Johnny-on-the-Spot … by John Foster …

If you have any exposure to the modern media and current-day communication, you can’s help but notice an increased focus and awareness of socialism.

I’ll share some thoughts later of why that is happening but first, we need to have a little grasp of the ideologies in our world.

Most folks shout out “Capitalism,, Socialism, Communism or Fascism” with very little idea what each term means.

I found an amusing piece entitled, “World Ideologies Explained by References to Cows”.

This will give you a brief sketch on how they differ.

With SOCIALISM, you have two cows.

The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else’s cows.

You have to take care of all the cows.

The government gives you a glass of milk.

With pure COMMUNISM, you share two cows with your neighbors.

You and your neighbors bicker about who has the most “ability” and who has the most “need”.

Meanwhile, no one works, no one gets any milk and the cows drop dead of starvation.

With RUSSIAN COMMUNISM, you have two cows.

You have to take care of them but the government takes all the milk.

You steal back as much milk as you can and sell it on the black market.

In FACSIM, you have two cows,

The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.

In CAPITALISM, you don’t have any cows.

The bank will not lend you money to buy cows because you don’t have any cows to put up as collateral.

Now, there’s also something called ANARCHO-CAPITALISM.

You have two cows.

You sell one and buy a bull to grow a herd..

There’s also AMERICAN CORPORATE CAPITALISM.

Both cows are bloated with toxic steroids.

They are set out to graze on privatized public parks, release massive amounts of flatulence that destroys the ozone layer, die from excessive ultraviolet light, and are processed into meat-like products that look great as a result of clever and unprincipled marketing strategies.

When you mortgage your artificially devalued farm at high interest rates in order to buy meat, you consume the poisoned material and develop terminal illnesses because there is no health care plan to treat you.

The corporate management uses your purchase price to acquire THEIR meat from cows raised “naturally” on tree-free rain forest land outside of the country where labor and resources are cheap.

Finally, there’s SURREALISM>

You have two giraffes.

The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

But, all kidding aside, I think the buzz you hear about SOCIALISM is from generations who have only experienced our current form of CAPITALISM.

My parent’s generation, often referred to the GREATEST GENERATION, lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam era and man on the moon.

Those were major character-building experiences.

My generation of “baby boomers” experienced the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam, man on the moon, 9-11 and COVID-19.

The fact is, over 100 million Americans weren’t even born until after 9-11.

Major events like that impact your life.

But if you haven’t experienced a “boat-rocking” event or two in your life, it’s natural to think that there must be another way, perhaps a better way to live your life than what you are currently experiencing.

It’s the “other man’s grass is always greener” concept.

But don’t forget, that green grass might be over an underground septic tank.

I’m not saying it’s perfect here but we have a better chance of fix things if we use some motivation and focus.

I’ve yet had anybody point out to me where socialism has been or is working.

I’ve always had a belief that out current set-up works as long as we work at it.

If we’re not going to exercise our current “term limits” options, which is voting, then we need to find a way to extend term limits for all members of Congress.

Congress set up term limits to prevent another FDR but they obviously weren’t looking in the mirror when they did it.

We don’t need to leave our current form of government, we need to work more earnestly and focus in the current one.

If you honestly believe socialism is the way to go, that’s because you’ve existed a pretty much stress-free time in our current way of life.

Those “cow analogies” are funny but they point out some important differences.

Those “cow analogies” are funny but they point out some important differences.

Don’t forget.

We could have a BRITISH REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY.

That’s where both cows have “mad cow disease”.