Socialism: The Undead

Lee Harris ponders the continuing love of socialism, and with it a warning for capitalists:

Men need myths -- and until capitalism can come up with a transformative myth of its own, it may well be that many men will prefer to find their myths in the same place they found them in the first part of the twentieth century -- the myth of revolutionary socialism.

And:

The Christian's life is transformed because he accepts the myth that Christ will one day return and usher in the end of time; the revolutionary socialist's life is transformed because he accepts the myth that one day socialism will triumph, and justice for all will prevail. What mattered...in both cases, is not the scientific truth or falsity of the myth believed in, but what believing in the myth does to the lives of those who have accepted it, and who refuse to be daunted by the repeated failure of their apocalyptic expectations.

To be a revolutionary is to be a comrade, hence it doesn't matter if the myth is true. And that is a depressing thought as Bolivia commits armed robbery against the foreign oil companies who invested there.

Thanks to InstaPundit for the lead.