Reviving The Dark Ages

THE political naïveté of some people is just shocking. Take for example the reader’s letter published in The Namibian on October 30: ‘Call to Revive the Left’. Aluteni, Kozonguizi and Basson put forward a radical agenda that looks like it was taken straight out of Marx’s ‘Communist Manifesto’.

They propose the ‘nationalisation without compensation of the banks, mines, factories, corporations and big farms.’ In other words, the means of production will be owned by the State, and then run by the State. Yet, they complain earlier in their letter about the ‘Namibian ruling class’ and how the Swapo party engages ‘in the diversionary practices of a chauvinistic nationalism.’ Do they honestly believe that by giving the State more control, things are going to get better on this score? Can they be this naïve?Ironically, what the authors of this proposal fail to see is that once such concentration of power is placed in the hands of the State, economic incentive will be obliterated. The authors talk glowingly of ‘the most credible newspaper in the country.’ Do they not realise that once you centralise so much power in the government, the very first thing to go will be freedom of speech and press? In such a situation, their very own letter to the editor dissenting about the government wouldn’t be allowed! And don’t forget freedom of religion, the right to elect our government officials, and a whole host of other things taken for granted in democratic societies.I love the idea that everybody will get free housing, healthcare, education, public transportation, telecommunications, utilities, permanent jobs, and even a living wage. What a brilliant idea! Free everything. Of course, they’ve already proposed the complete destruction of the country’s economy, so how these sorts of things are ever going to materialise is problematic.What Aluteni, Kozonguizi and Basson really want is for Namibia to become the new Soviet Union. And we all know how well that place was run. Did anybody in Namibia ever own a Soviet-made automobile? I wonder why the evil ‘capitalist business development’ these guys deride was able to produce such reliable vehicles like Toyota, Mercedes, and Fiat, while the Soviet Union never produced one respectable automobile for global consumption?Lastly, the authors of this great world order say ‘no to nuclear energy,’ and yet want us to ‘stop . . . fossil carbon emissions.’ In essence, they want us to run around naked, give up eating meat, stop driving automobiles and heating our homes, and basically revert to the Dark Ages.There is no historical context to their proposal. The ideas of Marx, when allowed to grow to full flower, have failed in every single place they have been tried. They destroy individual incentive and motivation, they place incredible power into the hands of a select few, and they destroy basic human freedoms. Like the writing of letters of dissent to privately owned newspapers. It is already a well-known fact that the political party in power tried to put the kibosh on The Namibian. Can you imagine the freedoms lost if virtually all power, not just political but even economic, was placed in the hands of an elite ruling class?My ancestors escaped the Marxism of the Soviet Union. They fled to the West, where freedoms allowed them to thrive. They had all those ‘free’ things Aluteni, Kozonguizi, and Basson naively believe actually come free. I wonder why, in such a wonderful world, ‘better dead than red’ was their conclusion? Probably because once the heavy foot of Marxism is placed on your neck, you realise how wonderful a capitalist society can be. The only thing free in their proposal is the ensuing oppression.Unfortunately, the very problem Aluteni, Kozonguizi and Basson want to eliminate would be accentuated, not alleviated, in their communist proposal. I wonder if they are even aware of that fact? Victor KuliginWindhoek