Clarissa's Blog

When I tell people that I washed clothes by hand, dried them outside and then ironed them until moving to Canada, they think it’s some sort of a romantic farmyard situation. I routinely hear people gush about how wonderful it is to dry clothes on a clothesline.

I didn’t grow up in the countryside with beautiful fresh air, though. I lived in a large industrial city across the road from a meat-processing plant. Since it was a Soviet meat-processing plant, nobody made any effort to reduce the stench that it emitted. As a result, there was no light, delicious breeze gently moving clothes hanging out to dry on a clothesline. Everything was far grimier and stinkier.

People will say that nobody has any way of knowing about the meat-processing plant and all the rest of it. But here’s a rule of thumb. Nothing is ever good, comfortable, or nice-smelling in socialism. Socialism stinks both literally and metaphorically.

Yesterday, I finally had an opportunity to explain to my daughter about socialism. She concluded that it was very stupid, as anybody who discovers its underlying principles invariably will.