Capitalism is not the enemy. Capitalism has improved the Lives of millions.

[DireStrike]

90. Have you noticed that none of these "socialist" revolutions were in heavily industrialized nations?

I'm beginning to think that the 20th century, following right on the heels of the capitalist revolutions, was truly too early to try and unite the world in a new system. The revolutions that succeeded simply used the idea of socialism as a stand-in to break the old colonial chains. And some just used it as an excuse to seize power (for example, the weird cult-like khmer rouge.)

Sure, some places made a good go of it. Resource-starved Cuba is still arguably trying to be socialist; certainly they have good health care, at least. Russia, wracked by world wars, civil wars, and capitalist military assaults and hostility, still achieved a ton of industrialization, but never managed a suitable level of consumer goods. Of course, it became a bureaucratic nightmare with no democracy in production(though distribution wasn't too bad), which is the real goal of socialism.

Few people say Marx was wrong in his analysis of capitalism. Yet there remains no well-fleshed-out system for democratic control of production, and I see little effort being made on that front. Nuts and bolts organizational matters are complex, difficult to change and experiment with, and far less romantic than simply overthrowing the oppressors through glorious revolution. Such is the task of the left today, and we are failing miserably at providing a real alternative.

Sometimes I think the greatest crime of the 20th century regimes was their lack of transparency and record keeping. We have nothing but biased and unscientific accounts. All those years and lives wasted, and we lack a clear understanding of even what they tried and how well it worked.