Indoctrination sessions on the way in Venezuela

AFP/Getty Images

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.” In one of the more poignant ironies of the modern world, evidence in support of this statement by Karl Marx is emerging every day—if only in the behavior of those still in thrall to Marx’s ideas. Most recently, Venezuelan imperator Hugo Chávez has been working to extend his pseudo-Marxist platitudes into the business world by mandating the provision of work-time indoctrination sessions. The International Herald Tribune reports:

Venezuelan businesses could be required to set aside four hours a week for workers to attend optional classes on socialism under a law being considered by President Hugo Chavez’s government, the labor minister said according to a Venezuelan news report.

Chavista flacks claim that attending the classes would remain strictly voluntary. As society becomes more and more politicized, though, the “option” of attending these classes becomes meaningless. You go, and you demonstrate support, or you identify yourself as dissenting from the official line and become a target. This top-down politicization of life is a familiar process to anyone who’s studied German, Russian, or Chinese experiments with state-sponsored ideology. It never worked well in those countries, to put it mildly.

Politicizing the business world isn’t the only tired leftist retread plaguing Latin America these days, either. For the full treatment, read Alvaro Vargos Llosa’s analysis of the many ways the ideas of those he calls “the Idiots” are still haunting the region in the May/June issue of FP.