The 4 questions that the "Real communism has never been tried" folks never seem to ask

 

The main problem with the claim that "Real communism (or real socialism) has never been tried" isn't how much truth there might be in that sentence or not.  

It's as follows: 

• Given the alleged claim that communism has never been done right, and that during myriad attempts in over a century, with one — horrific — failure after another, what makes you think that this time will lead to success? How many chances are there, really, of that (finally) happening? How willing are you to risk a(nother) failure — with all that that entails?

Remember the millions of deaths under Lenin and Stalin? Remember the millions of deaths under Mao? Remember the millions of deaths under Pol Pot? Do go to Instapundit to check out Solzhenitsyn's assessment and verdict.

• Given the extent of the nightmares under socialism (the real kind or any other type), how much better is socialism, really, than the free market in the first place? (As a kid during the Cold War, I remember capitalism being skewered for being responsible for… the horrendous unemployment rate! By the way, if the would-be communist countries are not to be defined by real communism, why must the West be defined by "real" capitalism?)

• Speaking of which: given that we are country bumpkins who are not supposed to understand the underlying beauty of the dream, why would this type of claim not be applicable to fascism? And, for that matter, Nazism?! Why couldn't a group of neo-fascists likewise come and claim — either while lauding or while disparaging such people as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini ("der Führer and il Duce managed to screw up society's beautiful dream!") — that "Real fascism (or real Nazism) has never been tried"; while we are supposed to remain silent and give the rosy description of their ideology the benefit of the doubt? [Update: No, in no way am I advocating fascism or neo-fascists to start advancing this type of "arguments"; I am as much against fascists as against communists; all that I am doing is pointing out the double standards of people who are not against one type of authoritarian dictatorship while they are against the other.]

• Finally: How many citizens, exactly, are supposed to suffer and die during the next attempt to impose socialism (successfully or otherwise)? Given that the previous shots at introducing socialism have led to so many tragedies, how willing are you to have your family, your loved ones, and your neighbors join in the numbers of innocents arrested/deported/executed/worked to death in the next attempt? Are you yourself willing to volunteer to be among the victims?