1. A half-century before Karl Marx published the Communist Manifesto, there was Gracchus Babeuf’s Plebeian Manifesto, which was later renamed the Manifesto of the Equals. Babeuf’s early (1796) work has been described as socialist, anarchist, and communist, and has had an enormous impact.
He wrote: “The French Revolution was nothing but a precursor of another revolution, on which will be bigger, more solemn, and which will be the last…We reach for something more sublime and more just: the common good or the community of goods! Nor more individual property in land: the land belongs to no one. We demand, we want, the common enjoyment of the fruits of the land: the fruits belong to all.”
2. For Babeur, socialism would distribute prosperity across the entire population, as it would “[have] us eat four good meals a day, [dress} us most elegantly, and also [provide] those of us who are fathers of families with charming houses worth a thousand louis each.”
a. Oscar Wilde: “Under socialism…there will be no people living in fetid dens and fetid rags, and bringing up unhealthy, hunger pinched children in the midst of impossible and absolutely repulsive surroundings…Each member of society will share in the general prosperity and happiness of the society…”
From a speech by Rev. Robert A. Sirico, President, Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty.
b. "Obama: No Difference Between Capitalism and Communism President Barack Obama confirmed all conservative doubts and worries about him in comments to young people in Argentina on Thursday. Not only did he say that the differences between communism and capitalism are intellectual rather than practical, he also declared that people should choose from either system whatever idea best suits the moment. This is the kind of thinking that created Marxism in the first place." Obama: No Difference Between Capitalism and Communism
3. "In Last Exit to Utopia, Jean-François Revel, who died at 82 in 2006 systematically contrasted the indisputable realities with the stubborn leftist commitment to dubious social experiments. Revel hated all utopias, and always put reality first. For him, the plain facts showed that capitalism worked better than socialism. Yet self-proclaimed intellectuals stuck to socialism even after it had clearly failed.
.... Revel would attack, with vivacity and much humor, the blindness of these leftist thinkers. In Last Exit to Utopia, Revel systematically contrasted the indisputable realities with the stubborn leftist commitment to dubious social experiments.
[e.g. Transgender movement: forcing everyone to participate in some people's delusions.]
He wondered why educated scholars would elevate utopian fantasy above reality? The failures of the Soviet Union, its mass cruelties, had been known in the West since the 1930s: André Gide had denounced them in his book, Return from the USSR. Scholars and journalists in the West did not need to wait for Solzhenitsyn to learn about the existence of the Gulag. Yet these truths had little consequence. Leftist intellectuals rationalized any bad news by explaining that the Soviet Union did not practice “real socialism.”
Revel’s books are thus deeply relevant to the current American debate on the future role of government: should good intentions (like “health care for all”) take precedence over the predictable bad results of such measures? Should political myths (the benevolent state) be fought with facts, or by promoting counter-myths (like the libertarian utopia)?"
http://www.city-journal.org/2009/bc1218gs.html
This is the present...the bullet we've all dodged in the recent election.....but next year, 2017....is a very significant anniversary.
I'll get to 1917 in a moment....
He wrote: “The French Revolution was nothing but a precursor of another revolution, on which will be bigger, more solemn, and which will be the last…We reach for something more sublime and more just: the common good or the community of goods! Nor more individual property in land: the land belongs to no one. We demand, we want, the common enjoyment of the fruits of the land: the fruits belong to all.”
2. For Babeur, socialism would distribute prosperity across the entire population, as it would “[have] us eat four good meals a day, [dress} us most elegantly, and also [provide] those of us who are fathers of families with charming houses worth a thousand louis each.”
a. Oscar Wilde: “Under socialism…there will be no people living in fetid dens and fetid rags, and bringing up unhealthy, hunger pinched children in the midst of impossible and absolutely repulsive surroundings…Each member of society will share in the general prosperity and happiness of the society…”
From a speech by Rev. Robert A. Sirico, President, Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty.
b. "Obama: No Difference Between Capitalism and Communism President Barack Obama confirmed all conservative doubts and worries about him in comments to young people in Argentina on Thursday. Not only did he say that the differences between communism and capitalism are intellectual rather than practical, he also declared that people should choose from either system whatever idea best suits the moment. This is the kind of thinking that created Marxism in the first place." Obama: No Difference Between Capitalism and Communism
3. "In Last Exit to Utopia, Jean-François Revel, who died at 82 in 2006 systematically contrasted the indisputable realities with the stubborn leftist commitment to dubious social experiments. Revel hated all utopias, and always put reality first. For him, the plain facts showed that capitalism worked better than socialism. Yet self-proclaimed intellectuals stuck to socialism even after it had clearly failed.
.... Revel would attack, with vivacity and much humor, the blindness of these leftist thinkers. In Last Exit to Utopia, Revel systematically contrasted the indisputable realities with the stubborn leftist commitment to dubious social experiments.
[e.g. Transgender movement: forcing everyone to participate in some people's delusions.]
He wondered why educated scholars would elevate utopian fantasy above reality? The failures of the Soviet Union, its mass cruelties, had been known in the West since the 1930s: André Gide had denounced them in his book, Return from the USSR. Scholars and journalists in the West did not need to wait for Solzhenitsyn to learn about the existence of the Gulag. Yet these truths had little consequence. Leftist intellectuals rationalized any bad news by explaining that the Soviet Union did not practice “real socialism.”
Revel’s books are thus deeply relevant to the current American debate on the future role of government: should good intentions (like “health care for all”) take precedence over the predictable bad results of such measures? Should political myths (the benevolent state) be fought with facts, or by promoting counter-myths (like the libertarian utopia)?"
http://www.city-journal.org/2009/bc1218gs.html
This is the present...the bullet we've all dodged in the recent election.....but next year, 2017....is a very significant anniversary.
I'll get to 1917 in a moment....
