“Just Say No” to Communism
As the 1980s fade further into the past, we must cement the decade’s crucial lessons.
Victims of Communism recently released an online poll that scared the heck out of me. The poll found that 44% of Millennials prefer living in a socialist country to living in a capitalist one (42%). To take it further, 7% would prefer communism and 7% would pick fascism.
This poll comes on the heels of Bernie Sanders, self-proclaimed Socialist, running for U.S. President, and that seeming normal.
As a child of the 1990’s, these statistics are hard to fathom. I graduated from high school in 1990, so as I left childhood behind and moved on to college and adulthood, the 1980's were also left behind, including the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. In November of 1989, the East German Government announced that citizens could leave freely through the gates. And, by October 1990, Germany was unified again. Most of the U.S. put the fear of communism behind us.
Do you remember the Soviet Union and Communist Eastern Bloc? Do you remember the gut wrenching images of barbed wire, attack dogs, guards, gloom, and gray (literally and figuratively)? First-hand accounts from visitors to the USSR said there was a sadness in the People’s eyes. Little promise for an optimistic future, little promise for even basic food staples. Soviet Bloc citizens would literally risk their lives to defect to the West. Being caught escaping the confinement and dependence of their country meant sure prison time, if they were lucky enough not to be killed. What kind of country would imprison their citizens? I can only imagine the depths of horror. No hope.
Interestingly, scholars disagree on unified definitions of Socialism and Communism. And, there are different theories on whether the USSR was actually a Communist country or a Socialist country, or a combination. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Socialism as,
any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods;
and Communism as,
a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production.
Words truly don’t matter; political system verses economic system — a country is defined by the actions and behaviors of the government and its people. Freedom means you are allowed to make your choices free of coercion or restraint, without being dependent. Freedom is the opposite of collective distribution.
Today, I watch Venezuela in horror as the socialist country leads their citizens to despondent conditions. Medicine and medical devices are becoming non-existent, and according to Rich Lowry of the New York Post, Venezuelans are now “literally starving — about three-quarters of the population lost weight last year — in what once was the fourth-richest country in the world on a per-capita basis.” Food Shortages are everywhere. Some are eating poisonous fruit out of desperation.
In None Dare Call it Conspiracy Gary Allen, the late conservative journalist, wrote:
If one understands socialism is not a share-the-wealth program, but is in reality a method to consolidate and control the wealth, then the seemingly paradox of the super-rich men promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all. Instead it becomes the logical, even the perfect tool of power-seeking megalomaniacs. Communism, or more accurately, socialism, is not a perfect movement of the downtrodden masses, but of the economic elite.
This is a great example of what has happened in Venezuela with the current dictator, Nicolas Maduro, stacking the government even more so with his cronies; violently cracking down on protests and banning leading opposition parties from participating in the next presidential election. All this while his people are desperate for something better, yet trapped in socialism.
The Eastern Bloc and Soviet Union Communism/Socialism I grew up knowing was also created by and for a ruling class. As ethics professor and author Richard Ebeling stated,
Beginning in 1919, the Communist Party established the procedure of forming lists of government and bureaucratic positions requiring official appointment and the accompanying lists of people who might be eligible for promotion to these higher positions of authority. Thus was born the new ruling class under socialism.
The system was called “Nomenklatura” and it led to deep corruption and systems of privilege for the top few.
Back to the 1980's. I believe we have forgotten the fear of looming Socialism and Communism. As a matter of fact, I argue that we are almost too lost to remember. Millennials and the generation that will come after them have no notion of what the real consequences can be, even though we need look only as far as modern-day Venezuela. Socialism is something we should be fighting against, not campaigning for. Our education system needs to teach the truth. Agendas need to put aside and let the honest truth of socialist countries shine forth.
The best image that I can leave you with is from National Geographic’s program called The 80s: The Decade That Made Us in which West Germany was contrasted (figuratively and physically) with East Germany. On the one side of the Berlin Wall was a bustling, free, energetic, happy, lively, capitalist West Germany; on the East side of the Wall was a gray, lonely, quiet, scary, subordinate East Germany.
As the years march onward, don’t forget the events of the late 1980's — and don’t forget to pray for Venezuela.
