“Lootings are becoming a common occurrence in Venezuela, as the country’s food shortage resulted in yet another reported incident of violence in a supermarket—this time in the Luvebras Automarket located in the La Florida Province of Caracas. Videos posted to social media showed desperate people falling over each other trying to get bags of rice. One user claimed the looting occurred because it is difficult to get cereal, and so people ‘broke down the doors and damaged infrastructure.”
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Samizdata quote of the dayMay 23rd, 2016 |
 24 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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Wreckers and hoarders. It’s counterrevolutionary kulaks like this, carrying out the destabilization plans of the US colonialists and the international Jewish conspiracy, that have weakened the great march forward of Chavismo into the bright uplands of the socialist future. Remember, comrades, said Snowball, scampering from side to side in his most-persuasive way, what it was like when Jones was still in charge ? . . . . . .
Nothing changes, from the dawn of time it has always been starvation, death and deprivation. Except in the few places and times where an outbreak of Enlightenment ideas and free-market principles has broken out and managed to survive, for a time, the sure oppression that inevitably follows, usually egged on by a baying mob.
Must suck to be a Venezualan-in-the-street today. What do you think he thinks about democracy and one-man-one-vote, right about now?
llater,
llamas
Would that Chavez was here to see what he has wrought…
“Would that Chavez was here to see what he has wrought”
Oh, but he is!
Nicolás Maduro Assures Hugo Chávez Appeared To Him As A ‘Little Bird’ To Bless Him
Quick, someone inform the pope so he can blame it on capitalism and the devil.
“What had once been an alleged ideal is now a ragged skeleton rattling like a scarecrow in the wind over the whole world, but men lack the courage to glance up and to discover the grinning skull under the bloody rags. That skeleton is socialism. Fifty years ago, there might have been some excuse (though not justification) for the widespread belief that socialism is a political theory motivated by benevolence and aimed at the achievement of men’s well-being. Today, that belief can no longer be regarded as an innocent error. Socialism has been tried on every continent of the globe. In the light of its results, it is time to question the motives of socialism’s advocates. The essential characteristic of socialism is the denial of individual property rights; under socialism, the right to property (which is the right of use and disposal) is vested in “society as a whole,” i.e., in the collective, with production and distribution controlled by the state, i.e., by the government. Socialism may be established by force, as in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—or by vote, as in Nazi (National Socialist) Germany. The degree of socialization may be total, as in Russia—or partial, as in England. Theoretically, the differences are superficial; practically, they are only a matter of time. The basic principle, in all cases, is the same. The alleged goals of socialism were: the abolition of poverty, the achievement of general prosperity, progress, peace and human brotherhood. The results have been a terrifying failure—terrifying, that is, if one’s motive is men’s welfare. Instead of prosperity, socialism has brought economic paralysis and/or collapse to every country that tried it. The degree of socialization has been the degree of disaster. The consequences have varied accordingly.” ~ The Monument Builders, Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness.
What the article doesn’t really make clear is that the trigger for this chaos is the collapse in world oil prices, something on which the Venezuelan economy is highly dependent. (Especially when they stole the oil fields from the various corporations who had developed them under the seemingly benign word “nationalization”, which, as I say, is a fancy word for theft.)
However, when I read it what I thought of was Scotland. The parallels are quite terrifying really. A heavily socialist state depending very heavily on oil to fund their excesses. One wonders how much of what is happening in Venezuela would be happening in a newly independent Scotland?
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying it would be as bad, but it would be well along the road to that chaos.
forgetting Marx and Engels for the moment ….. ( both were little more than theoreticians anyway ! )
From what I’ve read and heard, somehow I just can’t accept that Lenin’s primary motives were ‘the abolition of poverty, the achievement of general prosperity, progress, peace and human brotherhood’ !
Nor Stalin nor Mao on and on.
Again from what I’ve read and heard, more like a raw lust for power and from what I see today ( and hear and read ), that motive, the craving of power, has not changed one bit regardless of continent, country or time frame.
When cornered lefties always seem to cite Sweden as an example of a successful socialist economy. I don’t really know enough about the place to know how socialist it actually is in practice. I find it hard to believe that out of all the failures this one relative success is genuine. I suspect that it is probably a free market economy and the parasitic state isn’t sucking quite enough blood to kill the host. I also quite like my Saab 93 estate.
Stonyground, there is a good summary here that I read just recently, if you are interested.
Alisa, the “summary here” link heads to a “page not found”.
Alisa, link? :>)
Ooops… 🙂
The state (and the Church) have been preaching against private property (especially large scale private property) for many years.
They should welcome the looting.
It is the logical consequence of their price controls and general “Social Justice” ideology.
It’s like something from Uncle Ben’s Cabin!
I recently saw a letter from someone in Sweden, who was explaining that Sweden was trying to decentralise the economy, because it wasn’t now working. There were even petty regulations about how many people you could invite to your own house for parties! (Noise regulations, etc.)
Which also limits scope for political gatherings and discussion, how convenient, and not so petty when the enforcers come.
It is also a faint echo of the Apartheid regime’s ‘banned person‘ law, which prohibited inter alia, a banned person from meeting more than one person at a time, other than relatives.
Thanks for the link Alisa, concise and informative.
Never sure why anyone would consider Sweden socialist. Social democrat, sure, but it’s trip towards socialism was derailed by its electorate in the early 90s (from memory) and it is like most of the rest of northern Europe a free-market country with a fair degree of government intervention and a generous welfare state. Not really any more socialist than Germany or the UK.
– Taxes are higher in Sweden than in the UK. National debt (future taxes) is much lower however, so that is a positive.
– Cultural Marxism is much more entrenched than in the UK (e.g. the rape laws)
– This is in a strange symbiosis with protestant prudishness, e.g. in respect of drugs and prostitution.
– Obsession with equality and justice (in Swedish the terms ‘justice’ proper and ‘social justice’ are conflated. Any vaguely right wing policy proposals might be met with ‘but what about justice?’)
– Conformist culture with compulsory ID numbers
Positive aspects are strong protections on freedom of expression, and I’m told that they haven’t quite caught the ‘health and safety’ bug to the extent that the UK have (I’m not sure that any country could beat us on that!)
Good article, Alisa. I’m very glad to learn a bit about the actual history. Thanks. :>)
Natalie Solent (Essex)
May 23, 2016 at 2:07 pm
“Would that Chavez was here to see what he has wrought”
Oh, but he is!
Nicolás Maduro Assures Hugo Chávez Appeared To Him As A ‘Little Bird’ To Bless Him
Not anymore, he had a little “accident”…
Through Twitter, Muchacho reported that in Venezuela, it is a “painful reality” that people “hunt cats, dogs and pigeons” to ease their hunger.
People are also reportedly gathering vegetables from the ground and trash to eat as well.
“It is safe to say that if the Communists took over the Sahara Desert tomorrow, two things would happen. First, nothing. And second, with their centralized approach to the market, there would be a shortage of sand.”
William F Buckley 1971.
I saw on the news a piece (perhaps it was Channel 4 news) about Venezuala that seemed to claim that the black market was to blame for shortages. As if sellers in the black market were undercutting the shops and hoarding supplies, absolute nonsense of course people only buy things on the black market because the shops are empty.