Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Socialist Justice

Among the groups seeking to exploit the protest demonstrations against Republican governor Scott Walker in Madison, Wisconsin is the International Socialist Union. This video introduces the viewer to a young spokesman for the group and also takes the viewer to a seminar in which the socialist vision for the future is made clear. The future to which they aspire is not pretty, and neither is some of their language, so be advised.

The whole video is revealing, but perhaps the best part is at about 3:30 where the young socialist complains about the unimaginable working conditions at the restaurant which employs him. Take a look:
Let's understand what the Left envisions for our future. It's pretty much Cairo-like chaos for decades until they've managed to kill the golden goose of capitalism. Imagine if the spoiled brat to whom we're introduced in this video has his way. The owner of the restaurant who employs him and who has invested a lifetime building his business will have it all taken away by a bunch of minimum wage employees who have invested nothing because the oppressor owner actually dictates what they must cook and when they must show up for work.

Perhaps we should read a little about the owner of this restaurant so we can better appreciate the justice of what the socialist left wants to do to people like him:
Aaron Kennedy, the founder of Noodles, grew up on a farm with few to no connections to money. Like my friend Rob [the fellow in the video], Kennedy also studied at the University of Wisconsin. At 29, while eating at a Chinese restaurant, Kennedy had an idea, and scribbled his business plan on a napkin.

Scraping some money together from his friends and family and maxing out eight credit cards, Kennedy opened the first Noodles in his basement, and then put together a team with whom he’d build and operate 100 Noodles branches all on their own. It is now a $75 million franchise with 240 locations in 18 different states, providing jobs to over 3,000 employees just like Rob. This is what the American Dream looks like.

Under Lewis’ vision, however everything Kennedy has worked for would be taken away from him. The status he has earned for himself through his achievements would be reduced to that of one filling out an application for the very business he built from the ground up. Perhaps my imagination is limited, but at the moment I cannot imagine a greater humiliation. This is what socialism looks like.
The fellow who made this video, Christian Hartsock, offers more thoughts on it here. He's put together an important piece of journalism.

Parenthetically, I couldn't help, when reading about Aaron Kennedy and watching Rob express his outrage at Kennedy for telling him how to prepare the food in his restaurant, of why Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged has struck such a resonant chord with so many readers.