Its a Head Scratcher

Its a head scratcher for sure.

Yesterday, a leftist friend and I got into a gentle discussion.  I brought up that the recent purchase of Jordan Peterson's book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. I thought he would find the book interesting, perhaps useful for self understanding and improving his own life, and as a gift for his grand children. "Now, why is that? he asked. I replied that it appeared that socialism was gaining ascendancy among the youth, and that socialism had never worked. Which of course got his dander up. He wanted to know which socialist systems had not worked. I started with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. I was prepared to cite every case of socialism from 1917 on. But he interrupted me with "That was not a case of socialism; that was a dictatorship!"  He had almost made the connection, and then he switched subjects.

The connection I wanted him to make was that socialism leads to totalitarianism, which eventually leads to dictatorship, and for the people living under such a system, there is little difference between a dictator, a so-called "King," or "Emperor," or indeed any other type of tyrant.  Rather than make the connection, he began talking about an oligarchy.  Well, of course I don't like oligarchies either, because that is another name for tyranny.

One of the things that has had me puzzled in the latest election is how people who have great wealth, can also at the same time be any form of Marxist.  It seems like one would have to daily fight off a case of congitive dissonances.  Of course, the boogyman of the right, George Soros earned his billions the old fashioned way: he stole them from people far less fortunate than himself.  And he hopes to dismantle the American system.  Why?  Why does any bad guy do what bad guys do?  Evil has its own apparent rewards.

But what about Tom Steyer, a hedge fund manager and self made billionaire.  What does he get out of spending his money on leftist causes?  Is he that ignorant of history that he believes he is spending money for charitable purposes?  Or does he believe he will get a return on his investment?   What about Larry Page, net worth $4 billion, who is the CEO of Alphabet, parent company of Google.  Or Jeff Bezos, net worth $156 billion, founder and CEO of Amazon.  What does he hope to gain from his efforts to help Left wing causes and candidates?

Of course, let us not forget Michael Bloomberg, $46.2 Billion net worth, and the funder of Everytown for Gun Sense as well as a number of state level gun grabbing bills, ballot initiatives, and so forth.  What does Michael Bloomberg get for his money?  It seems sometimes as if gun grabbing is an ego driven thing, a hobby horse if you will.  Bloomberg will always have armed body guards.  But he doesn't think the "little people" should have guns to guard themselves, just as he doesn't think New Yorkers should buy large sugary drinks.  Michael Bloomberg has changed his political affiliation again back to Democrat, not that his run as Mayor of New York on the Republican ticket fooled many.  He will be one of the people running to replace Trump in 2020.

So, here's a question.  One of the tenets of the Left is that material wealth should be evenly distributed, from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.  So how come these billionaires accumulated so much money in the first place?  If someone truly believed the wouldn't he have shunned the large salary, the stock options, and other inducements thrown his way so that others who needed it more instead could have had the wealth they needed?  Doesn't accumulating all that wealth, and then giving it to politicians, who go to congress precisely to become fabulously wealthy themselves seems hypocritical, no?

Its a head scratcher alright.