One interesting thing I’ve found while living here in the US is the fear of socialism. People are so mis-educated on the subject it’s scary. The cause was probably the extreme amount of propaghanda here during the cold war.

So, let’s try to set a few things straight:
- Socialism and communism are not the same thing.
- Russia did not come close to implementing what communism was supposed to be. The most important thing they “forgot” is that they still had a wealthy class.
- Socialism and communism are not the opposites of democracy. The former focus more on the structure of the economy and how wealth is distributed. The later focuses solely on how governments are selected. A closer (but still not perfect) comparison would be between capitalism and socialism or communism. A socialist/communist country can be democratic.

Personally, while I would prefer one of these non-capitalist systems, I don’t think humans are evolved enough yet to support them fully. That’s why I like the ideals of a lot of the European countries: a capitalist economy mixed with heavily socialist ideals.

Anyways, what got me on this topic today was reading this funny article:
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040710/MALL10/TPComment/Columnists

Apparently, one of her peer columnists tried to say she couldn’t enjoy shopping because she likes socialism. Also, it mentions what I always enjoy seeing: Bill O’Reilly getting his panties in a bunch over the word socialism. It still boggles my mind how someone so clearly uneducated on nearly everything gets taken so seriously (not to mention a documented compulsive liar. Go to http://www.americanprogress.org/site/apps/custom/cap/findorg.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=45294 and pick Bill O’Reilly in the list.)