"We are all socialists now." - Sir William Harcourt
The Twentieth Century was a time when the world went mad with socialism. Great nations turned their every effort to the formation of a brave, new world upon both their own domestic landscapes and the farthest corners of the world. But as so often happens no vision of paradise is quite like any other, and where visions conflict men fight and die. Unequaled is the power of high ideals for inciting Man to slaughter.
Thus the pinnacle moment of tragedy for the Socialist Age. The Scientific Socialists of slavic Eurasia reeled under the iron boot of Adolph Hitler and his National Socialists. Socialist France crumbled in days. The New Deal Socialists of the United States strained at the bit to join the fray, held back but temporarily by the waning power of naysaying Republican peaceniks.
And the world burned.
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The Socialists: |
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Scientific Socialism: Embracing the concept of equality for everyone, Russia's Scientific Socialists killed their entire wealthy class so that the remaining population would be equally poor. They then raised up a group of Party members and Nomenklatura to occupy the daschas and palaces left behind by the late aristocracy. (Not to say any of these people were unequal; they were simply more perfectly equal than the average proletarian.) Finally, in a universal gesture of equality, they began sending insurgents into every other country they could reach with orders to overthrow the government and kill anyone who was unequal, in exact and equal reproduction of Russia's own revolution. |
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National Socialism: Germany considered the use of insurgents wholly dishonorable. Crippled financially by World War I, it was terrified that such "shadow invaders" from the nearby USSR would hamstring it completely by killing its wealthiest citizens (and also that they would install Russian-speaking governors). It decided instead to do the job itself. Because the vast majority of Germany's monied class were Jewish, it was easiest for the National Socialists to simply round up everyone of that race rather than try to sort people by their bank accounts. Finally, wishing to spread its own enlightenment in a more proper and honorable fashion, it issued traditional declarations of war to all neighboring countries. |
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New Deal Socialism: America, destination of wealthy businessmen fleeing Scientific and National Socialist slaughter, hit upon an insight rare and valuable in the history of politics. Rather than execute his growing stable of wealthy corporate leaders, New Deal strongman Franklin D. Roosevelt gave them safe harbor - along with double-digit tax rates designed to bleed their wealth into government - er, "common" - coffers. (The ensuing war provided a convenient excuse for the tax shift, but rates never returned to the single digits after a final peace was negotiated.) Since the day of FDR, America's economic ascendency - or at least that of its Federal budget - has never been questioned. |
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The Empire of Japan: Throwback to a prior era, Japan's head of state styled himself Emperor and made no pretense of equality with anyone. It has been suggested that he, alone among the great leaders of the time, recognized the threat of socialism and conquered the territory around him merely to establish a zone of peace outside its dire influence. Unfortunately, it is more likely that he simply wanted "piece" - a piece of China, a piece of Siberia, a piece of Alaska, and a piece of whatever else he could get his hands on while the Socialists were distracted with one another. |
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