It's funny to think today that even at the height of capitalist propaganda versus communist propaganda, people were ashamed of being capitalists.  What is it that makes success so shameful?  Why is it that when one man makes a fortune and spreads wealth throughout society, it's considered greed or selfishness, but when the snake-oil salesmen from the government steal our money and freedom while promising utopian visions of the world under terms like "moderatism, globalism, environmentalism, humanism," and any variety of terms, it's considered "fair," "sharing," or, worst of all, "equality."  Sure, what's left over might be considered equal, but only in poverty of mind, liberty, and wallets.  It's no coincidence that the villain in this cartoon was selling "ism," for it doesn't matter what "ism" you put in front of a collectivist idea, it always fails.

What distresses me more than anything is that even though humanity has made so many truly marvelous advances in technology, science, medicine, etc. in the last 60 years, we are still just as primitive in our economic and political understanding of the world as we've always been.  While modernity marches forward, we keep beating our heads on the same wall of collectivist thought, thoroughly convinced that the next time we hit our heads against this wall, we will finally break through.  And the most frustrating thing of all is that people buy this demagoguery and even have the nerve to call it progress. 

I'm sure all of the tyrants throughout history, such as Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Mao, and countless other angels, all believed that if their citizens would just give up a little more power and freedom, they could fix and solve everything for the good of all.  The unfortunate thing for the cause of liberty and progress is that there is no shortage of these busybody philosopher kings today, either.