Our Caring Elite

There is a modern religion that has replaced Christianity.  In some respects it is based on Christianity with it concern with the poor.  It has hundreds of millions of followers.  It controls perhaps the majority of nations and in its purer forms has brought much misery.  This religion of course is socialism.  It is interesting to read what progressive journalist write about socialist regimes in their early stages.  A May 2012 article in The Guardian by Richard Gott extols the virtues of the Chavez regime in Venezuela.  Gott writes Chavez, “has shown the countries of Latin America that there is an alternative to the single neoliberal message that has been endlessly broadcast for decades, by governments and the media in hock to an outdated ideology.”  Of course Gott wrote this prior to the toilet paper shortage.  Venezuela might be short of necessities but it appears to have an abundance of Rolex watches some costing as much as $15,000.  The Youtube video entitled “Los Relojes del Chavismo ¿Ser rico es malo?” documents the various Rolex watches and their prices worn by the Venezuelan elite.  Socialism prides itself on the redistribution of wealth.  They have done an exceedingly good job in Venezuela.  Hugo Chavez’s daughter Maria reportedly has $4.2 billion stashed away according to Diario las Americas.

I along with C. S. Lewis would prefer the rule of robber barons: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”