We keep saying that socialism is bad, but our message isn’t being believed. Maybe we don’t fully believe it ourselves. So let’s dig deeper and understand just how bad, and how anti-Christian, socialism really is.
This is the first in a series of four articles that examines how American society changes when socialists get to run things. In them you’ll see, quoting the socialists themselves, how:
- Everyone is made paupers, on purpose.
- Society is reorganized, where children become wards of the state and families, even marriages, are discouraged.
- Christian worship and behavior get driven out of society. Those who persist can even be sent to sanitariums.
Once you’re alert to what socialism does to a society, you can begin to protect your community, your family, and yourself from the designs of these politicians and activists.
Dial it up to 11: look at fully-implemented socialist programs. Don’t think that socialist-leaning politicians are satisfied with the few initiatives they promote in their political campaigns. Once they get into power they tend to hire radical bureaucrats and aides, people who do the real work of implementing both announced and hidden socialist schemes. Think of the politician as the nose of the camel, poking into the tent.
This is why it is both fair and reasonable to associate any socialist-leaning politician or activist with the full socialist agenda. And this is why this article looks at the full effects of socialist policies on America.
As far as communist activists versus socialist ones, there is no practical difference between them. Both sides get their theories from Karl Marx. The communists are just emphasizing the supposed socialist endgame, evoking some future utopia.
Socialism in three minutes
To frame a discussion of socialism we need a definition. According to one dictionary, socialism is:
- a theory or system of social organization in which the means of production and distribution of goods are owned and controlled collectively or by the government.
- (in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles.[1]
This definition has these implications.
Individuals may not own any productive property. A socialist society will take over (that is, “steal”) farms, mines, factories, warehouses, and other things in the name of “the people.” But what about personal property? Will your house, or your jewelry, remain yours? That’s hard to say. Considering that socialist activists can’t even agree if you are allowed to own a bicycle, expect chaos to occur.[2]
The government is the de-facto owner of practically everything. We all can’t visit that nice beach getaway at the same time. Nor can more than 100 million adults be bothered with the details of thousands of factories. This means that “the people” really means “the government.” It alone will own and manage all of these properties. You can already guess how well that will go.
Under socialism, the State puts itself in the place of God and says, “The earth is the State’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it.”[3]
The intent is to transform human character. Socialists don’t want control because of a mere power trip. They think that this actually improves the human condition, that individuals owning things is the root of all evils. Removing property ownership from us will somehow automatically transform us into a freely giving, naturally sharing, people.[4] Society will be free from crime and strife, and there will be no need for police, army, legislators or bureaucrats.[5]
This goal of transforming humanity exposes the religious nature of socialism.[6] It also helps explain why these activists are so devoted to their cause.
Socialism: Give me this day my daily bread
We already know that having private property is good with God.[7] But socialists don’t care what God says. They aim to have everyone utterly dependent on the government, with all devoted to the common good. This is much like being utterly defeated by an invading army, except that we will voluntarily open the fortress gates and let them in.
Socialism must take away everything. The socialist state’s signature belief is simple, courtesy of Karl Marx:
In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.[8]
A socialist government will certainly dispossess, that is “steal,” factories, farms, transportation systems, distribution networks, mines, warehouses, and much more from their current owners. These would theoretically be owned by “the people,” but everybody knows that the government becomes the true owner and manager.
They say that you can keep your personal property, but why believe them? It isn’t like they have morals against theft. If your house looks useful for a group home, or somebody else happens to need a bike at this moment,[9] then why not take them away?
You will live from hand to mouth. Karl Marx describes the goal of socialist economic planning:
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!”[10]
Each of us must apply ourselves for the common good. The children won’t be exempt from this work, according to modern activists:
“Furthermore, in communist society children will be given the freedom to work from a young age.” [11]
In return we’re promised that the benevolent government will meet our needs. Understand, though, that they are the ones that decide what we need and get.
God help you if the government thinks your region needs to be taught a lesson. Stalin taught a lesson to the Ukrainians in 1933 and starved about 7,000,000 people.[12] China is spying on its own people, creating a computerized “social ranking” that determines if individuals can acquire needed things.[13] History has a habit of repeating itself.
Welcome to slavery. If the government owns and controls everything, and you have nothing, then you’re completely dependent on its good will. Socialists would merely say that you’re a good citizen, a diligent supporter of the new socialist state. However, there are other words for this condition. From Herbert Spencer, a 19th century “jack of all trades” intellectual:
Suppose that for a company we substitute the community; does it make any difference to the slave if the time he has to work for others is as great, and the time left for himself is as small, as before?
The essential question is—How much is he compelled to labour for other benefit than his own, and how much can he labour for his own benefit? The degree of his slavery varies according to the ratio between that which he is forced to yield up and that which he is allowed to retain; and it matters not whether his master is a single person or a society. If, without option, he has to labour for the society, and receives from the general stock such portion as the society awards him, he becomes a slave to the society.[14]
Socialism wastes away the spirit. When taken to its logical conclusion, the socialist state develops what amounts to a royal caste, which gets to run and enjoy the material largesse. The rest of us are working drones, without property or means of escape from our slavery. Some interesting, perhaps unexpected, things develop from this.
- The raison d’être of a socialist state is to overproduce everything for the people to luxuriate in. But that bounty will be hard to come by. First, socialists will never be as competent about running an economy as all of us are now collectively doing. Second, people will be a lot less productive when they can’t see the reward of hard work. Why work harder when there isn’t a commensurate reward for it?
- This listless work force will be paired with less innovation. Without a spur for being creative, technology will stagnate.
- Because it took away everything, the government becomes the only charity and relief-giver. Nobody else has anything to share. The futility of caring, but not being able to help, will result in callous, uncompassionate nation.
What’s next?
The second article in this series will describe how a fully-empowered socialism destroys the concept of family. We’ll see how children become wards of the state, parents have effectively no role in raising children, and marriage defined away into being meaningless.
Endnotes
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socialism (n.d.), Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, 2010, https://www.thefreedictionary.com/socialism ↑
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https://libcom.org/forums/theory/there-any-private-property-under-socialismcommunism-22022012 ↑
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McDurmon, Joel, God versus Socialism, The American Vision, April 24, 2015, https://americanvision.org/6459/god-versus-socialism/
A concise arraignment and judgment of socialism from God’s point of view. ↑
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Fairman, Glenn, Socialism as Religion, American Thinker, November 22, 2012, https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2012/11/socialism_as_religion.html ↑
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“Criminal activity will be almost nonexistent since the catalysts for anti-social activity—injustice and inequality—will no longer exist.”, from https://www.allaboutworldview.org/marxist-law.htm ↑
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Perry, Oliver, Socialism is Also a Religion, Fix This Culture, May 31, 2019, https://fixthisculture.com/socialism/socialism-is-also-a-religion/ ↑
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Perry, Oliver, Patriarchy, Gender Roles and Marxism: An Educational Campaign to Destroy the Family, Fix This Culture, May 22, 2019, https://fixthisculture.com/family/patriarchy-gender-roles-and-marxism/ ↑
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Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Chapter II. Proletarians and Communists, Marx/Engels Selected Works, Vol. One, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1969, pp. 98-137, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm ↑
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https://libcom.org/forums/theory/there-any-private-property-under-socialismcommunism-22022012 ↑
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Marx, Karl, Critique of the Gotha Programme, Chapter 1, 1875, found online at https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ch01.htm ↑
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Meghany, The communist abolition of the family, Destroy Capitalism Now!, March 26, 2017, https://destroycapitalismnow.wordpress.com/2017/03/26/abolish-the-family/ ↑
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Genocide in the 20th Century: Stalin’s Forced Famine 1932-1933, The History Place, 2000, http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/stalin.htm ↑
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Information Warfare: 1984 Becomes Real In 2024, Strategy Page, January 20, 2019, https://strategypage.com/htmw/htiw/articles/20190120.aspx ↑
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Spencer, Herbert, The Man versus the State, with Six Essays on Government, Society and Freedom (LF ed.) [1884], found at Online Library of Liberty, https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/spencer-the-man-versus-the-state-with-six-essays-on-government-society-and-freedom-lf-ed ↑