I ran across a column by someone named Llewllyn King who tut-tutted about Americans seeing socialism as some kind of bogeyman:
Mention socialism and many people reach for the silver bullet, the garlic garland, the cross and the mirror. Their fear of socialism is the fear of a word as much as of a system – not so much the vampire in the flesh as the fear that such a thing exists and is coming for a bloody feast. The specter of France – great food and 200-mph trains – is never far away. Suggest something like reforming health care and howls of “socialism†will drown you out.
So I wondered, just who is this guy. A quick Google of his name produced this:
Founder, executive producer and host, “White House Chronicle†on PBS; regular contributor, Voice of America; contributor, CNN, C-SPAN, PBS (“The NewsHour with Jim Lehrerâ€), NBC (“The Today Show,†“Meet The Pressâ€), Westwood One (“The Jim Bohannon Showâ€), American University Radio (WAMU 88.5) and RTE (Ireland’s national radio and television broadcaster)
Regular commentary contributor to McClatchy newspapers; occasional contributor to newspapers and journals, including London’s Financial Times; and nationally syndicated columnist, North Star Writers Group
Those are about the credentials one would expect from a journalist who thinks this way:
But in the United States, the Obama Administration is so afraid of being called socialist that it takes de facto ownership of American International Group but does not take a seat on the board. This is ridiculous and has no purpose except to avoid another dread word – nationalization. The result – a proven bad management is rewarding itself with bonuses because a new board, reflecting what is known as a “golden share†of government investment, has not been seated.
People who are scared of words, scare me. Socialism is not an epithet. It is an organic part of Western culture.