In episode 25 of Monty Python's Flying Circus, one skit involves having Guevara, Mao, Lenin, and Karl Marx on a show called "World Forum" which, it turns out, is an idiotic game show. Karl Marx almost wins, except that he blows the last question.

Presenter	Yes, yes! One final question Karl and the beautiful lounge suite will be yours... Are you going to have a go? (Karl nods) You're a brave man. Karl Marx, your final question, who won the Cup Final in 1949?
Karl	The workers' control of the means of production? The struggle of the urban proletariat?
Presenter	No. It was in fact, Wolverhampton Wanderers who beat Leicester 3-1.

"The workers' control of the means of production". That, in my youth, was always touted as the essence of "Communism" (or "Socialism") as it was practiced in the Eastern Bloc. The Pythons didn't include that line as a caricature of Communism; they included it because it was genuinely something Marx believed in, or was commonly thought to believe in.

The current "bailout" plan for Chrysler is to give the majority of Chrysler stock to the United Auto Workers. That's Obama's big idea here for how to fix the problem.

He wants Chrysler's workers to control the means of production. Is it OK for us to call him a Socialist now?

UPDATE: Apparently a lot of people are calling him a Socialist now.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at 10:16 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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