Baby Steps to Tyranny

Hugo Chavez is making community service mandatory in order to advance socialist goals. No doubt leftists all over will laud this move, saying that service to the poor and hungry are good things that we should all, America especially, take Venezuela's example. Well, yes, selflessly serving the poor and needy is a good thing, but that is not what is going on in Venezuela. The economy is crumbling, so people are being conscripted basically to contribute to government pet projects to address the failures of what Chavez has been trying to achieve. This is not to mention the little issue of personal freedom, to spend your time as you see fit or to define how you want to direct your own efforts at helping others.

Such an idea is the germ that can eventually grow into something like Stalin's farming collectives or Pol Pot's reordering for the agrarian utopia.