Socialism is evil
Walter E. Williams (back to web version) |
SendPosted on 10/21/2004 7:38:23 PM PDT by vannrox
townhall.com
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Socialism is evil
Walter E. Williams (back to web version) | Send
July 28, 2004
What is socialism? We miss the boat if we say it's the agenda of left-wingers and Democrats. According to Marxist doctrine, socialism is a stage of society between capitalism and communism where private ownership and control over property are eliminated. The essence of socialism is the attenuation and ultimate abolition of private property rights. Attacks on private property include, but are not limited to, confiscating the rightful property of one person and giving it to another to whom it doesn't belong. When this is done privately, we call it theft. When it's done collectively, we use euphemisms: income transfers or redistribution. It's not just left-wingers and Democrats who call for and admire socialism but right-wingers and Republicans as well.
Republicans and right-wingers support taking the earnings of one American and giving them to farmers, banks, airlines and other failing businesses. Democrats and left-wingers support taking the earnings of one American and giving them to poor people, cities and artists. Both agree on taking one American's earnings to give to another; they simply differ on the recipients. This kind of congressional activity constitutes at least two-thirds of the federal budget.
Regardless of the purpose, such behavior is immoral. It's a reduced form of slavery. After all, what is the essence of slavery? It's the forceful use of one person to serve the purposes of another person. When Congress, through the tax code, takes the earnings of one person and turns around to give it to another person in the forms of prescription drugs, Social Security, food stamps, farm subsidies or airline bailouts, it is forcibly using one person to serve the purposes of another.
The moral question stands out in starker relief when we acknowledge that those spending programs coming out of Congress do not represent lawmakers reaching into their own pockets and sending out the money. Moreover, there's no tooth fairy or Santa Claus giving them the money. The fact that government has no resources of its very own forces us to acknowledge that the only way government can give one American a dollar is to first -- through intimidation, threats and coercion -- take that dollar from some other American.
Some might rejoin that all of this is a result of a democratic process and it's legal. Legality alone is no guide for a moral people. There are many things in this world that have been, or are, legal but clearly immoral. Slavery was legal. Did that make it moral? South Africa's apartheid, Nazi persecution of Jews, and Stalinist and Maoist purges were all legal, but did that make them moral?
Can a moral case be made for taking the rightful property of one American and giving it to another to whom it does not belong? I think not. That's why socialism is evil. It uses evil means (coercion) to achieve what are seen as good ends (helping people). We might also note that an act that is inherently evil does not become moral simply because there's a majority consensus.
An argument against legalized theft should not be construed as an argument against helping one's fellow man in need. Charity is a noble instinct; theft, legal or illegal, is despicable. Or, put another way: Reaching into one's own pocket to assist his fellow man is noble and worthy of praise. Reaching into another person's pocket to assist one's fellow man is despicable and worthy of condemnation.
For the Christians among us, socialism and the welfare state must be seen as sinful. When God gave Moses the commandment "Thou shalt not steal," I'm sure He didn't mean thou shalt not steal unless there's a majority vote. And I'm sure that if you asked God if it's OK just being a recipient of stolen property, He would deem that a sin as well.
©2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
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The libertarian Williams contradicts the constitutionalist Williams: An immoral action by an individual doesn't become moral when committed by a democracy, or a constitutional republic.
A socialist is a communist who doesn't quite yet grasp the truth that for his philosphy to prevail requires the enslavement and murder of other human beings. Upon coming to this realization, a socialist happily becomes a communist.
A socialist is merely a polite communist.
Socialism is Communism without guns.
Most disturbing is Kerry's position on Communism. Communism is the greatest evil that man has ever known. It is responsible for more than 100 millions deaths (more than all the wars in history combined), millions and millions of refugees and the subjugation and slavery of over 2 billion people since WWII. Communist regimes always follow a similar pattern. A Communist regime has never been elected, so first Communists must orchestrate a revolution, often with the support of funding from preexisting Communist regime. Next, Communists dissolve private property, nationalize media and begin a brutal purge of political prisoners and the upper classes. To conduct it's class warfare and maintain control of the revolting people, the state will militarize, establish a large secret police presence, and create horrific labor/reeducation camps. The economy collapses, failed farm policies result in starvation, refugees flee, and the government begins to export Communist revolution abroad. How far the government is willing to push the Communist philosophy will directly equate with the severity of these events and the suffering of their people. This exact pattern has come to pass in the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, North Korea, Angola, Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Cuba. A few countries on this list have not experienced the true hell of Communism because the governments either didn't last long enough to take full root, or total Communist policies were not pursued in earnest.
From 'John Kerry's Foreign Policy'
http://www.neoperspectives.com/johnkerry.htm
Walt pretty much hammered socialism good, but he seems to have lost it a bit when morphing to democracy.. Democracy sucks every time in every place in every way, always.. Democracy "IS" mob rule. The biggest mob or consortium mobs wins absolutely.. OK for primitive gov'ts like in URP or the middle east even.. But only a republic like ours, which is unique for any republic where the States are soverign and the fed. gov't is merely a client is unique.. Sad to say the U.S. has been morphed into a democracy by democrats and republicans never even saw it coming.. Mob rule is what we have, not the republic we started out with.. The only way the republic can redeemed AT ALL is by civil war.. The democrats and some republicans will fight it tooth and nail thinking they are patriotic.. The time is almost pasted for that civil war too.. If it does not happen all the whining here in this forum about will result in just that...
FOOTNOTES:
Democracy is the road to socialism. Karl Marx
Democracy is indispensable to socialism. The goal of socialism is communism. V.I. Lenin
The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.- Karl Marx
We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.~Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
What do you call President Bush's programs to help the illegal aliens?
Walter is great... bump.
bttt
i could not agree with you more.
Bump
bump!
check back and read later.
It's certainly a fact that Kerry has had an early history of flirting with commies.
But is there other evidence that he himself is a commie or socialist?
He is not a communist. Whether he is a socialist depends on you definition of a socialist. The line between liberalism and socialism is not always entirely clear. He has advocated socialistic policies, but during this campaign he has taken more 'moderate' approaches. If elected I believe Kerry will take the country closer to socialism, but not all the way. (I actually would argue that a large part of our country is socialistic now, example: our education system). Republicans are not withut faults either, this medicaid bill that Bush passed was socialistic.
hope taht answers your question. did you read my whole article? did it seem like I was implying that he was a communist? (he may have been when he was younger, I don't know)
"Socialism is murder"
Yep, that just about covers it!
Yes, I read the article, it is a nice resource, actually. I think I'll bookmark it.
I happen to agree with your assessment of Kerry, the Republicans and the state of socialism in the US.
It's hard to tell what principles Kerry has, if any. It would seem that they are leftist, but he is coy. The history that you've assembled gives an indication at least.
My definition of socialism is pretty standard, I think: a democratic political system in which everyone works for the common good of the community, this goal being achieved through an egalitarianism which not only seeks equality among men, but seeks common ownership of the means of production, in other words, collectivism. The fact that such a system is by definition totalitarian seems to escape most liberals, but, IMO, is appreciated by many politicians on the left, if not the right.
Many liberals that I talk to will tell me that their guiding principles are the same as mine, individual freedom!
But they always vote left, no matter what, "by the issues," as they say. The fact that liberals are tricked into voting, in the service of various causes, for giving arbitrary and increasing power to central government has led me to the recent conclusion that "liberals" actually do not have any political principles at all.
Of course here I am drawing a distinction between "liberals" and true socialists or leftists who do actually have political principles, the principles of socialism.
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