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Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies

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Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies

By: Kristian Niemietz
Narrated by: Russell Newton
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Socialism is strangely impervious to refutation by real-world experience. Over the past hundred years, there have been more than two dozen attempts to build a socialist society, from the Soviet Union to Maoist China to Venezuela. All of them have ended in varying degrees of failure. But, according to socialism’s adherents, that is only because none of these experiments were “real socialism”.

This audiobook documents the history of this, by now, standard response. It shows how the claim of fake socialism is only ever made after the event. As long as a socialist project is in its prime, almost nobody claims that it is not real socialism.

On the contrary, virtually every socialist project in history has gone through a honeymoon period, during which it was enthusiastically praised by prominent Western intellectuals. It was only when their failures became too obvious to deny that they got retroactively reclassified as “not real socialism”.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 The Institute of Economic Affairs (P)2019 SpokenTome.Media Political Science Politics & Government Socialism Capitalism Soviet Union Liberalism China Imperialism Russia Economic disparity Taxation Economic Inequality
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Quite funny, very well researched and doesn't strawman his opponents. Goes through most socialist countries and points out how people supported it at the time but only when it failed did they stop supporting it.

Everyone should read this.

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The bulk of this work is loose and recursive to the point of absurdity, but the epilogue, being an optimised reworking of a recent paper by the same author, shows what the whole might eventually become. Well worth a credit to get in on the beta.

A timely proposition that deserves a revised edition

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Many of us who lived behind the iron curtain and managed to escape (and family who stayed behind and saw the system fall) never quite understand how those in free nations could venerate the ideologies that lead to such horrific and repressive systems. Kristian does a great job articulating how the privileged of the West can idealise abstract ideologies while simultaneously distancing themselves from the inevitable/inbuilt real-world harms and authoritarian consequences of their implementation. Good job, easy read and very relatable.

Accessible and relatable

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What an excellent and comprehensive account of the failures of socialism presented in unsparing detail. Should be widely read and taught in history lessons in schools. Particularly interesting are the eulogies provided by naive, but clever people when visiting the hell hole countries afflicted by socialism.
Highly recommended.

Fascinating

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Like many I know, there are vast swathes of people who think they know about socialism but in reality frame their views based on limited knowledge. I count myself among these. No longer. This is a wide ranging review of most of those places that tried socialism and failed. The phrase that is always used ' it hasn't really been tried' still echos around. I would suggest this book is put in most schools.

Excellent review of Socialism balanced and clear

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