A little bit of trivia for the holiday table

1. How old are the ‘fresh’ ideas [according to Bernie Sanders] of socialism? A. Under 200 Years
B. Over 500 Years
C. Over 2,400 Years
Answer: A.
Those who lean left would like to think those ideas are as fresh as the rolls on the table, but alas, they are over 2,400 Years old Having been mentioned in Plato’s greatest literary work Republic.  which was estimated to have been written 380 – 410 BC literally, 400 years BEFORE the birth of Christ and the New Testament. In point of fact, there are parts of the Bible are fresher than centuries old precepts of Communism.
If you answered B. over 500 years you get 1/2 credit since the year 1516 was the publication year of the book ‘Utopia’ admitted to by the communists as the ‘first socialist position’. This was the book – considered by some to be one of the first works of science – fiction written by Sir Thomas More on a fictional socialist system.
Sir Thomas More that describes an Island state with a socialist system. The word Utopia coined by More literally means ‘No place’ which perfectly describes where socialism has actually worked.
If you answered C. under 200 years you get ¼ credit since we are rapidly approaching the bicentennial of the first ‘Official’ failure of the Left’s base ideology. Official since some sources credit the use of the word socialism in referring to the system of an experiment doomed to failure in 1825.

2. When and where were the first experiments in what would become known as socialism first conducted?

A. 1620 and the first permanent, English speaking settlements of the colonies of the North American continent.
B. 1825 in New Harmony, Indiana
C. 100 years ago in Russia under Lenin and the watchful eye of the Cheka.
D. Never and Nowhere, since it’s never been tried before.

Answer B. Was discussed as the first of socialism’s incessant failures. Answer C. should be a cautionary tale for all and Answer D. is merely an ad hoc rescue of the Left’s failed base ideology.

Just for reference, this is one of the passages in Plato’s Republic that discusses the ideas of Communism 2,400 years ago:

Then let us consider what will be their way of life, if they are to realize our idea of them.

In the first place, none of them should have any property of his own beyond what is absolutely necessary; neither should they have a private house or store closed against any one who has a mind to enter; their provisions should be only such as are required by trained warriors, who are men of temperance and courage; they should agree to receive from the citizens a fixed rate of pay, enough to meet the expenses of the year and no more; and they will go and live together like soldiers in a camp.

Gold and silver we will tell them that they have from God; the diviner metal is within them, and they have therefore no need of the dross which is current among men, and ought not to pollute the divine by any such earthly admixture; for that commoner metal has been the source of many unholy deeds, but their own is undefiled.

And they alone of all the citizens may not touch or handle silver or gold, or be under the same roof with them, or wear them, or drink from them. And this will be their salvation, and they will be the saviours of the State.

But should they ever acquire homes or lands or moneys of their own, they will become housekeepers and husbandmen instead of guardians, enemies and tyrants instead of allies of the other citizens; hating and being hated, plotting and being plotted against, they will pass their whole life in much greater terror of internal than of external enemies, and the hour of ruin, both to themselves and to the rest of the State, will be at hand.

For all which reasons may we not say that thus shall our State be ordered, and that these shall be the regulations appointed by us for guardians concerning their houses and all other matters?