Socialism

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Socialism refers to a set of related left-wing socio-economic systems based on control by a bureaucratic elite of the means of production (as opposed to individuals personally owning property). It is a failed system.^[4] ideology based on hate, dehumanization, envy, segregating people by class, and mass murder^[5] and which promotes totalitarianism at the expense of individual freedom.^[6] The movement is responsible for the murder of at least 94 million people over the past 100 years.^[7] The fundamental flaw of socialism is the belief that one person has the right to the fruit of another person's labor and private property, for example, that healthcare paid by others is a "human right." Socialism has led to increased bureaucracy and reduced freedoms even in Scandinavia,^[8] and it has been tried and failed in countries such as the United Kingdom, India, and Israel during the 20th century.^[9]

The two most infamous socialist regimes of the 20th century were the Bolsheviks, headed by Vladimir Lenin,^[10] and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party), headed by Adolf Hitler.^[11] The schism between these two competing leftist ideologies for global mastery resulted in World War II.

Both Communism and Nazism are totalitarian or statist, subverting the rights of individuals to the collective of a single party. Nazism deviates from orthodox Marxist theory in substituting racial and ethnic conflict for economic class warfare. Nazism substituted "Jews" as the oppressor class, responsible for all societal woes. Contemporary American leftists substitute race war for class conflict.

The Second World War was a life and death struggle between two leftwing interpretations of socialism - both atheistic and subverting the rights of individuals to the state, one considering "equality" to apply only to members of a nation or race, the other multicultural and globalist. After the United States assisted the communist victory over National Socialism (see Popular Front liberalism), the Cold War was an effort to suppress the spread of global communism. Socialists consider all forms of capitalism as "fascist" (see Antifa).

Background[edit]

Socialism traces its roots largely to the French Revolution and Paris Commune, in visions of imaginary (often unrealistic) ideal societies, from thinkers who drew up elaborated designs and concepts for creating what they considered a more equal society, along collectivist lines or abolished private property; the primary ideas came from Jewish, British, and French thinkers like Karl Marx, Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Louis Blanc, and Robert Owen preceded by Thomas More, Tommaso Campanella, and Jean Meslier.

As a political theory[edit]

As a political theory, socialism relies on dehumanization and scapegoating to build a constituent base. For example, that "the rich," "white people",^[12] "Jews," "millionaires and billionaires," "the top 1%," "capitalist scum" or "landowners" are responsible for all of humanity's ills. Socialism targets the youth of a nation and people without life experience using naive, simplistic, and "feel good" slogans ("Medicare for All," "tuition-free education," "free housing." etc., for example) that on the surface appeal to self-interest, while asking nothing of the hearers to contribute to the economic well being of their fellow citizens or society. Once in power, socialists compel compliance with authoritarian decrees (the "individual mandate" and "shared responsibility payment" of Obamacare for example) suppress any form of criticism, censor free speech, and silence or exterminate opposition in order to maintain power for themselves. There is nothing democratic about socialism, and terms such as "democratic socialism" or "social democracy" are oxymorons that are typical of Marxist double-speak and double-think. Socialist leaders often live in extreme luxury even as they fail to improve the lives of those they rule over,^[13] and its destructive effects on society often are irreversible.^[14] Socialism is fully compatible with "big business," or crony capitalism.^[15]

As a social theory[edit]

As a social theory, the modern American Democratic Party uses identity politics to create a new "oppressed class" of victims which replaces the traditional worker/peasant/proletariat victims of the imaginary "oppressor class" - "the bourgeois".^[17] Socialism preys on people who fall victim to the sins of envy and covetousness, and raises Iconoclasm, materialism, and nihilism as exalted virtues. Left-wing professors and universities have played a large role in advancing socialist ideologies.^[18] Many individual socialists and groups display juvenile, adolescent, and cult-like behavior.

As an economic theory[edit]

As an economic theory, socialism is an authoritarian system which advocates strict state command and control of incomes and distribution or rationing of goods and services, including food and healthcare. High taxation to expropriate wealth from the supposed "oppressor class" is common to all socialist regimes. Removal of incentives and demonizing the profit motive, while expecting common people to produce goods and services, and supply tax revenues to government, for little or no pay is a psychotic dream. After exterminating "corporations" and "the rich," the cost burden of government - which controls everything - naturally falls to an impoverished working class, the unemployed, and homeless which previously paid no taxes. No one can retain anything for themselves because the profit motive is dis-incentivized or outlawed. Due to its core anti-democratic and authoritarian precepts, socialism is considered treasonous to America's central ideal of liberty.

Socialism at all times has never amounted to more than a criminal cabal that enlists the aid of corrupt politicians and civil servants, monopolist oligarchs, academics, the disgruntled, naive youth, and remaining misfits of society against the ordinary worker or middle class.

Through affirmative action programs, Nazism and Bolshevism granted workers and peasants access to educational and employment opportunities previously only available to the German and Russian bourgeois and nobility (the "oppressor class") at the price of membership and loyalty to the party. The modern Chinese system is built upon the same model.

Historic types[edit]

There are three main kinds of Socialism, all of them are built on the premise of government control of the means of production.

Leninism[edit]

Marxist Socialism, or Leninism, as revised by Vladimir Lenin and practiced in the pre-Stalin Soviet Union, was the Socialistic theory developed by Vladimir Lenin during his rise to power. Lenin defined socialism as a transitional stage between capitalism and communism.^[19] Leninism is totalitarian, with no democracy and all decisions are made by the leaders of the Communist party. Lenin saw the Communist Party as an "elite" that was committed to ending capitalism and instituting socialism in its place and attaining the power by any means possible, including revolution. Lenin was quite mild on the belief, believing that, though controlling of resources was important, the people's will comes first.

Though Bolshevik Russia was somewhat more industrial than its former Tsardom, Lenin's death in 1924 sparked the overthrow of his vision of Marxist–Leninism and the instead the imposition of Stalinism, the other violent, totalitarian belief that went against some of Lenin's ideas (many of Lenin's works were censored by Stalin post-1924). That said, however, there was some evidence that Stalin's totalitarian beliefs were if anything advancements of policies Lenin himself implemented, and that Lenin himself may have been even more ruthless than Stalin in certain respects.^[20]

"Democratic" Socialism[edit]

The second form of Socialism (sometimes called "Revisionism") prevailed in Europe down to the 1970s, and is typified by the Fabian Society and the British Labour Party. It was inspired by Socialism and closely linked to labor unions that had real power. The goal was for Industrial Democracy, that is, for the government to own ("nationalize") major industries such as coal mining, railways, steel making, shipbuilding, airlines, and banking. Small businesses remained private. The idea was that labor unions controlled the government and therefore unions controlled working conditions and wages for the benefit of workers, regardless of the damage to long-term economic growth.

The Socialists were well organized and after 1918 they bitterly fought the breakaway faction that became the Communist movement. In recent years major Socialist parties (in Europe and Canada) have sometimes dropped the long-standing demands for state ownership of the means of production and have mostly accepted "Controlled Capitalism". However, they remain tied to labor unions and favor liberal policies regarding high taxes and public spending. Conservatives have been negative toward the economics of the second form of socialism. Conservatives complain socialists use government power to redistribute wealth.

Within the European Union, a form of democratic socialism was initially viewed as successful but eventually lead to lowered social equity and a downward spiraling economy, as well as general discontent. Although this acts as a drag on the economy, in democratic countries of the industrialized west, some socialist ideas have been put into practice with varying degrees of success. Beginning in 2010 many European countries were racked with rioting and social unrest as governments began to back away from out-of-control entitlements that began bankrupting them and lead to a world financial crisis because of unrestrained debt.^[21][22][23]

In the early 21st century, Socialism was becoming increasingly prominent in the West.^[24]

Communal Socialism[edit]

The third form of Socialism has nothing to do with Marx or government ownership, and emphasizes the importance of the community over the individual. Usually, it means small communities sharing most of their possessions. The most famous examples are the religious Shakers of the 19th century (a conservative group), and the new-left communes that briefly existed in the 1960s and 70s.

Early American settlers, as in Plymouth or Virginia, tried it but quickly abandoned it.

The Pilgrims in Plymouth used communal farming their first winter but then after a dismal harvest that first year, moved to a system where there was a more direct incentive other than guilt and honor. Governor Bradford summed it up in his journal:

• "And so assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number, for that end, only for present use (but made no division for inheritance) and ranged all boys and youth under some family. This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression."

Not only were all hands more industrious—the incentive to harvest communal corn before it was fully ripe, a problem equivalent to poaching in the case of wildlife, was also eliminated.^[25]

Influence of Russia on socialism[edit]

Not until the birth of the Soviet Union after the Communist Revolution did the idea become generally accepted that socialism meant government seizing ownership of the economy. Experience in 19th and 20th century France, England, and Germany, however, made it clear that regulatory control by government bureaucrats is sufficient to implement socialism.^[26]

In Communism (the primary variant of socialism) the central goal is to establish a "workers' paradise"-an ideal state with perfect equality.

In practice the socialist government owns the banks, railroads, farmlands, factories, and stores, and is the only employer, or at least controls the regulation of production and distribution. The central goal is to destroy the "evils of capitalism" by government ownership or control of the means of production, usually with one party controlling the government on behalf of the working class.

The socialist system never manages to establish this "paradise" because management for the benefit of the employees leads to featherbedding and lack of investment or economic growth, at the expense of consumers. Collective farming (operating farms like factories) sharply reduced the food supply. The most thoroughgoing efforts by Communist regimes turned into authoritarian dictatorships. The government controls all investments, production, distribution, income, and prices, as well as all organizations, schools, news media and formerly private societies. Churches and labor unions are suppressed or controlled by the government. Socialism is the antithesis of capitalism, because it opposes private ownership of capital or land, and rejects the free market in favor of central planning. It also rejects "civil society" and makes sure that all organizations are controlled by the government.

Theoretically, socialist regimes can have multiple parties. In practice there is only one political party, and it controls the government. The leaders of the party choose the government officials and set all policies for the nation and for cities and localities. Opposition parties are not allowed access to the media or to meeting halls or to funding, and their leaders are often arrested as "enemies of the people."

As a political ideology based on the redistribution of wealth, socialism stresses the privileges of the many over the rights of the few, but in practice when socialist economic principles are forced onto a nation by a totalitarian government a new Upper Class appears which is much better off than the Lower Class.

“

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. - Winston Churchill [27]

”

Socialism supposedly is an "intellectual" pursuit. Raisa Gorbachev, the wife of the last General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party Mikhail Gorbachev, held a "PhD in Marxism-Leninism." Raisa Gorbachev died in a German hospital of leukemia because her beloved Soviet homeland was incapable of delivering proper healthcare, even for the elite of the Soviet Socialist Republic, after 70 years of socialism.

National Socialism[edit]

National socialism, as with all brands of socialism, begins with a rejection of God and substituting a nation state, government, or people as the object of worship and the desired end of all human interactions. The Ludwig von Mises Institute declares:

Hitler found the notion of single-party control very attractive. That, and the idea of creating a "New man" in a godless socialist order, enlightened by science, victorious over their oppressors. Nazism was outlawed at the end of World War II.

Commonalities of Communism, Nazism and liberalism[edit]

See also: Similarities between Communism, Nazism and liberalism and Fascism and the New Deal

	Communist Manifesto	Nazi Party Platform	Analysis
1	"Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes."	"We demand an agrarian reform in accordance with our national requirements, and the enactment of a law to expropriate the owners without compensation of any land needed for the common purpose. The abolition of ground rents, and the prohibition of all speculation in land."	The stripping away of land from private owners. Liberalism today demands "eminent domain" on property.
2	"A heavy progressive or graduated income tax."	"We demand the nationalization of all trusts...profit-sharing in large industries...a generous increase in old-age pensions...by providing maternity welfare centers, by prohibiting juvenile labor...and the creation of a national (folk) army."	The points raised in the Nazi platform demand an increase in taxes to support them. Liberalism today demands heavy progressive and graduated income taxes.
3	"Abolition of all rights of inheritance."	"That all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from work, be abolished."	Liberalism today demands a "death tax" on anyone inheriting an estate.
4	"Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels."	"We demand that all non-Germans who have entered Germany since August 2, 1914, shall be compelled to leave the Reich immediately."	The Nuremberg Laws of 1934 allowed Germany to take Jewish property.
5	"Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly."	"We demand the nationalization of all trusts."	Central control of the financial system.
6	"Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State."	"We demand that there be a legal campaign against those who propagate deliberate political lies and disseminate them through the press...editors and their assistants on newspapers published in the German language shall be German citizens...Non-German newspapers shall only be published with the express permission of the State...the punishment for transgressing this law be the immediate suppression of the newspaper..."	Central control of the press. Liberals today demand control or suppression of talk radio and Fox News.
7	"Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c, &c."	"In order to make it possible for every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education, and thus the opportunity to reach into positions of leadership, the State must assume the responsibility of organizing thoroughly the entire cultural system of the people. The curricula of all educational establishments shall be adapted to practical life. The conception of the State Idea (science of citizenship) must be taught in the schools from the very beginning. We demand that specially talented children of poor parents, whatever their station or occupation, be educated at the expense of the State. "	Central control of education, with an emphasis on doing things their way. Liberals today are doing things their way in our schools.

Britain, the Labour Party and Socialism[edit]

At its inception, the Labour Party borrowed socialist ideas by committing itself to a program of nationalization under 'Clause 4' of their Constitution, but was always fundamentally committed to the British system of parliamentary government. Clause 4 was formally dropped after the election of Tony Blair as Party leader, signaling the creation of 'New' Labour.^[31] The British governments of 1945-1950 and 1950-1951 under Clement Attlee implemented the nationalization of several industries and utilities, including coal, steel, water, railways and electricity. Former owners of nationalized industries were compensated. The best-known example is the nationalization of health care to create the National Health Service (NHS). This made - literally overnight - health care "free" at the point of delivery for everybody in Britain, and it remains so today.

In the 1980s under Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher most of the nationalized industries were returned to the private sector, and public housing has been sold to the residents. These conservative decisions were endorsed by the "New Labour" of Tony Blair, to the annoyance of elderly radicals who fondly remember the poverty and inefficiencies of the old system.

Obamunism[edit]

Main article: Obamunism

In April 2010, American political consultant Dick Morris wrote:

“

When Obama took office, federal, state and local spending accounted for 30 percent of gross domestic product. Now it is up to 35 percent, and when health care is fully implemented, it will rise to above 40 percent. But taxes are still below 30 percent. The difference is the deficit, now grown to 10 percent of our GDP. If our government is to continue spending 40 percent of our GDP, we will morph into the European model of a socialist democracy. But if we can roll the spending back to 30 percent, while holding taxes level, we will retain our free market system.[32]

”

Anita Dunn, the political strategist and former White House Communications Director, admitted that one of favorite political philosophers, one that she “turns to the most”, is Mao Zedong, the communist dictator responsible for the starvation, torture, and killing of 70 million Chinese.^[34] Critics of the Obama administration have coined the word "Obamunism" to describe Barack Obama's socialistic and "fascism light" economic planning policies (Benito Mussolini defined fascism as the wedding of state and corporate powers. Accordingly, trend forecaster Gerald Celente labels Obama's corporate bailouts as being "fascism light" in nature).^[35][36] Obamunism can also allude to Obama's ruinous fiscal policies and reckless monetary policies.^[37][38][39]

Stimulus[edit]

Larry Summers was the Director of the White House's National Economic Council (NEC) for President Barack Obama. George Gerald Reisman, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Pepperdine University and author of Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics, wrote that Summers' socialistic ideas on redistributing wealth demonstrate that Larry Summers is a "lightweight leftist" who "fails to understand the nature of the most essential feature of capitalism, namely, private ownership of the means of production and the indispensable role it plays in the standard of living of the average person."^[40] Reisman also wrote that Summers is a shallow and ignorant man whose knowledge of economics is minimal and whose evil views qualify him to be the economic advisor to Hugo Chavez of Venezuela or Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, but do not qualify him to be an economic advisor to the President of the United States.^[40]

Land grab[edit]

In August 2010, Hot Air declared:

“

The federal government, as the memo boasted, is the nation’s “largest land manager.” It already owns roughly one of every three acres in the United States. This is apparently not enough. At a “listening session” in New Hampshire last week, government bureaucrats trained their sights on millions of private forest land throughout the New England region. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack crusaded for “the need for additional attention to the Land and Water Conservation Fund — and the need to promptly support full funding of that fund.” Property owners have every reason to be worried. The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is a pet project of green radicals, who want the decades-old government slush fund for buying up private lands to be freed from congressional appropriations oversight. It’s paid for primarily with receipts from the government’s offshore oil and gas leases. Both Senate and House Democrats have included $900 million in full LWCF funding, not subject to congressional approval, in their energy/BP oil spill legislative packages.[41]

”

You didn't build that[edit]

For a more detailed treatment, see You didn't build that.

On July 13, 2012, at a campaign event in Virginia, Obama gave a speech that immediately stirred up controversy. Speaking about the government's role in the success of private business, he said:^[42]

“

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business - you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.

”

The Romney campaign has used "If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that" in ads to show America that Obama believes it is government that creates business rather than hard-working individuals. The Obama campaign has alternatively stated that the sentenced was poorly worded since he was not giving a scripted speech and that when Obama said "that" he was referring to roads and bridges. Obama points to a later portion of his speech in which he said, "The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together," to support his claim.

Obamacare diktats[edit]

See also: Obamacare

The centerpiece of Obamacare was the individual mandate or diktat, a provision that makes it mandatory for every citizen to purchase private health insurance, which was unprecedented in American history. There was no bi-partisan or national consensus.^[43][44] More than 150 million Americans were completely locked out of the process.^[45][46] Obama's progressive Democratic Socialists had single party control.^[47][48]

Censorship of journalists[edit]

See also: Obamagate timeline 2009-2014 vanguardism

On May 13, 2013 the Associated Press announced telephone records for 20 of their reporters had been subpoenaed by the Justice Department. The Justice Dept. subpoenaed the phone records of AP from Verizon and other service providers.^[49] The AP claimed these acts were a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into news-gathering.^[50][51] CEO Gary Pruitt of AP stated: "These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP's newsgathering operations and disclose information about AP's activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know."^[52][53]

A few years earlier, Attn. Gen. Eric Holder renewed a subpoena of James Risen, a reporter for the New York Times. Risen and a colleague reported on warrantless wiretaps. The coverage won Risen and colleague a Pulitzer Prize for “carefully sourced stories on secret domestic eavesdropping that stirred a national debate.” The Justice Dept. John Brennan, an avowed communist, played a key role in the illegal wiretap program, overseeing the production of what personnel in the program called the “scary memos” intended to justify domestic spying exposed by Risen. Brennan later admitted that he relied on information from CIA's torture program rather than domestic spying, which was used as a cover.

In June 2013 Comey's FBI opened a case on CBS News anchor Sharyl Attkisson under the auspices of 'national security.' Attkisson reported news embarrassing to Eric Holder on Operation Fast and Furious and extensively on the Benghazi massacre coverup.^[54]

Police state surveillance of opponents[edit]

See also: Obamagate timeline 2015 progressive police state, Obamagate timeline 2016 election year, and Biden junta

Contradictory goals of socialism[edit]

Socialism's stated purpose is to eliminate the huge gap between the highest and lowest classes of society. Their bitter complaint has been that the upper class exploits its dominance to gain privileges and wealth, while the lower class must suffer tyranny and poverty.^[55] This obsession with class paradoxically creates a group of people with a vested interest in seeing class differences remain (socialist politicians, community organizers, etc.); if by some means the class system actually were destroyed, these people would be out of a job.

Another essential goal of most socialist thinkers has been to eliminate Capitalism,^[56] on the grounds that only "social control" of the economy can prevent abuses such as feudalism, monopoly, cartels, etc.

But experiments on both a moderate and a grand scale have shown that socialism's main purpose has been undermined by its unremitting opposition to free market economics. In its drive to eliminate capitalism, it has overlooked the fact that general prosperity is vouchsafed by economic freedom, and that free market economics improves the lot of the poor much more quickly and permanently than any system of central economic control.

The real aim of socialists is probably personal: why else would socialists want to create programs which encourage Dependency? Well, it fits into their lust for power. People who want to control others need people who are willing to be controlled. Independent, proactive people do not fit into the socialist Power Model. That is why the first thing Marx wanted to remove from the economy was the Profit Motive: it gives people an incentive to make their own decisions!

Key elements[edit]

As a political ideology based on the expropriation of wealth, socialism stresses the privileges of the nomenklatura over the rights of workers and earners. Many of the most notoriously oppressive dictatorships have been socialist, such as the Soviet Union and China under Mao Zedong. Private wealth was seized and the owners executed.

Marx contribution to economics[edit]

The atheist Karl Marx is sometimes referred to as the father of socialism. Economist Thomas Sowell observed:

Because the individual is subordinate to the collective, the use of democide, or "death by government," is another feature of socialism in the final stage of bringing about a single party, anti-democratic totalitarian regime.

Welfare state[edit]

As an economic theory, democratic socialism calls for equalization of incomes, through taxation of private wealth coupled with welfare state spending. The nationalization of major industries is primarily a device to allow the unionized workers to control their own wages and working conditions, cutting out the capitalistic owners.

State pensions and unemployment insurance were not brought in by Socialists—they were first introduced by arch-conservative Chancellor Bismarck in Germany in the 1870s. In Britain they were introduced about 1910 by Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George of the Liberal Party, and in the U.S. were part of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s. Welfare state ideas such as universal health care, and state control of key industries have been common throughout the developed world in the modern era. However, the United States has always rejected socialism as an ideological position, with a few exceptions such as the TVA.

So-called "mixed economies"[edit]

See also: Social democracy and Mixed economy

Social democracies and Mixed economies are socialism by incrementalism. Often socialism is a matter of degree and numerous economies in the world are very socialistic such as European countries (many of which are facing financial difficulties due to over taxation and excessive spending).^[58] The single party has yet to gain full control.

Because many businesses still are privately owned, ipso facto, the United States is not a socialistic government. "That definition is confuted by the earliest theoretical writings on socialism. In France, Henri de Saint-Simon, in the first decades of the 1800s, and his pupil and colleague Auguste Comte, in the 1820s and 30s, along with Robert Owen contemporaneously in England, stated that the essential feature of what Owen called socialism is government regulation of the means of production and distribution." ^[59] When the government controls the volume of money and its economic applications, it has the economy in a stranglehold. When government controls education so that nothing other than secular socialism may be taught, as Saint-Simon advocated, it controls the future destiny of a nation.

Religion[edit]

Some forms of socialism have often been atheistic in character, and many leading socialists (most prominently Karl Marx) have been critical of the role of religion - and conservative religion in particular - which they criticize for lending support to an unjust social order.

Other Socialists have been Christians, and there has been considerable interplay between Christian and Socialist ideas. Christian socialists have asserted that early Christian communities, in particular, displayed certain traits, such as the holding of possessions in common,^[60] the rejection of conventional sexual mores and gender roles, the provision for communal education, etc., that could be considered similar to socialism.

During the chaos sparked by the advent of the Reformation in Europe, several sects with radical new interpretations of Christianity sprung up, many of them Anabaptists (believers in adult baptism). Under the leadership of the reformer Thomas Muntzer the peasants of south-west Germany rose up in arms against the clergy and nobility, establishing anarcho-communes in their wake. Though they were massacred to a man, ten years later a group of radical Anabaptists under the leadership of Jan Matthys seized control of the north-western Germany city of Munster from the Prince-Archbishop there and established a Christian-Communist state. True to the spirit of applied communism, Mathys took twelve wives, held lavish feasts for himself and his most loyal followers and had himself crowned King of the World as the city starved, besieged by an alliance of Protestant and Catholic forces keen to see them exterminated. Mathys and all his followers were all tortured and killed when the Prince-Archbishop returned with professional troops to sack the city and reassert his authority, effectively wiping out all non-pacifistic Anabaptists in north-western Germany. Only Baptists as we know them today survived the following persecution.

See, for instance, Arnold Toynbee, the British historian, has responded to this,

"the Marxian excerpt from a Christian Socialism is an experiment which is doomed to failure because it has denied itself the aid of the spiritual power which alone is capable of making Socialism a success. ….'Christianity', they say, 'is the opiate of the People'; and, in the Soviet Union… Christianity or of any other theistic religion have been debarred… from admission to membership of the All-Union Communist Party. In fact, Communism has been definitely and militantly anti-Christian. Thus the campaign against Christianity which is to-day an integral part of the propaganda of Marxian Socialism is a challenge to the living generation of Christians …we latter-day Christians may still turn a Marxian attack upon Christianity to good account … a re-awakening of the Christian social conscience has been the one great positive practical achievement of Karl Marx" ^[61]

Alleged New Testament socialism in a godless utopia[edit]

Socialist claim the earliest Christians were decidedly living in a manner consistent with basic aims of socialism, albeit with critical requirements and distinctions from its secularist expressions. Luke 14:33 requires the forsaking of all one has if one will be a disciple of Christ, and while this is not shown to necessarily always require the literally forsaking of all,^[62] Acts 2:44 states that the communal believers "had all things common". Acts 4:32-5:11 also describes community redistribution of property, and details the Divine punishment of a husband and wife for hypocrisy, in keeping proceeds from the sale of a piece of property while openly pretending that they gave it all, as others voluntarily did.^[63]

However, forsaking all is shown to be that of first surrendering oneself and life to the God of the Bible, and placing all at His disposal,^[64][65] with literal giving as a result being as He directs, and voluntary. (2Cor. 8,9)

“

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (2 Corinthians 9:7-8)

”

While the early organic community provides a noble model of communal life, and of a "seminary" type experience, it was also soon dispersed by persecution (thus greatly expanding the church: Acts 8:1-5; 11:19), and it is later indicated that believers retained ownership of property after conversion. (Lk. 19:8,9; Acts 16:14,15; 1Cor. 11:22; 2Tim. 4:13) Rich Christians are evidenced to have been part of the early church, but were not mandated by the church itself to give all they had away, but to be lowly in mind, and to be ready and willing to distribute, in faith and surrender to God. (1Tim. 6:17-19)

Moreover, in both Testaments capitalism is clearly supported,^[66] and indolence is not subsidized, but penalized by poverty, while diligence in work is rewarded by its fruits. (Prov. 6:6-11; 13:4; 20:4; 2 Thes. 3:10-12; 1 Tim. 5:17-18) Although holy widows over 60 years old who were without familial support were taken in by the church, a man is clearly required to provide for his own family, if able. (1Tim. 5:2ff)

While the success of the early church as an organic community is often invoked in support of modern socialism, and many communes of the 1960s evoked the Bible, the early organic church was a result of the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit among believers, while the "administrators" were humble servants who were examples of self-sacrifice, and who worked with their own hands as needed, (1Cor. 4:9-16) and whose authority was established by manifest Divine attestation, including the pro-active exercise of church discipline being only by supernatural or otherwise spiritual means, not carnal force.^[67]

In addition, other distinctions, without the unique changes and influence resulting from faith and full surrender to Christ from all the community, and His anointing upon the work, attempts to mimic the communal life of Christians have failed.

As one critic of modern-day socialism states:

Socialism, unfortunately, completely disregards Biblical teaching about the fallen nature of human beings and assumes that human beings will act in a morally upright fashion if their basic needs are met. This is at the heart of why socialistic systems never work: because human nature does not work in this fashion.^[68]

Atheism and socialism[edit]

See also: Atheism and socialism

The Acton Institute states concerning atheism and socialism:

“

...a growing body of research reveals that as the welfare state grows, the church shrinks. Adam Kay of Duke University discovered that church and state have a “hydraulic relationship”: Events “that lower faith in one of these external systems (e.g., the government) lead to subsequent increases in faith in the other (e.g., God).” Another study found that increased welfare spending “in a specific year predicted lower religiosity one to two years later.” It concluded, “The power and order emanating from God can be outsourced to the government.”... ...faith in the transcendent gets crowded out by faith in socialism’s utopian promise of equality-of-outcome on earth. This path transformed Michael Harrington from a daily communicant volunteering in the Catholic Worker movement to the atheistic founder of the Democratic Socialists of America.[69]

”

Criticism[edit]

Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises were important critics of socialism, particularly regarding what is known as the Socialist Calculation Debate. Hayek and Mises argued that a socialist economy would face information constraints that would prevent even well-intentioned planners from efficiently allocating resources. That is, the planners would not know how much a battleship or a hospital cost, and could not efficiently allocate resources among different choices. This criticism should be considered as compatible with, but independent of, criticisms based on Public choice theory that bring into consideration the incentives of political actors.

Svetlana Kunin, who lived in the Soviet Union until 1980 explains how the system worked:

Life in the USSR modeled the socialist ideal. God-based religion was suppressed and replaced with cultlike adoration for political figures....Only the ruling class of communist leaders had access to special stores, medicine and accommodations that could compare to those in the West. The rest of the citizenry had to deal with permanent shortages of food and other necessities, and had access to free but inferior, unsanitary and low-tech medical care.

USSR, 1959: I am a "young pioneer" in school. History classes remind us that there is a higher authority than their parents and teachers: the leaders of the Communist Party.

Those who left Russia found a different set of values in America: freedom of religion, speech, individual pursuits, the right to private property and free enterprise....These opportunities let the average immigrant live a better life than many elites in the Soviet Communist Party...

The slogans of "fairness and equality" sound better than the slogans of capitalism. But unlike at the beginning of the 20th century, when these slogans and ideas were yet to be tested, we have accumulated history and reality.^[70]

A government which adheres to economic socialistic principles also tends to have cultures which prize unmerited equality among citizen and criminal alike, and through extension of socialistic welfare policies, between the chronically employed and the chronically unemployed, by ensuring both groups receive income though only one group works for income. This enables people otherwise healthy to not seek gainful employment because they will receive income no matter their actions, thus providing no incentive to produce. The economies of socialistic governments are thus weak and riddled with flaws, such as expecting increased production from a reduced workforce, and when engendered with a progressive culture, which simply means people who do are the same as people who do not, eventually fall under the weight of their own poorly managed and over-extended public welfare institutions. Public welfare also decreases personal charity, thus making the people dependent on the aid of the government since charitable aid, such as from a church, is discouraged by the secular nature of socialistic nations.

Socialists occasionally appeal to the fact that God, in the Old Testament, commanded His own nation to surrender a tenth of its proceeds for the maintenance of the priests and for the care of the sickly and weak. But, while fallen men, and their secular and pagan nations, shall always struggle to understand the righteous balances between government and liberty.^[71] (i.e., between local and national logistics, as well as between the logistics of the individual person and those of his community) the mark of socialism is the general allowance for a naive, and willingly ignorant, adult sub-population whose members prefer, despite the limitations imposed by bureaucratic accountability, to live under all the securities rightly afforded in the fallen world only to infants. In the unfallen world, such security was a given for all persons, but without any of the bureaucracy required in the fallen world for maintaining it. In the fallen world, such security is an unattainable ideal, so that the more is done to attain it, the more the society suffers under the requisite bureaucracy. And, while the initial policy made toward that ideal is the creation of an executive class or executive vocation, such as monarchies and professional armies,^[72][73] there is a 'tipping point' in the creation of bureaucratic entities beyond which any civilization cannot help but increasingly lose its footing in the struggle to balance all its righteous human interests. The result is an ever-increasing proportion of that civilization's total population which, for all variety of reasons, becomes enslaved to their own demands for that ideal of security. When there is no judge who judges righteously, when all the people make the laws, and when the power of money is used to try to stay ahead of the natural consequences of unrighteousness, the 'bad money' cannot help but drive out the 'good money', until the 'Bank of Reality' is forced to call in the loan, and the civilization implodes to the point that it falls victim also to militant invaders and, or, to unmanageable internal unrest.^[71]

Past Socialist Countries[edit]

Chile[edit]

Marxist socialist leader Salvador Allende was elected in Chile in 1970 in a minority government run by the Popular Unity Party. Allende's economic policy, known as the Vuskovic Plan, sought to achieve transition to socialism. The Vuskovic Plan involved nationalization of large foreign enterprises, land redistribution to farmers, and redistribution of income. The majority in Parliament never supported it and the plan was never carried out as Allende was overthrown by the military.

Other Socialist Countries (Current)[edit]

Cuba[edit]

Communist leader Fidel Castro violently overthrew the Cuban government in the 1950s and has declared Cuba to be communist since then, nationalizing millions of dollars worth of American-owned property. It is notable that Fidel Castro originally self-defined as liberal, before coming out openly as a communist.^[74] Today, Cuba faces copious economic problems and the people lack their fundamental rights. (Fidel's brother Raul Castro now runs the country, having taken it over from his ailing brother Fidel.)

North Korea[edit]

North Korea's form of communism is in the form of "Juche" - a doctrine established by Kim Il Sung and carried on by his son Kim Jong Il and after his death by the current leader Kim Jong-un. Although it is investing heavily in nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, extreme poverty on the verge of starvation is the fate of the people, who are very tightly controlled. The country has little to no electrical power at night outside the capital, which can be verified by looking at nighttime satellite photos.^[75]

Venezuela[edit]

The socialist policies of president-for-life Hugo Chavez have destroyed the economy of that oil-rich nation. In 2009, he seized the Venezuelan operations of U.S. based Cargill in order to tighten his grip on the shrinking food supply in his country.^[77] After the death of Chavez, Nicolás Maduro continues his policies.

Other Countires[edit]

Daniel Ortega, the dictator of Nicaragua, is a strong ally of Venezuela and Cuba. China and Vietnam have abolished the Socialist economy but are still governed by Communist parties. Other countries who are controlled by Socialist parties are Laos, Angola, Mozambique and Moldova.

Controversy[edit]

This section confuses "interpretation" with "debate".

The ideology of Socialism is subject to a variety of interpretations. From a conservative perspective, Marxist socialism is an economic system whereby the means of production are seized and monopolized by the government sometimes without compensation to the builders of the capital. Investments, production, distribution, income, prices, and economic justice are administered by a government nomenklatura that regulates the transfer of money, goods (including capital goods), and services primarily through taxation, regulation and aggressive institutionalized coercion.

However, some socialists reject this description. Democratic socialists advocate a system of governance based on the principles of solidarity, equality and liberty, viewing these principles as interconnected. They believe increased socio-economic equality is associated with increased practical freedom to fulfill human potential. In many countries, such as Britain, socialist movements have been built on Christian, democratic and co-operative bases, embracing the notion that individuals should 'treat others as they would wish to be treated', and arguing that all individuals have a moral responsibility for the welfare of other members of their society. Socialism seeks to prioritize human welfare over other goals, such as profit and wealth accumulation by elites; it views increased redistribution of wealth as vital to securing greater freedom and happiness for the bulk of the people. Though this rosy picture of socialism is appealing to many, it ignores what Hayek called "the road to serfdom." Though in theory socialism is an idealized, egalitarian form of economics, in practice it means rule by labor bosses who minimize individualism and economic growth in the name of equality and benefits for the working class.

Karl Marx considered socialism to be a transitory stage between capitalism and communism. In his view, socialism is summed up by the expression: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." A major criticism of socialism is that it infringes individual rights in favor of the populace. In a very real sense, politics in the Western World throughout the 20th century was shaped by the conflict between socialist and capitalist governmental policies.

Although socialist parties are common in Europe, the leading examples all currently embrace some free enterprise, individual property rights and certain other aspects of capitalism although leading European Socialists are very critical of America. In many European countries, socialism has been changing to Social democracy.

Quotes on Socialism[edit]

Comparative quotes are given from the top Left-wing - Socialist - National Socialist (a.k.a. Nazi) - Marxist - Communist leaders and their critics in order to better understand the commonality of the end result of their similar philosophy taken to its fruition by the big government welfare state-nanny state-police state by leftist globalist-statist-socialist-communists. For more examples, see Nazism and socialism. From these quotes one can see little difference between Socialists, Nazis, Communists, Marxists. Communist regimes killed 60 million in the 20th century through genocide, according to Le Monde and more than 100 million people according to The Black Book of Communism.

Quotes from National Socialist's Adolph Hitler[edit]

• "Then will come a National Socialist State tribunal; then will November, 1918, be expiated; then the heads will roll.
  • testimony at a trial of German officers, Leipzig, in 1930.
• "We have to put a stop to the idea that it is a part of everybody's civil rights to say whatever he pleases.
  • transcript of a conversation (22 February 1942)
• "National socialism is the determination to create a new man. There will no longer exist any individual arbitrary will, nor realms in which the individual belongs to himself. The time of happiness as a private matter is over."
  • As quoted in Joachim C. Fest (1974), Hitler. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, p. 533.
• "I have sympathy for Mr. Roosevelt, because he marches straight toward his objectives over Congress, lobbies and bureaucracy." Hitler went on to note that he was the sole leader in Europe who expressed "understanding of the methods and motives of President Roosevelt."
  • [2] New York Times 1934, quoted from John Toland: Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography.

Quotes from National Socialist's Heinrich Himmler[edit]

From the Nazi party (National Socialism) SS leader Heinrich Himmler:

• "In the course of history periods of capitalism and socialism alternate with one another; capitalism is the unnatural, socialism the natural economic system...The National Socialists and the Red Front have the same aspirations. The Jews falsified the Revolution in the form of Marxism and that failed to bring fulfillment."—Speech in Potsdam (13 October 1926), quoted in Peter Longerich, Heinrich Himmler (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 92–93.
• "The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But, we don't ask for their love; only for their fear."—Quoted in "Visions of Reality - A Study of Abnormal Perception and Behavior" - by Alberto Rivas - Psychology - 2007 - Page 162

Quotes from Lenin[edit]

Vladimir Lenin stated:

• “The way to crush the middle class is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.”
• "The best revolutionary is youth devoid of morals."
• "A lie told often enough becomes the truth."
• "The goal of socialism is communism."
• "There are no morals in politics there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel."
• "Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever." (see Public school values and Professor values)

Quotes from Stalin[edit]

The Darwin-Stalin connection describes the brutal Soviet dictator Josef Stalin who murdered millions of people, giving credit to Darwin's book for his outlook in life:

• "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic." ~ to Churchill, 1945.
• "Death is the solution to all problems. No man - no problem"
• "Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?"
• "It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything."
• "The only real power comes out of a long rifle."
• "When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use."

Quotes from Leon Trotsky[edit]

• "Repression for the attainment of economic ends is a necessary weapon of the socialist dictatorship."
  • Leon Trotsky in Terrorism and Communism : A Reply to Karl Kautsky (1920; 1975), p. 153
• "The road to socialism lies through a period of the highest possible intensification of the principle of the state … Just as a lamp, before going out, shoots up in a brilliant flame, so the state, before disappearing, assumes the form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, i.e., the most ruthless form of state, which embraces the life of the citizens authoritatively in every direction...
  • Terrorism and Communism : A Reply to Karl Kautsky (1920; 1975), p. 177
• "We must rid ourselves once and for all of the Quaker-Papist babble about the sanctity of human life."
  • Leon Trotsky in his book The Russian Revolution, 1930
• "Root out the counterrevolutionaries without mercy, lock up suspicious characters in concentration camps... Shirkers will be shot, regardless of past service."
  • Statement of 1918, as quoted in Trotsky : The Eternal Revolutionary (1996) by Dmitri Volkogonov, p. 213

Quotes from Mao[edit]

Mao Zedong, responsible for the deaths of 77 million Chinese states:

• "Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."—The Little Red Book, 1964
• "Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party."

Quotes on Kim Il-sung[edit]

Kim Il-sung took the communist cult of personality to a new level.^[78] "In Korea, the Americans have far exceed the Hitlerites!"—by Kim Il-sung^[79]

• "When it comes to the orchestration of terror, Kim Jong-il is a natural born genius."
  • Kim Duk Hong quoted in BBC News (21 July 2003) "Inside the mind of Kim Jong-il"

Quotes from Pol Pot[edit]

As ruler of Cambodia Pol Pot was responsible for exterminating 2 million people by genocide. That's a quarter of the country's population:

• "Exterminate the 50 million Vietnamese... and purify the masses of the Cambodian people."
  • Phnom Penh radio broadcast by Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge (May 10, 1978) ([3])

Related Quotes from Others[edit]

• "Socialists ignore the side of man that is of the spirit. They can provide shelter, fill your belly with bacon and beans, treat you when you are ill, all the things that are guaranteed to a prisoner or a slave. They don't understand that we dream - yes, even of some time owning a yacht." -- President Ronald Reagan^[80]

• "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." -- Winston Churchill

• "I've always doubted that the socialists had a leg to stand on intellectually" -- Friedrich Hayek

• "The trouble is with socialism, which resembles a form of mental illness more than it does a philosophy" -- L. Neil Smith

• "Socialists cry "Power to the people", and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean — power over people, power to the State." -- Margaret Thatcher

• "All socialism involves slavery" -- Herbert Spencer

• "Wonderful system, wrong species"—Edward O. Wilson; who believed that collectivism was better suited to an ant than a human.^[81]

• "If one understands that socialism is not a share-the-wealth program, but is in reality a method to consolidate and control the wealth, then the seeming paradox of super-rich men promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all."—Gary Allen ^[82]

• "We face a hostile ideology; (Socialism i) global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose and insidous in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully there is call for not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of questions but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain despite every provocation on our charted course towards permanent peace and human betterment." - Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address

• "Socialism fundamentally is a case of juvenile arrested development; children are told at a young age to share their toys and candy, and some grow up without proper guidance to ever learn personal responsibility."^[83] —Rob Smith

See also[edit]

• Big government Welfare state leads to socialist Nanny state, leads to communist Police state - Don't think Socialism-Communism is incompatible with Islam.
• Gun control - key element to create a police state
• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
• List of atheist and agnostic pseudosciences
• Dictatorship
  • Dictatorship of the proletariat: Class warfare
  • List of Socialist States
• Single-party state
• Mobocracy, Social Effects of the Theory of Evolution, Anti-Semitism, Communist Racism, Holocaust
• National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party)
• Nazism and socialism: National Socialism - the Nazis were elitist Police state liberals not conservatives
• Liberal totalitarianism
• Left-wing Anti-Semitism
• Essay:Resisting Socialist Landfills‎
• Champagne socialist

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Socialism Explained, by Charles Scaliger of The New American.
• The Intellectuals and Socialism, By F.A. Hayek, The University of Chicago Law Review, (Spring 1949), pp. 417–420, 421-423, 425-433.
• Socialism Encyclopædia Britannica.
• What Liberals Say - Category: Socialism, Accuracy In Media
• How should a Christian view socialism?, by GotQuestions
• You Can See America's Future Under Socialism, And It Isn't Pretty, Investor's Business Daily, October 25, 2018.
• Socialism isn't good for you, Tom Rogan, November 23, 2017.
• Chapter Eight: How Communism Sows Chaos in Politics (Part I), The Epoch Times (from How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World).
• Chapter Eight: How Communism Sows Chaos in Politics (Part II), The Epoch Times (from How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World).
• Chapter Nine: The Communist Economic Trap (Part I), The Epoch Times (from How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World).
• Chapter Nine: The Communist Economic Trap (Part II), The Epoch Times (from How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World).

Bibliography[edit]

• Busky, Donald F. Communism in History and Theory: From Utopian Socialism to the Fall of the Soviet Union (2002) excerpt and text search
• Dougherty, Jude P. "Socialist Man: A Psychological Profile," Modern Age Volume 46, Number 1-2; Winter/Spring 2004 online edition, a conservative critique
• Laslett, John, ed. Failure of a Dream: Essays in the History of American Socialism (1984)
• Lindemann, Albert S. A History of European Socialism (1984)
• Lipset, Seymour Martin, and Gary Marks. It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States (2001), Lipset was a leading conservative scholar excerpt and text search
• Malia, Martin. Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia (1995) excerpt and text search
• Muravchik, Joshua. Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism (2003) by conservative historian excerpt and text search
• Novak, Michael. Capitalism and Socialism: A Theological Inquiry (1988) excerpt and text search, by leading conservative scholar
• Nove, Alec. An Economic History of the USSR 1917-1991 (3rd ed. 1993)
• Pipes, Richard. Communism: A History (2003), by a leading conservative
• Suny, Ronald Grigor. The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States. (1998) online edition

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