Posted on 08/01/2005 1:48:30 PM PDT by txgirl4Bush
One of the greatest anti-nationalists of modern times was Karl Marx, the father of the political philosophy of Marxism. One of his more revealing, but less famous quotes was the following: "My object in life is to dethrone God and destroy capitalism."
Karl Marx taught that the world was divided into two powerful classes, the "'proletariat" (working class) and the "bourgeoisie" (wealthy ruling class).
Marxism sees the proletariat and bourgeoisie as directly waging an ongoing competition, in that capitalists exploit workers and workers try to resist exploitation. (This is the foundational principle behind modern US organized labor)
Marx's scientific socialism combined his economics and philosophy including his theory of value and the concept of alienationto demonstrate that throughout the course of human history, a profound struggle has developed between the "haves" and the "have-nots."
Marx claimed he had discovered the laws of history, laws that expose the contradictions of capitalism and the necessity of the class struggle. The more advanced the capitalist economy becomes, Marx argued, the greater these contradictions and conflicts. The more capitalism creates wealth, the more it sows the seeds of its own destruction.
Ultimately, Marx believed, the proletariat would realize that it has the collective power to overthrow the few remaining capitalists and, with them, the whole system.
Marx, together with Frederich Engels, penned the ten-point Communist Manifesto that a half-century later became the guiding philosophy of Vladimir Lenin, leader of the 1917 October Revolution and founder of Russian Communism.
The Communist Manifesto can be distilled down to its ten major points:
1. Abolition of private property.
2. Progressive income tax.
3. Abolition of inheritance rights
4. Confiscation of property
5. A central banking system
6. Government control over communications and transportation.
7. Government ownership of factories and agriculture
8. Government control of labor.
9. Corporate farms and regional planning.
10. Free education for children in government-controlled schools.
If one were to remove the title, 'Communist Manifesto' from the top of the list, one could replace it with the ten major planks in the Democratic national platform.
The Democrats have elevated class warfare to an art form. The Democrats substitute the terms 'the people' for the 'proletariat' and 'big business' for the bourgeoisie, but other than that, every time a national Democrat makes a speech, you can count on hearing some variation on the same theme.
It was the Democrats who campaigned against tax cuts, arguing that it was an unfair burden on 'the working poor' (proletariat) and an unfair advantage for 'the rich' (bourgeoisie) (Communist Manifesto points 1 and 2)
The Democrats fought tooth and nail against the GOP plan to eliminate the inheritance tax, endorsed the Supreme Court's recent eminent domain ruling, and is reeling from the recently announced split in organized labor that threatens its power base. (Communist Manifesto points 3, 8)
The Federal Reserve Banking system (central banking) was introduced by Democrat Woodrow Wilson, and the Banking Act of 1933 and the confiscation of privately owned gold was during the administration of Democrat Franklin Roosevelt. (Communist Manifesto points 4-5)
One of the most powerful lobbies within the Democratic establishment is the National Education Association. Democrats abhor the idea of parents choosing where their kids go to school, oppose home-schooling, school vouchers or parental input into school curriculums. (Point 10)
During his campaign, John Kerry thundered, "You don't value families by kicking kids out of after school programs and taking cops off our streets, so that Enron can get another tax break."
In another speech, Kerry told America, "You don't value families... if you deny veterans health care, or if you tell middle class families to wait for a tax cut, so that the wealthiest among us can get even more." (proletariat vs. bourgeoisie)
Hillary Clinton said in 1993, during her early co-presidency, "We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society."
The title of today's Omega Letter is a direct quote from Karl Marx, "Proletariats Have No Fatherland" -- reflecting Marx's worldview of a global socialist government in which the workers are 'citizens of the world'.
A major point of contention during the last two presidential elections has been over how much sovereignty the United States should surrender to the United Nations -- with John Kerry campaigning on a promise never to take the US to war without United Nations approval and support.
There is an organization called the 'Democratic Socialists of America' who have isolated seven principles that together form the DSA's 'Progressive Challenge'.
Those seven principles are, at a glance, a distillation of the ten points of Marx and Engel's 'Communist Manifesto' reworded for American consumption.
1. Dignified Work
2. Environmental Justice
3. Economic Redistribution
4. Democratic Participation
5. Community Empowerment
6. Global Non-Violence
7. Social Justice
At last count, there were some sixty-one members of the House and Senate, Democrats all, who are members of the Democratic Socialists of America, under the banner of the 'Progressive Democratic Caucus -- (the largest single caucus in the House). Six of those DSA members sit on the Judiciary Committee.
The DSA includes among its members; Rep. Bernie Sanders (D- Vt.) Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga) Rep. Peter Defazio, (D-Or) Rep. Maxine Waters, (D-Ca), House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, (D-Ca), Rep Henry Waxman (D-Ca), Rep Barney Frank (D-Ma)Rep Jerrold Nadler, (D-NY) Rep Charles Rangel, (D-NY), Rep Dennis Kucinich (D-Oh) and Rep James A McDermott (D-Wa), just to name a few.
Other powerful members of the DSA include AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, feminist Gloria Steinham, actor Ed Asner and libertarian socialist writer Noam Chomsky.
None of this is my opinion. This is documented fact.
Assessment:
Are you getting all this? For years, I've been accused of being a 'Republican flack' for the simple reason that I oppose all things emanating from the Democratic Party.
Just as it was possible to oppose the Communists without being a Nazi, it is possible to oppose the Democrats without being a Republican.
Former president Jimmy Carter, one of the most openly Marxist Democrats of our generation, traveled to England recently take another swipe at the United States, calling the Iraq War 'unnecessary and unjust' before opining to yet another foreign audience, "I think what's going on in Guantanamo Bay and other places is a disgrace to the U.S.A."
According to Jimmy Carter, terrorism is mostly America's own fault. While he didn't go so far as to blame Gitmo for terrorism, he did say "it has given impetus and excuses to potential terrorists to lash out at our country and justify their despicable acts."
Carter didn't mention that it also provided HIM with impetus and excuses to lash out at his own country and condemn AMERICA'S despicable acts.
Adding insult to injury, Carter made his comments while addressing the Baptist World Alliance centenary conference in Birmingham, England, making it appear that even Christians are opposed to America.
Then Jimmy Carter, one of the worst presidents in US history, a politician whose political party has lost both Houses of Congress AND the Oval Office, spoke 'on behalf of the American people', saying, "What has happened at Guantanamo Bay ... does not represent the will of the American people. . . I'm embarrassed about it, I think it's wrong."
On the heels of claiming the administration doesn't represent America and declaring himself 'embarrassed' to be an American and declaring America 'wrong' went on in his comments to reassure the world that they were right -- America is a big, fat liar.
"I thought then and I think now that the invasion of Iraq was unnecessary and unjust. And I think the premises on which it was launched were false."
Naturally, al Jazeera ran its coverage of Jimmy Carter's comments under the headline, "Jimmy Carter: Guantanamo Is a Disgrace to America."
Carter didn't explain how locking away some of the evil and vile murderers on Planet Earth disgraced America. Neither did al-Jazeera. Just that former president Carter said that America is, in the view of a former US president, both 'disgraceful' and embarrassing.'
Carter's comments were echoed under similar headlines in the People's Daily (Communist China) the CBC (Canada) and pretty much every newspaper in the EU. (Marxists tend to stick together.)
The goal of Marxism, in Marx's own words, is to "dethrone God and destroy capitalism." The main planks in the leftist Democratic platform echo the same goals.
"And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:" (Matthew 12:25)
We often address the question of where America is in Bible prophecy. Listening to the Marxist propaganda masquerading as 'progressive' US political agenda, it makes one wonder, "Where is America NOW?"
It could be said that the U.S. follows about half of the Marxist platform.
Liberalism hasn't changed much over the years.
Oh give me a break.
Hey aren't you supposed to ask permission before posting the Democrat's secret stretegy?
Marx underestimated both groups because he spent 99% of his time on his fat ass, reading and writing. He never did visit a single factory.
He thought that the bourgeoisie were too horrible to help the poor, which they werern't. The bourgeoisie was the source of whatever charity there was. Also, the great societal reforms came out of the Christian churches, ususally led by vicars -- who, more often than not, came from the bourgeoise class.
He thought that the proletariat was too stupid to learn or make their lives better. They DID manage to unionize and make their lives better.
Marx's babble about the thesis/anti-thesis with his own thesis of communinism being the ultimate and undisputable thesis was arrogant, ill-thought out and a masterful example of not having CLUE ONE about human nature.
What was Kelo?
Or, perhaps Aristotle had a better idea after all. Family first, and as a necessity to support the family, property. Then the families form the state to protect the property. Or, actually, all at the same time.
From time to time, I am asked what I believe to be the greatest difficulty the American Republic confronts nowadays. I reply that our most puzzling and distressing social misfortune is the growth of a proletariat.Let us define our terms. The words proletariat and proletarian come down to us from Roman times. In the Roman signification of the term, a proletarian is a man who gives nothing to the commonwealth but his progeny. Such a being pays no taxes, subsists at public expense, fulfills no civic duties, performs no work worth mentioning, and knows not the meaning of piety. As a mass, the collective proletarians, the proletariat, are formidable; they demand entitlements-principally, in antique times, bread and circuses; in our day, much larger entitlements, which are granted to them lest they turn collectively violent. To the state, I repeat, the proletarian contributes only his offspring-who in their turn, ordinarily, become proletarians. Idle, ignorant, and often criminal, the proletariat can ruin a great city-and a nation. What Arnold Toynbee calls "the internal proletariat" so dragged down the Roman civilization; the barbarian invaders, the "external proletariat," burst through the fragile shell of a culture already bled to death.
Karl Marx, that hard hater of the patrimony of modern civilization, called upon the modern proletariat to arise and shed blood on a grand scale. Triumphant in the Russian empire after the World War I, and in Eastern Europe and many other regions of the world not long after World War II, Marx's ideological disciples installed brutal proletarians in power, at least on the local level, where they were as merciless as they were stupid. The proletarian cannot build; but he is able to destroy.
The United States of America, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the early decades of the twentieth, was not afflicted by a proletariat on any large national scale -though Jefferson feared the coming of such a class when cities should grow. And Macaulay in 1857 foretold a "downward progress" in America at the end of which he said, "Either some Caesar or Napoleon will seize the reins of government with a strong hand, or your republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman Empire in the fifth."
Voting Proletariat. As Macaulay pointed out with some force, in the United States the proletariat would be possessed not merely of the power of intimidation through violence, but of the yet more effective power of the ballot box. "Your Huns and Vandals," he went on, "will have been engendered within your own country by your own institutions."
Now in America today, whom do we specify when we talk of a proletariat, a rootless and discontented class that is a burden upon the commonwealth? It is necessary first to specify groups that we do not have in mind.
The proletariat is not identical with "the poor." Although most proletarians are poor, a man may be rich and yet a proletarian if he is nothing better than a vexation to the commonwealth and has the mind of a proletarian. Also, there are many people of very modest income who nevertheless are people of commendable character and good citizens. Incidentally, I am given to quoting an aside by Robert Frost when he was conversing with liberal friends: "Don't talk about the poor all the time!" The poor we have always with us, as Jesus of Nazareth instructs us.
The proletarian is not identical with "the workingman"-indeed, it is characteristic of the proletarian that he does not work voluntarily. I was reared almost literally in the Pere Marquette railway yards outside Detroit, my father a locomotive engineman and fireman; were not proletarians, nor were my schoolmates and their parents.
The proletarian is not identical with the "welfare recipient," even though the vast majority of proletarians are on the welfare rolls. For of course among the recipients of local, state, and federal relief and entitlements are many elderly, infirm, or otherwise distressed people who are not so unfortunate as to share the proletarian mentality and morality.
The proletarian population is not an urban population only. Increasingly, the proletarian condition of life spreads even into remote rural districts. In my backwoods or backwater Michigan village, a dismal rookery of decaying trailers, immobilized "mobile homes," hems in my tall archaic house; the sale of narcotics proceeds in our village's public park; and the rate of crimes, especially offenses against women, rises annually. The village's only church has been converted into an antique shop.
The proletariat, in short, is a mass of people who have lost-if ever they possessed-community, hope of betterment, moral convictions, habits of work, sense of personal responsibility, intellectual curiosity, membership in a healthy family, property, active participation in public concerns, religious associations, and awareness of ends or objectives in human existence. Most proletarians live, as dogs do, from day to day, unreflective. The lazzaroni of Naples, I suppose, for centuries have existed in such a proletarian condition; but the lazzaroni of American cities and countryside, proliferating in recent years, are more aggressive than their Neapolitan counterparts.
> Proletariats Have No Fatherland
Nonsense in the title.
Marxism is, among other things, merely an extreme form
of classical human tribalism, and promotion and abuse
of group identity is an inseparable part of it.
Any purported anti-nationalism on the part of Marx was
either a ruse or massive self-delusion. The actual
results of Marxism in the 20th century demonstrate this.
That's a long ways from being an abolition of property rights.
Lots of this stuff sounds like Muslim ideology: the world is divided into spheres: the believers and the infidels, etc.
First, create as many property owners as humanly possible in the country.
Second, require that the IRS to send out quarterly reports to show just how much money each person has paid into the federal system in the last quarter, because by the time tax time rolls around, most people are only concerned about how much they "get" completely missing how much they PAY. It would cost money...but would be worth it in the long run I think. At least until we can quit withholding and start monthly billing.
Thanks for posting Kirk's definition of the proletariat.
I suspect you are aware that his definition, while much closer to the original meaning of the Roman term, is very different from that assigned by Marx and his follower. Kirk essentially equates the proletariat with what we often call the underclass. The people we generally see on the TV show Cops. People who will not work or learn. If they aren't criminals, it's because they're too lazy.
Marx used the term to mean the man who owned nothing but his labor, but was still willing and anxious to work for his living. The whole point of Marxism is that it predicted that more and more people of capitalist and middle-class backgrounds would be pushed down into the proletariat and would become part of that class whether they wanted to or not. Interestingly, that is almost the exact opposite of what has happened.
Marx, or perhaps Lenin, invented the term lumpen-proletariat to describe the underclass, and they had very little sympathy for them.
"9. Corporate farms and regional planning. Not as much "
Wrong, just about there now... Read the UN's "PLAN 21."
Ever hear of ADM?
"At least until we can quit withholding and start monthly billing."
Nope... I think it should be one WHOPPING bill at the end of each tax year.
You'll see some budget cutting then FRiend!
LOL
Who needs a Fatherland...when you have:
http://www.funlandusa.com/
It's the perfect scam -- not for parting a fool from his money, but for parting a person from their freedom. And people wanted so badly to believe it was true, so badly that they assisted the monsters who would kill them. Even today, there are people who think if only the right environment was found, the right population, the right leaders, it might, just might work.
But it never does. Never will. The fruit is poison.
Oh give me a break.
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