another great book that defines all political thought is animal farm, which specifically looks at the dangers of socialism in light of the cataclysm that was stalinism in russia, but it is a warning of human weakness, of ignorance and greed. when i read this at skool i was influenced greatly in questioning all political frameworks, i explored them all from anarchism through to zionism, and i formed my first ideas about memes (although at the time i had never heard of the word and dawkins had not conceived the idea. however animal farm is a warning of all political systems really, the name doesn't really matter, it's the human nature that does, people have to transcend their nature, this is a spiritual quest not a political one and any religious meme that pretends it is not political is a lie. all of them are. the point is one must journey the spiritual dimensions and encounter the fundamental truths and laws of the universe, they must know who they are and what their purpose is, they must know who they serve before serving and above all they must know they are fallible and their integrity will be tested at all times. that's why there have never been very good political leaders, perhaps kennedy was the last but since then it's been a down hill slide. political leaders should be self made, men and women who have already been successful in the system that spawned them, richard branson springs to mind. here is a successful man who started off in a shop selling records, now one of the worlds richest man, he has the spirit of adventure and the foresight to use his cash to make things better for people. that's a great aspiration for a wealthy man. it would never happen in a socialist system, socialist systems horde wealth and horde power. despite the capitalist faults, and the biggest being the way the socialist bail outs saved capitalism effectively killing it, capitalism is the way forwards. however most people mistake capitalism with some exploitative system, and yes it has been but there is no doubt it is the only system available to us at the moment which validates the individual.