But that was before the advent of mass communication and the possibility of the free exchange of ideas and knowledge that we have in today's world. We are all so much more interconnected than people of previous generations.

@mojo5501 Socialism failed in Russia in 1917. Socialism is failing today in Venezuela in 2019. It's a horrible idea at any age at any time.

@BD66 Venezuala doesn't prove anything about socialism. It just proves that it failed in those particular conditions. It is thriving in other contexts. So the idea isn't failing in all places. When authoritarian regimes come in....that's the problem It works under democratic leadership in many countries around the globe.

@mojo5501 Conditions:

Tremendous oil reserves per capita.
Fantastic climate for growing all sort of agricultural crops.

Socialism always fails.

Then the people in power want to stay in power, so they become authoritarian.

Happens over and over again. Every single time.

@BD66 So far it depends on the socialism. Strictly speaking, most of the world is socialist to varying degrees.

@BD66, @mojo5501 Venezuala recently follwed Machiavellis prediction of collapse of government. It's in the anarchy stage at the moment.

@mojo5501, @BD66 It was a failure of fuedalism in 1917 followed by a Liberal democracy which in then was overthrown by Bolshevic revolution. Then civil war, the failure of War Communism replaced by Leninist/Barkarin reKulakisation and socialist success until Stalin stepped in following the demise of Lenin. Stalinist communism survived a NAZI invasion with help for liberal socialist governments and their capitalist economies. Russian socialism survived until the late 1980s. Maoist socialism has the second largest economy in the world having evolved into something more liberal. Even the USA is socialist, its citizens just need to understand they can go further to improve their lives by overthrowing their oppressors the Republicans.