Socialism.....the Greatest Pinterest Fail of All Time

japanese-pancakes-266949

We've all seen them....the amazing pictures of perfection that populate the pages of Pinterest.  Photo after photo of picture-perfect living rooms, outdoor adventures and drool-worthy culinary creations.  Pinterest serves to inspire our senses....but in reality, more often than not, it does little more than set us up for complete and total failure, followed by abject self-loathing.  Our living rooms never look quite as perfect (people actually live in our homes), our adventures are rarely as exotic or romantic (we have limited budgets and children in tow) and our culinary endeavors are more likely to mimic those of our mother's than the French chef that inspired the chocolate raspberry macaron with vanilla bourbon glaze.  And yet, in spite of knowing these truths, we still haunt the pages of Pinterest, looking for inspiration, beauty and a new, better way of living our lives.

I, too, wade through the pages of Pinterest, looking for small-space storage solutions and tea-table inspiration.  I search for recipes and tiny-home layouts and permaculture tips.  I am inspired and encouraged and, more often than not, humored by the outrageously perfect scenes promoted in the name of "simple" living, knowing that simplicity has very little to do with perfection.  And, I take great delight in wandering through page after page of "Pinterest Fails" - the aptly named before and after pictures, taken by real people attempting to re-create the perfection depicted in the Pinterest photos, only to fail miserably, and have enough good humor to post their failures for the world to enjoy.

Not too long ago, I stumbled across a recipe entitled "Scottish Pancakes".  These pancakes looked AMAZING!  They were thick and perfect - light, golden and impossibly fluffy.  I was instantly intrigued.  I'd never seen anything like these cakes of perfection and I immediately clicked on the link, knowing I HAD to attempt this recipe.  I read through the recipe, one and then twice, somewhat confused.  The recipe itself looked like a fairly standard pancake recipe - flour, baking powder, milk egg, etc., nothing out of the ordinary, but the pictures were extraordinary.  I couldn't quite reconcile the photo's with the recipe.  The crumb and consistency were more consistent and dense than a standard pancake.  The shape was tall and perfect, which to me indicated the use of a mold.  The texture looked spongy......so many things didn't make sense!  The ingredients and method should have produced a regular pancake....but those photo's....those were anything but "regular" pancakes!

And so, I read the reviews.  Page after page, person after person, gave these "Scottish Pancakes" 5 star reviews.  "These look amazing", "Sheer Perfection", and on and on and on.  How could this be, I wondered?  I read the recipe again, even more confused than before.  Back to the reviews, only this time, I noticed something.....none of the reviewers had actually made these pancakes.  They were giving the recipe 5 star reviews based on the photo alone!  Every last reviewer had reviewed the photos and not the recipe....imagine that.....giving a recipe review based on a photo and NOT based on the flavor, texture and accuracy of the recipe itself?!

Months later, I happened upon another "Scottish Pancake" recipe that looked the part - golden brown, fresh from the griddle, drizzled with syrup - a typical pancake as we know it - and underneath the photo, another photo of the remarkably different "Scottish Pancakes" that had originally caught my eye.  The recipe went on to acknowledge the original photo was most certainly not that of a Scottish Pancake, but a Japanese Souffle Pancake....a very different beast indeed, one rich with beaten egg whites, butter and vanilla and, lo and behold, baked in a ring mold!  Had any of the reviewers of that original recipe tried to make the mile-high, light and fluffy "Scottish Pancakes", they would have failed every time.....those pancakes could not have been made with that recipe.  Period.

As of late, the news has been full of liberals, both old and young, those anchored in the political system and those just finding their footing, exhorting the beauty and progressive nature of a "New Socialism".  They paint a picture of perfect social harmony, with no extravagant wealth and no abject poverty, where harmony is achieved by proper government oversight.  They sell a world of safety and tolerance and inclusiveness.  Their picture is that of perfection - the reclamation of Paradise Lost.  And the reviews come in fast and furious...."Amazing", "Everything we've ever needed", "Our Brave, New, Tolerant World".  However, the recipe is flawed, and not one of the "reviewers" has actually tried it!  There isn't one person on the American political stage that has actually lived under a socialist government!  Not one!!!  And yet, their reviews of such a government system are glowing - all 5 stars!  Their perspectives are flawed, to say the least.  They've lived lives blessed by the privilege of a free-market economy, all  the while espousing it's evil.  They are reviewing a recipe they've never tried.

The Socialism being sold is just a repackaged version of every form of socialism ever tried.  No matter what picture you post with the recipe, the recipe doesn't work.  There is no world in which redistributing wealth (from those who work, to those who do not) has ever produced social harmony.  Ever.  The recipe does not produce the desired result.  Nor will it ever!  It can't.  The ingredients are wrong.  If you use those ingredients, in any order, with any method, they will produce Cuba and Venezuela and East Germany.  Every. Single. Time.

In reality, liberals are using the picture of a principled, free-market economy (what our formerly Christian nation looked like) and saying that is what Socialism looks like.  It doesn't.  It can't.  Socialism can't and won't produce a thriving, free, sustainable culture and economy.  Socialism doesn't encourage tolerance or safety or financial stability.  It can't sustain justice, equality or freedom.  Socialism is nothing more than a failed social experiment.

Socialism truly is the greatest Pinterest fail of all time.