The freedom released by the birth of the American Republic resulted in such a burst of initiative, advancing technology, and wealth creation that other nations were compelled to allow their citizens increasing economic freedom. This resulted in other freedoms, and soon other republics were formed, which resulted in a new age of liberty and unprecedented progress.
For all of the spectacular benefits of the emerging free market, this was unexplored territory. Pioneers have rarely found the best course through new territory without making mistakes, and it was the same for the free market economies. However, it was worth it many times over as the economic and social benefits, as well as health and quality of life advanced more in the first two hundred years of the modern free market than in the previous six thousand years of recorded human history.
As is the case with almost every kind of economic or social advance, the ones with the faith to take initiative and jump in early benefit the most. Those who miss opportunities usually go through a cycle of remorse, and then jealousy and bitterness. Jealousy is one of the deadliest forces in world history. We are even told that Jesus was crucified because of envy (see Matthew 27:18). Jealousy is an enemy of progress that we must understand.
Marxism arose just as the free markets were beginning to hit their stride, and it did so by feeding envy and resentment. Marxist writings are not filled with vision and hope, but with rage toward the prosperous. As the saying goes, “Any jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a skillful carpenter to build one.” Marxism is filled with strategies of how to tear down governments and economies, but little on how to build something better to replace them with.
Wise and successful people do not follow those who destroy, but rather those who build. How could anyone follow Marxism that has only led to devastation, as opposed to the free markets that have led to more building and development than anything else in history? The answer is that those led by jealousy, resentment, and bitterness can be so blinded that they repel reason. If you want to test this, just try to reason with those rioting in our streets today.
For those who may be drawn to hope and vision, Marxists promote an imaginary but undefined utopia they will one day build. After taking over many countries they still cannot point to a single one that was improved, much less that became the promised utopia. Wisdom compels one to do their due diligence and research regardless of how good the deal sounds. This requires checking the track records of what is being promoted. Perhaps this is why Marxist leaders say they don’t want followers who understand what they’re doing—they just want followers who will be compliant. Any thinking person would take pause at this, but sadly not many still know how to think after being educated in our present corrupted school systems.
Jealousy and bitterness blind people to reality. For this reason Marxism was born out of a strategy to find wounded, bitter, and disgruntled people, especially those left behind economically, and turn them into a force for rebellion against the successful. When one is looking through the eyes of pride, jealousy, or rejection, they will be quick to embrace the doctrine that tells them this failure is the result of exploitation and injustice. That’s basic Marxism.
Marxism coined the term “social justice” and proposes that everyone should share everything equally. The tactics used to attain this are not devoted to lifting the downtrodden up, but to bringing everyone else down. That is not social justice, but social tyranny. The only real equality Marxism has ever brought is in poverty, depravity, and slavery to the Marxist elite.
This is not to imply that some have not been unjustly treated or exploited in the development of the free markets. Some of these have been grievous such as child labor abuses and the wrongful plundering of natural resources from those who could not defend against it. Even so, such behavior has started to bring a reaction from the public that the system is now quite self-correcting.
For every account of economic abuse there are usually many accounts of people, and even whole nations, being transformed from poverty to prosperity. So why is it that these success stories are rarely found in the media today? Getting control of the media has been the first strategy of Marxism, and they have done this.
This is not to imply that everyone in the media is a Marxist, but a large percentage of Western media is now controlled by Marxists. Many in the media today have an agenda to condition the population for Marxism and erode the foundations of freedom. Many who are doing this may not know that’s what they’re doing, which is why they are called the “useful idiots” by the Marxist elites.
Though Marxism has grown by feeding mostly on the disgruntled and bitter, there is another group that has been easy prey for Marxism—idealists. Idealists are usually pseudo-intellectuals who are driven more by a need for personal recognition than a sincere pursuit of truth, knowledge, and wisdom. Because their shallowness is easily discerned by true intellectuals, the pseudo-intellectuals are usually dismissed by them. Those so rejected are easy prey for the poison of jealousy and resentment that Marxism builds on.
So, Marxists can easily capture pseudo-intellectuals by just feigning respect for them, but the way they really feel about them is that they are “useful idiots.” Such “useful idiots” are sown throughout the media, education, and other places of influence to do the work of plowing the ground for Marxism.
Marxists have been very skilled at propaganda. Lenin was something of a propaganda genius. Marxists learned that their promise of a new utopia was especially attractive to youth, as well as the disenfranchised. However, after they had been successful in taking over a few countries they had a basic problem that undercut their propaganda—history!
Everywhere Marxism gained control, the result was the opposite of what they promised. Mankind has never experienced worse tyranny, injustice, and inequality than under Marxism. By the 1930s this became widely known, and there began a huge groundswell of opposition to it. The Marxists retreated for a time, but then came up with a brilliant plan for countering the truth history reveals—they would revise history.
Marxists released an army of revisionist historians to make the good look evil, and the evil look good. They inculcated students with this deception from their earliest ages through the easily manipulated public school systems. Now there is a huge divide between the generations who have witnessed or experienced the horrors of Marxism, and those who have been indoctrinated to believe that their parents are lying about this.
What can be done about this now? We obviously have a difficult battle to recover what has been perverted or stolen from our Republic, but never give up on the power of the truth to prevail. Truth has foundations. The Marxist deception crumbles quickly with even the most cursory research. Just a few armed with truth can prevail against an army of deceivers.
Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people… ~John Adams
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