This study, based on an extensive program of interviewing former American, British, French, and Italian Communists, provides many answers...and gives a convincing insight into the motivations, tensions, and loyalties of Party members. First, the book examines Communist literature (the Lenin and Stalin classics and current Party media) to see what the Communists themselves expect of their movement. Then it shows whether this ideal is realized by the people who have "been through it." The final sections, which follow the interviews closely, reveal what actually happens to people when they join, while they are in the Party, and after they leave.
Available on Alibris.com for as little as $4 for a used paperback. I have my Mom's 1964(?) hardback around here somewhere.
My extended family lived though the communist era behind the Iron Curtain. My parents escaped shortly after their government fell to it. I've had the opportunity to visit a police state and speak with close family members about their experiences. I've always remembered what my dad told me about his decision not to join the party. Unlike my mother, who came from an entrepreneurial family, he was invited to join the communist party. His family was of modest means and his father was a government worker, so he was not immediately disqualified from membership. It would have been good for his career to have been 'one of them'. He declined because ultimately he realized that with the privileges would come obligation. He didn't ever want to be placed in a position to harm others, and he believed that eventually it would come to that. He was pretty wise for a young country boy. Of course his refusal cost him dearly, and that's ultimately why they had to escape.
This pattern is the insidious part of controlling people in tyrannical systems. Well-meaning people who want a sense of belonging or to better provide for their families are thus placed in a position to be manipulated. The shame that comes with this manipulation keeps them in line. I suspect a similar dynamic is at work with many of our RINO politicians and business leaders today. They were 'given' some advantage in return for looking the other way or doing something a bit unsavory. They are now unable to walk it back without great embarrassment or worse.