Venezuela's March to Serfdom: Part II

Again due to length, it turns out I will need to make this a three-part series. Yesterday we saw how the failed promises of socialism and collectivism always require the coercion and suppression of individual freedoms which can lead to the totalitarian state.

Tonight, we begin examining Venezuela as a modern day case study of this very process at work, focusing first on Chavez’s rise to power and the intentions behind his policies. Tomorrow night we'll conclude things by looking at how Chavez is working to implement these policies and the effect it is having on individual freedom and society as a whole.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chazez, an avowed socialist, rose to power a few years ago. He won election on a bold agenda to redistribute income, “erase” inequality, end poverty, and to provide free education and healthcare for all Venezuelans.

Notice that I said he was elected. This is crucial to understanding how tyranny emerges, because it is always ultimately the people who choose dictatorship and choose to surrender their liberties to the State.

Chavez’s intentions have leftist supporters in the West all excited. In the wake of the Cold War’s end, Venezuela is now seen as the center of a new utopian movement. This recent news report reveals how idealistic, wide-eyed American college students complete with birkenstocks and their parents’ ATM cards are flocking to Venezuela to observe, marvel at, and volunteer to contribute to this great socialist “experiment.” Notice how one girl in the article says she can’t wait to return to “do more missionary work.” If this is such a great system, why is so much volunteer work even necessary?

In the aftermath of this feel-good period when everyone casts a resounding vote in favor of the planners who claim they can create this great classless society, where all problems and troubles are solved by the State, a problem quickly emerges: the plan they come up with doesn’t gel with the characteristics of the complex, emerging, organic, and free society that exists. Certain business owners, farmers, merchants, and foreign investors aren’t going to like certain parts of the plan very much, and certainly aren’t going to voluntarily go along with it. Farmers aren’t going to like price ceilings on what they can sell, entrepreneurs don’t want their profits confiscated, and so on.

So this problem begs the question: just how do politicians and planners implement their ambitious interventionist agendas when certain segments are always going to be against certain aspects of it? How do ambitious rulers enact their utopian vision when it is inevitable that various groups are going to gripe?

That will be the starting point for our discussion tomorrow night.