It's tragic, as are all attempts at Socialism, but the people of Venezuela are going to get what they deserve for not only voting for Socialism but voting for such a monster as Hugo Chavez - and violating the individual rights of their fellow man in the process.
Chavez threat to seize food shops
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6364515.stm
Chavez and the people of Venezuela are about to enjoy the first major life and value destruction that inherently comes with all forms of statism (such as Socialism). Their food supply is beginning to be destroyed. The delivery, processing, selling, stocking, etc. of every manner of food is beginning to collapse. It's not shocking, it's the natural order of Socialism to kill the population of a country, starting from the bottom (the poorest) and moving up the chain. It could have been easily predicted that Venezuela would rot and Chavez would lead his people into hell.
The best and brightest of Venezuela have already mostly fled the country, they've been exiting in increasing numbers for the last few years (as demonstrated by the significantly boosted immigration of skilled labor into the US from Venezuela). Nature has beautiful, built-in mechanisms for dealing with all attempts to go against it (as Socialism does go against nature), and there are no long-term methods to escape the justice of nature. What's so amazing about South America's broad move toward Socialism, is that they apparently are completely ignorant of their own recent past where all of the ponzi schemes of Socialism have been tried in dozens of flavors and implementations. Of course don't let the fact that every form of statism inherently fails and such has been demonstrated globally for 200 years repetitively, dissuade anyone from giving it another go. I mean, why not starve millions, destroy an entire economy, and set a country back decades... it's a worthy experiment for Chavez' new Socialism. I'm sure all the pathetic statism lovers around the world will cheer as the country marches toward self-destruction. What's a few million human sacrifices compared to achieving such a noble ideal?
So as the downward spiral of Socialism sets in, Chavez is going to grip tighter and with increasing acceleration strangle his country to death. He'll transition from a mere elected Socialist punk, to a full-fledged Socialist dictator. In any given socialist nation, the country must either move toward freedom, capitalism and individual liberty, or toward bankruptcy, slavery, and a more severe form of statism (either fascism or communism for example). Chavez is, as is understood, following in the foot-steps of his idol, fellow monster Fidel Castro.
All forms of statism, to the degree of their implementation, require brute force to be employed against the population. Socialism in the Hugo Chavez format, gradually increases the use of force as the country begins to shut down - it becomes the only means for someone like him to maintain control and power, as the people begin to revolt nationally. Laissez-faire Capitalism requires the least force out of any form of government, all the way up to the extreme force required by Stalinist Communism (Soviet Russia, North Korea, Mao China, etc.).
As the Capitalists all begin to shut down in Venezuela, refusing to be slaves, Chavez (who is truly a top notch moron) will discover first hand exactly why Socialism fails: it's a cannibal, it eats itself, and it's built on a foundation of injustice toward the individual. So the collective is promoted as the ideal ahead of the individual (as though a 'collective' were anything more than a group of individuals), and the collective then proceeds to eat itself. You see the self-eating occurring in one of my other favorite socialist slums right now: France. The size of a socialist country's asset base and the severity of the statism are what determines how long the country holds out before total collapse; France will last a while, centuries of assets exist to be eaten by the welfare state (15% unemployment, Muslim ghettos living on welfare, low standards of living, low productivity, low innovation, etc.); Zimbabwe didn't last very long, and neither will Venezuela.
The best thing the United States can do in this case, is literally ignore Chavez, and allow nature to take over. That is to say, take no action, stand back and watch as Venezuela implodes on a spectacular scale. All statist leaders (doesn't matter if it's heavy Socialism, Fascism, Communism, or other) require an enemy of redirection - someone the leader can attack, blame, point to, you name it, to redirect attention away from the evil occurring at home. And of course Chavez has been using the United States for that purpose, just as Fidel did as he butchered and enslaved his own people. Shortly the world is going to witness the spectacle of a nation tremendously rich in oil, nearly unable to even feed itself. The liberals in the U.S. that so dearly love Socialism will get another text-book classic example of why and how Socialism inherently can never succeed - and they will of course once again blatantly and ignorantly look away as though it never happened.
My favorite part of the BBC article has to be this:
"Some private companies are also concerned about President Chavez's intention to make them allow their employees time during the working day to study Socialism."
Chavez truly has never gotten enough credit for his comedic value.
Justice is a wonderful thing to observe in action. I won't be cheering as Venezuela sinks into the abyss, but I'm always happy to know that even in instances where evil temporarily triumphs, it ultimately destroys itself.
"if you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders -- what would you tell him to do?"
Shrug
