It is quite odd, but any contemporary critique of communism is met by the mainstream elite with a collective yawn, or the rolling of the eyes. Traditionally, the communist system was seen as a totalitarian nightmare, the mass suppression of human liberty and spirit whose essence was embodied in Orwell’s classic tale, 1984. Leftist contemporaries now cling to the view of communism as an idea which had never been implemented properly and it is a type of government on par morally with representative or constitutional democracies. It is an odd journey to engage, and in the final analysis a blurring of the historical lens. On the surface, the assertion is absolutely false and as each layer of the components of the system is explored, it becomes increasingly ludicrous. These so-called governments of the proletariat were the opponents of liberty and the dignity of man. The communist regimes of the past and those still with us are a ghastly reminder of man’s attempt at social engineering gone awry. Marxism believed economic history was our destiny and the clash of ruling and subordinate classes would eventually foster a social condition conducive to a revolutionary victory for the workers and the creation of a just society. But what was the result in mere human terms? Anything but a just society. A conservative estimate asserts at least 100 million souls perished due to attempts to affirm communist rule throughout the world. But what better way to summarize these results than to take a brief historical trip through the Marxist world. The actions of the communist government under Stalin was the forced persecution through the collectivization of agriculture and ensuing starvation of the capitalist peasant class, the Kulaks in Ukraine. Moreover, in the 1930’s, Stalin presented to the world, the show trials and purges of Communist Party members, men and women who supposedly committed treason against the USSR and whose punishment would be their own destruction. Also, let us not forget the Gulag Archipelago, a prison system created in the frozen tundra of the USSR, to house all real, but mostly perceived opponents of the Soviet system. The Gulag was such a tremendous success that one form or another of this system was replicated throughout the communitst world. But such a phenomenon of persecution and mass death was not relegated to the former USSR. Not to be outdone, Chairman Mao Zedong of China orchestrated the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to industrialize the Chinese countryside overnight, which resulted in famine and the deaths of millions. But Mao also had his fingerprints on the Cultural Revolution, which was a political power play by the Chairman himself, which was presented to the world as an attempt to purify communist revolutionary activity within China itself. Estimates suggest tens of millions may have died on account of Mao’s actions. In Cambodia, the agrarian revolutionary Pol Pot brought you the killing fields with the murder and starvation of millions. And last on our list of communist utopias was the famine brought to the people of Ethiopia, courtesy of the Workers Party, which inflicted an untold number of casualties on its people through its mismanagement of the economy and its ruthless collectivization of agriculture. There could be more countries, peoples and suffering on this list, but at this point, you get the picture. Karl Marx’s historical solution to economic inequality has created misery, chaos and destruction on a scale rivaled only by fascism. In every country in which communism has reared its ugly head, the victims have wailed with suffering and the perpetrators have their hands drenched in blood. But remember, as the elitist banter with that serious condescending look on their face, and a sanctimonious tone in their voice, they state the communist system can work, but it has never really been implemented properly. The rest of us can collectively hope, for everyone’s sake, there are no more attempts.
Friend of Cicero
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