The empty notion of socialism we followed for years destroyed India in innumerable respects, yes; our values too. But now that’s got to be blamed for 1) a little shit doing a shitty thing to his girlfriend, and 2) society deciding to tar the girlfriend too? And, to top all this, we get the not so subtle implication that had we been free-marketeers, we would have been “completely moral and just”?

You mean this kind of crummy behaviour is a product of the last 60 years? It would never have happened before?

Yeah right, and while we’re about it, why not blame these other things on socialism too:

* the time that, as a 12-year-old, I stole a (large) handful of channa from a roadside channa-man and said channa-man came running up and threw me to the ground. (Hey, fuddy-duddies were once 12-year-olds too, you know).

* the time a once-schoolmate tried to make off with the jewellery of a once-small-time-filmstar.

* the time I “lost” my parking ticket at Dallas airport and paid only the “lost ticket” fee of $7 instead of the $35 I would otherwise have had to pay.

* the time two cops pointed their guns at me, and later filed an affidavit in court saying they had done so because when they asked my name, I had said “Shaikh.”

I could go on. I really want to blame all this on socialism. Because had we been free market people all along, we’d have been so moral and just that these things would never have happened. Sure.

PS: Bob Dylan is what you might call an old fuddy-duddy too, you know. Certainly older than this f-d. Much older.

Socialism v free markets is an entirely different debate from changing morality. What on earth are you arguing about?

Dilip (aka f-d?), you’re beating up on a straw man here, no libertarian would claim or has claimed that “this kind of crummy behaviour is a product of the last 60 years” or would “blame all this on socialism”. Our poverty and under-development as an economy can certainly be blamed on Nehruvian socialism, but the MMS thing was just human nature. (Which is an explanation, not an exculpation, so don’t start attacking me as if I justified it.)

Souvik, I think morality is in quite a separate domain from which economic system you follow, and I don’t think a socialist is immoral, as you seem to be suggesting, but merely misguided about economics. Also, even if the whole socialist system was immoral, it would not dilute the immorality of the MMS thingie, if that was immoral, or negate criticism of it.

To sum it up, don’t bring moral values into economic theory. And show me the frog.