By: Štefan Šumah
Our leading socialists have risen to a higher level in their evolutionary development. From salon caviar-socialists they became armanisocialists (they added exclusive packaging to fruitless debates and hedonistic pleasures), and it is interesting to look at this crème de la crème of self-proclaimed freedom fighters. Even those unfamiliar with fashion trends immediately notice that they are (exceptions are quite rare) even younger, if not already subject to fashion, then at least elegantly dressed in clothes of a higher price range (dress for at least half the salary) and they do not mind that these dresses are made by rotten capitalist corporations, which they are declaratively fighting against. In their struggle for power, however, there are still old slogans that attract naïve people: social equality, exploitative capitalism, fraternity, freedom…, but they have also found new market niches, such as same-sex, minorities, violations of personal freedom, with which they want to continue to allow money to flow into their pockets and maintain privileges.
Through their evolution, however, they have also developed many examples of mutually beneficial interactions. Thus, they cooperate with Steve Jobs bluffers of Slovenian energy (which the owners in rotten capitalism would immediately push away, as it generates negligible profits given the company’s turnover), top managers whose business success is based on borrowing, and the personal economy on tax write-offs by the state, and Damjan Murks of the Slovenian economy, whose highest scientific achievement is good sales of themselves.
The socialist court also needs court jesters who also want their piece of cake. Along with self-proclaimed artists, we can also include a whole bunch of so-called intellectuals in this category. Hayek made it clear that soul engineers cannot exist, at least not in the long run. Apparently, however, some so-called Slovenian intellectuals (as they call themselves) or prominent intellectuals or academics (as they are called by the mainstream media) are still obsessed with this idea. And as companions of left-wing politicians, they try to sell various forms of socialism, although their academic reputation and reach reaches only to the Karavanke and the Škofije. Similarly argue Misses, namely, that the attraction that intellectuals cultivate to socialism stems from their own sense of personal failure, from which a kind of chronic intellectual insecurity erupted. Because they do not care how they are (especially in their own opinion) so valuable to society, so poorly paid compared to the uneducated from the entertainment industry and sports allies who earn a hundred or more times their salary. And these intellectuals are convinced that in socialism their true value would only really shine if some crumbs fell from the richly lined table.
However, if we add Slovenian Lukas from FDV and the Faculty of Arts to this colourful mass of hungry individuals – e.g., a journalism professor who lies and distorts the facts, or a journalism professor who has never written a serious article or has not had an hour of journalistic work behind her, but can scatter nebulae and nonsense, which are then sold as dry gold by the mainstream media – the socialist idyll is complete.
And what unites this colourful crowd? Nothing else but love, love of power and money, money and power. Not to be too unfair, in addition to their love of power and money, they also have a love of art. Such examples of art are, for example, the top Swiss watches, which are in themselves works of art, and of course the holy trinity of motoring, which originates from the rotten German capitalist system: Mercedes, Audi, and BMW. Yes, and if we can neglect power, money, and art in all this, we can safely say that if in 1945 there were no Germans without partisans, there are no real partisans (read socialists) without Germans nowadays.
Štefan Šumah is a researcher on corruption and behavioural economics at the research institute.