Venezuela: A Case Study of a Failed Socialist State

Back in 2013 a truly remarkable, nay, ASININE article appeared in the pages of the supposedly “progressive” mouth piece publication SALON, and in it a truly ridiculous narrative was opined by writer David Sirota. (His email is available by clicking on his name if you feel so inclined to write him and remind him of his imbecilic piece)

Sirota's thesis? That Hugo Chavez had masterfully crafted a socialistic “miracle” in Venezuela.

His actual words, without exaggeration, were as follows:

“Chavez became the bugaboo of American politics because his full-throated advocacy of socialism and redistributionism at once represented a fundamental critique of neoliberal economics, and also delivered some indisputably positive results. Indeed, as shown by some of the most significant indicators, Chavez racked up an economic record that a legacy-obsessed American president could only dream of achieving.”

Later that year another “progressive” hack, Mark Weisbot of The Guardian, waxed poetic about the wonders of Venezuela's socialism and mocked the idea that those that foresaw an economic downfall were simply being held hostage to wishful thinking…which is ironic.

So absurd were the editors at The Guardian, that they actually had to remove the article's subheading and post a disclaimer at the bottom of the page about what it had once said, take a look:

Let's re-engage with reality, shall we.

We can only hope that Sirota and Weisbot enjoy a diet of crow, because that's more than the suffering people in the socialistic utopia they espoused Venezuela to be back in 2013 are eating at the moment…

Because Venezuela is presently on the verge of a complete and utter economic collapse.

The price of oil has plummeted over the past few years—which is an economic death sentence for a nation dependent on oil exports for nearly all of its revenue.

Basic necessities have become scarce accordingly, as the government has been forced to ration daily necessities, things as simple as toilet paper, are now a luxury. The state has limited access to television and phone services as well, because it can't afford to keep the infrastructure running.

Supermarkets look like Soviet relics, the shelves barren and empty, people are starving. They’ve been reduced to Darwinian survival and resorted to looting.

Venezuelans are now hunting stray dogs, cats, and pigeons for sustenance. Family pets have disappeared in the night as famished people look for any form of nutrition to keep their families fed.

Rolling blackouts are the norm, due to energy shortages…in an oil-rich nation. In fact, so disorganized and dependent upon the state is this socialistic “miracle” that the government is now being forced to cut back the workweek to just two days…presumably because the economic output of a full week of work costs more than it produces for the state-run economy.

The threshold beyond the point of critical mass has been thrust upon the people of the late Hugo Chavez's economic “miracle”, so destitute and dire is their situation that their hospitals are in condemned disrepair.

Basic antibiotics, soaps, and bandages are beyond the government to facilitate.

And what has the response been from the Venezuelan government to the plight of its people who were 100 percent indebted to a state-run economy tethered to a single undiversified commodity in a volatile global market?

Why, to pretend all is well, of course… Tis' the socialist way.

And so stubborn and ideologically driven is their El Presidente Maduro, that he's thwarted any efforts by international humanitarians to intervene with supplies.

In fact, he's blamed American conspiracies of permanent economic intervention as the reason to blockade outside help, claiming it's all a US plot to overthrow the Venezuelan way of life.

Paranoia runs deep in the heart of a despot, recently President Nicolas Maduro even refused attempts to seek international or monetary support for the country's impoverished state-run single payer healthcare system…claiming that to accept aid would be to effectively “privatize” Venezuelan hospitals.

He defiantly insisted that Venezuela's healthcare is the ‘best in the world' after Cuba…no word on whether or not Michael Moore agreed.

Denial is the heart of socialism, the ends justify the means, and the real means are simply to hold ideological power. Even when ideologically convinced as a true believer, socialism remains nothing more than cruel self-deception, and humanity is expendable for power by those that use it.

Marx had it wrong, the true opiate of the masses is not religion, but a nanny state that wields religious conviction that it's always right.

Caesar giveth and Caesar taketh away.

But once a populace is on its knees for their daily bread from Caesar, they'll never be independent of Caesar's whims again, no matter how cruel and merciless Caesar may ultimately be.