is good medicine and most of us don’t get enough of it.
In fact I often find things online that make me laugh. Michael Jr. and Nate Bargatze pretty much never fail at that. They, along with others, work hard at their craft for the specific reason of making people laugh — and sometimes also think. But it wasn’t a professional comedian who made me laugh, it was a professional philosopher and writer who posted a meme on his Facebook page.
What he posted was not original — it was something he’d come across. I don’t believe his purpose in posting it was to promote the idea, but to create some online conversation. And I almost jumped in, but I didn’t. There are two reasons why: I really do try to limit my time on social, and it seemed like this would make a fun article. So here goes.
The “repeated” post was, as I said, a meme. A meme is an image that is copied and shared by internet users, and the intent of this particular image is to cast capitalism and communism in a bad light and socialism in a good light. It uses a bit of humor and a bit of “you should know better” to accomplish its purpose, but mostly it defines each “ism” using examples intended to lead to an inarguable conclusion. Here’s what it says:
For the love of sanity: Socialism isn’t Communism. Quit mixing your -isms like cheap cocktails. Capitalism — anyone can get rich, sure… but most people won’t. Communism — nobody gets to be rich, but the people in charge still somehow manage it. Socialism — you can get rich, fine, knock yourself out… but we don’t let people freeze in the damn gutter. It’s not complicated. Folks just pretend it is.
And that made me laugh.
Aristotle For Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy
That is the title of a book written by a philosopher about another philosopher’s work. It is very likely that the philosopher who re-posted that meme has read the book about Aristotle, but even if he hasn’t I am sure he knows Aristotle’s work very well.
So he knows, as we all should know, that socialism will not save people from freezing in the gutter, nor will capitalism allow “anyone” to get rich. The meme was created for one purpose, and that is to encourage everyone who sees it to think better of socialism. It is presented as “you can still get rich (if you really want to), and nobody will die.”
In just a bit I will share what Aristotle had to say about governments of various types, but first I want to make this point: When you hear or read the news, or hear or read something online, ask yourself this: “Am I being told how to feel?”
How do you feel about that?
We humans have two primary ways of making decisions: emotions, and rational thought. I don’t know what the percentages are (AI, which has no emotions, could probably tell me), but the vast majority of “big” decisions we make are ruled by emotions then justified with rational thought.
If you don’t like Fords but do love Chevys, emotion is behind that. If you like your eggs scrambled rather than fried, or pancakes more than waffles, the same thing is true. There is nothing wrong with making decisions based on emotion, which is fortunate because we all do it. And we do it on a major scale when it comes to politics.
One way that shows up is in things like that meme, which tells me exactly how I should feel about socialism. It purports to be rational, but it isn’t, it is all about emotion.
This happens over and over every day from every corner, not just on the internet. Turn on the news and you might hear some news, but you are very likely to be told how to feel about that news.
I was not around for the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858, but I’ve read some of them. Both men were powerful speakers and excellent debaters, and as such they appealed to emotions as well as intellects. What they had that we have lost is both sides speaking at one time so people could hear the arguments pro and con. Today many people never hear the opposite side of things. They get so caught up in their emotional positions that they no longer want to hear anything that contradicts them. Even the best rational arguments can rarely penetrate a strongly held emotional position. And that is why the internet and cable news are both dangerous places to live.
Your position, by the way, may well be right. But you’ll never know that unless you fully hear and consider the other side.
Government is — and is not — the problem
Aristotle, who lived more than 300 years before Christ, recognized that governments were necessary and generally good. He believed that despotic and tyrannical governments were not good, but that a constitutional government was good. In a constitutional government, the citizens are the rulers and are in turn ruled.
In a later post I’ll dive into the good side of government more, as well as the bad side, but the reality is that in America government is not the biggest part of our problems, people are. We are. You are. I am.
Is the mayor of New York going to make that great city greater by increasing the amount of good it does for all of its citizens? I hope he does, but having listened to some of his talks, I am not optimistic. Morality is no more inherent in socialism than it is in capitalism, and morality is what we are missing.
Here is what will save people from freezing in the gutter: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Those are not feelings, they are actions. And so is this:
Do good. It’s in you.