Posted on 04/11/2005 12:07:29 AM PDT by TapTheSource
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
The killing machine that is Marxism
By R.J. Rummel
WorldNetDaily.com
With the fall of the Soviet Union and communist governments in Eastern Europe, too many have the impression that Marxism, the religion of communism, is dead. Hardly. It is alive and well in many countries still, such as North Korea, China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, a gaggle of African countries, and in the minds of many South American political leaders. However, of most importance to the future of democracy, communism still pollutes the thinking of a vast multitude of Western academics and intellectuals.
Of all religions, secular and otherwise, that of Marxism has been by far the bloodiest – bloodier than the Catholic Inquisition, the various Catholic crusades, and the Thirty Years War between Catholics and Protestants. In practice, Marxism has meant bloody terrorism, deadly purges, lethal prison camps and murderous forced labor, fatal deportations, man-made famines, extrajudicial executions and fraudulent show trials, outright mass murder and genocide.
In total, Marxist regimes murdered nearly 110 million people from 1917 to 1987. For perspective on this incredible toll, note that all domestic and foreign wars during the 20th century killed around 35 million. That is, when Marxists control states, Marxism is more deadly then all the wars of the 20th century, including World Wars I and II, and the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
And what did Marxism, this greatest of human social experiments, achieve for its poor citizens, at this most bloody cost in lives? Nothing positive. It left in its wake an economic, environmental, social and cultural disaster.
The Khmer Rouge – (Cambodian communists) who ruled Cambodia for four years – provide insight into why Marxists believed it necessary and moral to massacre so many of their fellow humans. Their Marxism was married to absolute power. They believed without a shred of doubt that they knew the truth, that they would bring about the greatest human welfare and happiness, and that to realize this utopia, they had to mercilessly tear down the old feudal or capitalist order and Buddhist culture, and then totally rebuild a communist society. Nothing could be allowed to stand in the way of this achievement. Government – the Communist Party – was above any law. All other institutions, religions, cultural norms, traditions and sentiments were expendable.
The Marxists saw the construction of this utopia as a war on poverty, exploitation, imperialism and inequality – and, as in a real war, noncombatants would unfortunately get caught in the battle. There would be necessary enemy casualties: the clergy, bourgeoisie, capitalists, "wreckers," intellectuals, counterrevolutionaries, rightists, tyrants, the rich and landlords. As in a war, millions might die, but these deaths would be justified by the end, as in the defeat of Hitler in World War II. To the ruling Marxists, the goal of a communist utopia was enough to justify all the deaths.
The irony is that in practice, even after decades of total control, Marxism did not improve the lot of the average person, but usually made living conditions worse than before the revolution. It is not by chance that the world's greatest famines have happened within the Soviet Union (about 5 million dead from 1921-23 and 7 million from 1932-3, including 2 million outside Ukraine) and communist China (about 30 million dead from 1959-61). Overall, in the last century almost 55 million people died in various Marxist famines and associated epidemics – a little over 10 million of them were intentionally starved to death, and the rest died as an unintended result of Marxist collectivization and agricultural policies.
What is astonishing is that this "currency" of death by Marxism is not thousands or even hundreds of thousands, but millions of deaths. This is almost incomprehensible – it is as though the whole population of the American New England and Middle Atlantic States, or California and Texas, had been wiped out. And that around 35 million people escaped Marxist countries as refugees was an unequaled vote against Marxist utopian pretensions. Its equivalent would be everyone fleeing California, emptying it of all human beings.
There is a supremely important lesson for human life and welfare to be learned from this horrendous sacrifice to one ideology: No one can be trusted with unlimited power.
The more power a government has to impose the beliefs of an ideological or religious elite, or decree the whims of a dictator, the more likely human lives and welfare will be sacrificed. As a government's power is more unrestrained, as its power reaches into all corners of culture and society, the more likely it is to kill its own citizens.
As a governing elite has the power to do whatever it wants, whether to satisfy its most personal wishes, or as today's Marxists desire, to pursue what it believes is right and true, it may do so whatever the cost in lives. Here, power is the necessary condition for mass murder. Once an elite has full authority, other causes and conditions can operate to bring about the immediate genocide, terrorism, massacres or whatever killing the members of an elite feel is warranted. But it is power – unchecked, unconstrained, uncontrolled – that is the killer.
Our academic and intellectual Marxists today are getting a free ride. They get a certain respect because of their words about improving the lot of the worker and the poor, their utopian pretensions. But when empowered, Marxism has failed utterly, as has fascism. Instead of being treated with respect and tolerance, Marxists should be treated as though they wished a deadly plague on all of us.
The next time you come across or are lectured by one of our indigenous Marxists, or almost the equivalent, leftist zealots, ask them how they can justify the murder of over a hundred million their absolutist faith has brought about, and the misery it has created for many hundreds of millions more.
R.J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science and Nobel Peace Prize finalist, has published 29 books and received numerous awards for his research.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
For those who would like to pursue Prof. Rummel's work further, you might want to check out his fascinating website which catalogues the history of modern genocide. Very informative. (Warning: his website contains a plethora of very graphic photos not suitable for children):
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE1.HTM
==R.J Rummel wrote the definitive book on democide - Death By Government....The Communists have been history's most ardent practitioners of mass death on a large scale.
I read it myself. Excellent book.
It would appear that many FReepers are already all over this. But we need more (a lot more) still!!! Thanks for the post--TTS
Bump for later.
bump for later. To many forget the evil of marxism.
"As a government's power is more unrestrained, as its power reaches into all corners of culture and society, the more likely it is to kill its own citizens"
We just murdered Terri Schiavo. Was that because our government is "unrestrained"? Our government was still able to reach into our fiercely isolationist and independent psyche, killing its own, innocent and helpless citizen. Putting restraints does not change the human heart.
Why? Because of a principle which has been revealed to us: laws cannot give life. Laws cannot make us want to obey them. Laws cannot make us love doing what is right.
We could have NO law on a subject, but if we loved doing what was right, we would. We didn't need legislation in Florida last week. We NEEDED people whose hearts LOVED doing what was right. Laws can give boundaries, and standards, but they can't give life.
Murders aren't NECESSARY with Marxists. Nor was it necessary this week with a Christian Republican Democracy.
Just think "CO² Reduction". Hillary won't mind.
A great reminder. The left has even more blood on its hands than the religion of peace does. Rummel's numbers don't count abortion - another favorite murder method of leftists worldwide. Add in abortion and the toll goes up to at least 500 million.
At the end of communist rule in Russia and Eastern Europe, at least half of all pregnancies ended in abortion. In China, there was forced abortion, of course. Add in all of the abortions in the West (45 milliion for the USA alone) and the scope of leftist evil becomes apparent.
It is interesting to note that communism is closely linked to atheism and evolution. The next time an atheist/evolutionist screams about the abuses done in the name of God, it will be handy to remind them of the 110 million killed under a system that believes in no God, and the survival of the fitest.
All that ...and a statue of Lenin in Fremont!....
The evil beauty of Marxism is that it is hard to articulate why it is a killing machine. I
n the words of former VOICE OF AMERICA topper George Urban, the reason former secret police of former Marxist regimes have not had their own Nuremberg Trials is that Marxism still seems so darn altruistic.
You forgot your sarcasm tag.
Reminds me of the thinking of the junior senator from New York.
Must be why he's only a finalist and not a winner.
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