Posted on 03/02/2006 12:25:07 PM PST by Exton1
The killing machine that is Marxism
By R.J. Rummel - December 15, 2004 © 2004 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.
The records of the Spanish Inquisition, in particular, were made and off the top of my head, the death toll was a few thousand. Some of them were guilty of civil crime, as common criminals were known to blaspheme in order to avoid the government jail and get to the Inquisition's jurisdiction instead, where the conditions were milder and the legal practices more liberal. The prevalent punishment for heresy was an imposition of a penance such as a pilgrimage to a holy place.
Fair enough. They talk about 'State Run Communism' as opposed to voluntary communism (Kibbutzes, Monastic Orders) so it fits into the distinction you made.
Because it feeds in perfectly with the world view of a set of individuals who see themselves as enlightened --- "smarter, wiser and far more moral" and that the world would be prefect if only they were in charge. In their view, there is no need from messy things like Democracy or consensus.
That is why in the West, you most often find the far left not in factories or middle class soundings, but among those born to wealth who believe that they are better than others while at the same time feeling guilty for their good fortune causing them to curse the source of their wealth.
What???? Marxism would work fine if only the right people were in charge. Like Barbara Streisand, Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer....
Way back in the late 1960's or early 70's an informant within the "Weather underground" movement wrote an article for the Reader's Digest.
In it the "Weathermen" hoped to overthrow the US government and take over with the help of the North Vietnameese and Cubans. Abolish personal property and execute all opposed to them. They estimated that between 5 million and 15 million Americans would have to be liquidated to acheive this end.
Bookmark
Yet despite this record of total failure, folks like Chavez and some others down in S. America keep trying it.
Rummel rocks! I love this guy.
Well written. As an English teacher, I innoculate my students against Marxism by reading Solzhenitsyn's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," which allows us to explore the ideas and concepts of Marxism. To be fair, I do present all sides of the argument, including writings from Lenin, Stalin, and Marx, and allow the student to draw whatever conclusion they want about the desire of a party-run government to impose equality on a population. When those same students walk into a college classroom and the professor starts talking about historical inevitability and the evils of capitalism, those students should understand the professor's bias and outlook.
The real question is, "Why does the elite in the United States believe so deeply in Marxism?" Speaking from inside the academy, my observations: elites live in the world of ideas, one of which is utopia, and they have ideas about how to make the world a better place. The elites desire control so they can bring about a better world, with themselves, of course, in command. A Marxist prof once told me that the slaughter of the capitalists by the workers wouldn't be appreciated by the capitalists, but would be considered good by the workers. The dream conquers the world as it is.
bump
Sadly some of the geeks think it will make a comeback in a couple of centuries:
http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/Trek-Marxism.html
because people will always have strong dislike for those that have more than them.
because a high percentage of people will always prefer to vote for the government to take things away from others(redistribution).
because one candidate will always leverage the angle that he or she can get them free stuff, more efficiently.
because power corrupts.
because redistribution by government is recommended by great thinkers on every campus in the USA and by barbara streisand.
That the ends justify the means was always the claim of "practical" Marxists, but in fact it was the intentions, not the actual ends, that were and are used to justify outrageous means that time and again fail to produce the desired ends. The Marxist answer to a fellow who is getting bloody beating his head against a wall is "it'll work, you're just not doing it right," where someone with a lick of sense instead of ideology would be saying "stop that, you idiot."
It plays upon the powerful emotion of jealousy. It is a perversion of the noble attributes of sharing and caring for others which shackles these to the whims of an elite minority.
The demand of Socialism is "everyone must be equal, or it's just not fair!" Where Capitalism tries to provide equality of opportunity for success, which success depends upon the skills and efforts of the individual, Socialism claims to guarantee an equality of success regardless of the skills and efforts of the individual.
Socialism promises everyone an 'A' for the class, even if they haven't learned anything. It denies the intrinsic value of individual improvement, achievement and innovation by rendering them taboo.
I think his body count is a tad low, by about 20 million or more.
BUMP!
And yet you have idiots like that High School Teacher who went off about the US and how evil capitalism...too bad he can't be made to respond to this sort of article.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.