Ticky Tacky

Ticky Tacky“ is a term taken from a Malvina Reynolds song called Little Boxes, which was popularized by singer Pete Seger in the 1960’s. In the song, all the little houses on the hillside, green, pink, blue, and yellow, were "all the same." All the people sung about: lawyers, doctors, business executives… they were "all the same"too. This is because everyone( in the song) just went through life being the same, doing the same, looking the dsame and living in the same kinds of houses, distinguishing their differences only by variation in color. The song repeats over and over and over, telling the listener, “And they're all made out of ticky-tacky, and they all look just the same.”

People say the song is a protest song, a protest of conformity. They suggest that the “boxes” represent habits, or attitudes, doing things the way they have always been done. At the time it was popularized it was considered a radical song, one that advocated being different than the norm. The idea was that it was time to stop thinking inside the "little boxes" that are all nothing special or important, but instead are all the same old “ticky tacky” that will keep you being all "just the same" too. The song, with its simple folk-like melody, was written as Melvina Reynolds simply observed a hillside of houses.

Reynolds, born to American immigrants, is described as a “social activist.” Saying it like this makes it sound like she was simply a person in history who was active in society and worked actively on issues that concerned society in general, made a difference in her world to make life better for us all.

It is true that she was active on "social issues," but it cannot be ignored that what she really was can best be described as a socialist. Her song “Socialism Is The Only Way,” expresses her political affiliations and her sentiments about the differences between capitalism and socialism quite well. As a socialist, she hated capitalism.

Consider this: The lyrics to the song are all about "Little boxes made of ticky tacky, ""little boxes" that all look just the same." Consider socialism for a moment; If socialism was to be described, what would it look like? Would it look like "Little boxes, just the same"?

Socialism is an economic system where that distribution of goods and services to the public are owned and controlled by the state. Private property is non existent because property, resources, and the means of production, and goods are not owned by anyone. Everything produced belongs to everyone equally, in fact they are all "just the same." In a socialist government, the government, under the premise that everyone is the government and therefore has equal standing and ownership as the government, runs production of goods and then distributes it to people (its many “owners.”) on an equal basis .

There are a lot of people that would fit into this socialist view of conformity and equality that Reynolds espouses; Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Muammar al-Gaddafi, Joseph Stalin, Fidel Castro, Leon Trotsky, and Ho Chi Minh, to name a few. Their are all of the same mindset. They are socialists. They are maybe a little different in ltime of living or location. You might think of them as being different color's but they all support socialism and believe in a socialist type of economic system of government for the people."

In a socialist economy, to think you would have the right or freedom to own something of value, or to hold on to something of wealth is considered thievery. If someone were to have more than all the rest, that would mean that someone in the system would have less, and that is not allowed. It just wouldn’t be fair. In a socialist system, individuals own nothing, like everyone else and your lot in life is to be productive to society for the benefit of all. In a socialist society there is no personal freedom and no choice. you are all made out of ticky tacky and you all look just the same, except maybe a little different in your color.

Capitalism is different from socialism. In capitalism the principles of rightly reaping what you sow (Job 4:8) are at work as is the principal that the worker is worth his wages, wages he rightly receives in exchange for the amount of work he does or does not do. In socialism the people who may sow much, do not receive more than the ones who sow little, they all bring in the same amount.

History has shown us how socialism works. The masses under such systems of government often are feed but remain impoverished, hungry and cold. Workers work and often work hard, but instead of working to provide for themselves and their families or to give their excess to the needy, they simply work to feed the system. It has been said that in socialism people earn wages only to put them in a bag with holes. It's no wonder people escape such systems of opressive governmental rule and come to "capitalist" "christianized" America, hoping to find freedom, believing in God