An acquaintance of mine is a communist and a passionate Cleveland Indian fan.
I suppose there is nothing wrong with a communist loving the favorite American
pastime but it made me a bit uneasy. At first I could not identify the cause
of my angst.
Baseball is one of many significant cultural contributions of the United States
and her capitalistic economy. For this discussion, a cultural contribution is
a phenomenon with significant economic impact and with significant recognition
and familiarity worldwide.
A few other cultural contributions of the United States include: Elvis Presley,
Charles Lindberg, Mark Twain, the National Football League, NASCAR, Cats, Cheetos,
Mickey Mouse, The Simpsons, Stephen King, CNN, Ed Sullivan, Poe, Cassius Clay,
Jane Fonda, Apple, Barak Obama, Wal-Mart, Pet Rocks, Hula Hoops, Britney Spears,
NBA, Ichiro, jogging, the Internet, "The Monster that Devoured Cleveland",
California Wine, Star Wars, Coca Cola, talk radio, Silent Spring, Lassie, barbeque,
The Empire State Building, Coca-Cola, "Dirty Harry", Disneyland, NHL, Harley
Davidson, global warming, Pan Am, Ronald Reagan, Hewlett-Packard, Che T-Shirts,
Robert Frost, David Letterman, John Wayne, Balto, Nike, NCAA, The Beach Boys,
Winchester, "The Hunt for Red October", apple pie, The Constitution, the civil
rights movement…
Contributions of the collected, worldwide command economies include: One Day in
the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the AK-47, Mao's Little Red Book, Pol Pot,
and Che.
Why do command economies fail to create attractive culture? Certainly they can
copy culture. The Moscow Ballet recreated and bettered the ballet of 18th century
France. The East German women's swim teams were masterful exercises in better
performance through chemistry. Symphonies in Red China play impeccable Beethoven.
Maybe hungry people can't afford to worry about inventing culture. Command
economies are consistently good at starvation.
Maybe when people are told what they must do for the state, they assume nothing
else can be done. Their souls atrophy and decay until there is nothing but
another day in the life. If you are forced to love the state, there no love
left for the game.