Communism
Marxism is not a war on more than one class is intended to reduce everyone to slavery.
Sylvia Pankhurst
So in Communism everyone is used and no one profits.
Vladimir Lenin once said, "Under socialism all will govern in turn and will soon become accustomed to no one governing." That has never happened except in the early Church.
Under the totalitarianism produced in communist regimes over 120,000,000 people have lost their lives. Your labor is a natural property right. Communism requires someone other than the individual to rule over a portion of the labor of the most productive for the benefit of the less productive. Under Communism the individual has waived the primary right to choose the manner and amount of distribution of the products of his or her labor to the collective and its enforcers. Under Capitalism charity remains a choice of the individual.
Communism is a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs within an economic system in which the distribution of property and resources is primarily controlled by the government.
The means of production belongs to the collective state rather than the individual. The individual himself actually belongs to the state as well because the individual is also the means of production. In a communist government the state is the Father and Mother of the people and the people enjoy the liberty of choice by the permission of the state as a member of a collective.
Communism is also defined as:
- 1. A theoretical economic system characterized by the collective] ownership of property and by the organization of labor for the common advantage of all members.
- 2. Communism
- a. A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people.
- b. The Marxist-Leninist doctrine advocating revolution to overthrow the capitalist system and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat that will eventually evolve into a perfectly egalitarian and communal society.
Karl Marx, who was an original advocate of communism, claimed “Democracy is the road to socialism.”
In order to lock people into a communist state force would be required, hence the use of an iron curtain to keep people in most communist countries until socialism becomes a way of life.
Communists often claim the failures of communism are because no one is practicing real communism. What Karl and all advocates of communism fail to realize to accomplish "from each according to his ability and to each according to his need" by any other means than voluntary charity through the choices of the individual, only found in true capitalism, you will diminish egalitarianism and suffer the effects of the Saul Syndrome. Power corrupts and "paid according to their abilities and needs" means that someone has the power of choice over at least 49% of individuals in society which kills egalitarianism and is a breeding ground for corruption and abuse which is why all attempts at communism end in murderous failures.
When in 1910 51% of the people started sending their children to public schools which is socialism;
When in 1913 people started accepting three party debt notes as if they were capital;
When in 1933 people looked to a system of social security to provide for their parents;
When in 1964 LBJ began a war on poverty with tax dollars.
: If capitalism is "the private ownership, control and operation of the means of production and their beneficial use" then there is no real capitalism in the world today. Heavy progressive taxation of labor and land does not exist in real capitalism.
Communists and socialists often blame capitalism for the failures in society when these abuses of power are generally a direct result of a move away from true capitalism toward socialism and communism. If there was no forced taxation on labor nor right of the government to wage war and draft the people there would be no military industrial complex. All the ills of society can be traced to either sloth and covetousness and the desire or willingness to grant power to an individual or collective to make choices for the people.
The United States has been becoming less and less capitalist to the point where there is little left but pseudo capitalism in America. It has been becoming a Socialist society for the better part of the 1900's while claiming to be a capitalist nation. After 1910, the majority of people growing up in America began to get educated in public schools teaching 'humanism' and social 'democracy'. Free education for all children in government schools is the tenth plank of Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto. Governments have wanted to use Schools as Tools for centuries, and the people have allowed it just to get something free at the expense of their neighbor. They will pay dearly for it.
Communism may be considered an extreme form of socialism. Many countries have dominant socialist political parties but very few are truly communist. In fact, most countries - including staunch capitalist bastions like the U.S. and U.K. are not practicing real capitalism. They may have many government programs that borrow from socialist principles.
"Socialism" has some academic differences from pure communism. Most notably, while communism is a political system, socialism is primarily an economic system but relies on various forms of political systems.
While both systems imagine that you can have a philosophy "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" in Socialism there is often allowed some profit motivation by distribution among the society to complement individual effort.
Both systems are dependent upon a general spirit of coveting of the production of your neighbor. Anyone who produces more will be required by the collective state to contribute more which will dampen if not take away some of the natural altruism of the individual.
Providing for the true and honest needs of your fellow man has always been considered a duty of society. The manner of the fulfillment of that duty determines the soul of society. The fulfillment of that duty to our fellowman at one time was an essential part of the definition of Religion. Charity for your neighbor will no longer be a personal or individual choice but an imposed duty. In a truly christian society charity remains a choice and the pious performance of that duty to our fellowman through voluntary means was the definition of Pure Religion.
This is why communist countries often war against religions. Pure Religion makes the need for communism or even socialism superfluous. As Rome became more and more a Socialist state moving away from the Republic and depending upon the state as the Benefactors of the people creating the Christian conflict with the public Temples of Rome.
The Communist and Socialist states are religious institutions that depend upon force rather than charity to provide for society through the institutions of governments. Even if you only want to use the most modern definition of religion, "What you think about a supreme beings" even an Atheist has a religion because he has an opinion about who is the supreme beings Once you understand that faith in communism is a religion you understand why it eventually wars against anyone trying to practice Pure Religion without depending upon the Covetous Practices of the modern socialist, communist or collective State.
John the Baptist was against the use of force in creating the altruistic society of Christianity. Christ forbid the use of force for all Christians in providing the benefits of society and warned against covetousness through the Ten Commandments in His directives about Eternal life and Corban of the Socialism of the Pharisees.
Primitive Communism
Some will suggest that "Primitive communism is a way of describing the gift economies of hunter-gatherers throughout history, where resources and property hunted and gathered are shared with all members of a group, in accordance with individual needs."
But the primitive societies may have been egalitarian but they were not communist societies because:
Communism is a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs within an economic system in which the distribution of property and resources is primarily controlled by the government.
In the above statement several fallacies should be obvious if the mind of the reader is not already effected by jealous, envy, bitterness or ignorance.
When property is publicly owned rather than "privately owned" choices will be in the hands of the rulers of the collective. The power of choice will be centralized and the individual with less choice will become a person, a mere member.
"Freedom is the Right to Choose, the Right to create for oneself the alternatives of Choice. Without the possibility of Choice, and the exercise of Choice, a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.”[1]
Agreement or conquest
Marxist ideas include the idea that Primitive Communism consisted of "the ancient communal and State ownership which proceeds especially from the union of several tribes into a city by agreement or by conquest."
Karl Marx wanted to build a city that was a caldron and you be the flesh. Like Cain, Nimrod, Pharaoh, and Caesar, Karl Marx wanted to build cities of blood[2] where the city is the caldron, and we be the flesh are spoken of by the prophets.[3] A theme repeated throughout the history of man from the bondage of Egypt to the Golden calf. From Nimrod's Babylon to Caesar's free bread of the Imperial Cult of Rome and Herod's and the Pharisees' Corban man has bound himself in systems that lead to tyranny through greed and wantonness.
Swelling vanity
"For when they speak great swelling [words] of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, [through much] wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known [it], to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog [is] turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." 2 Peter 2:18-22
Original societies
Original societies of man were centered in the family or an extended family called a clan which may have come together as tribes through mutual sharing of danger and resources. Those who willingly chose to share what they produced or gathered by an individual free choice created bonds which held society together based on the nobility of the heart, mutual trust and moral respect.
The compelled sharing by any political power or authoritarian hierarchies that exercise authority would give rise to tyranny if not abuse like we see in the true story of the Cains or Nimrods of the world.
There may have been a hierarchy within a free society but it was often based on honor and respect through the virtues of courage, unselfish sacrifice, and ability. When corporate society formed a political unit and established a legal system it was often based on Natural Law and the law of the Father.
There were other systems born out of those early tribes and offices of Priests and Patronus such as systems of One Purse. Within those systems rulers or a ruling class may call themselves benefactors but they only share with the people what they take from others through systems of legal charity.
Roman Montero wrote a book, "All things in common", suggesting that early Christians were communists because of his private interpretation of the "all things common" quote. Roman redefines communism as from each according to his ability and to each according to his need. That of course is not the definition of Communism because you must answer how the distribution is made.
Who has the authority to take from one and give to another which is the very function of charity. 2 Thessalonians 3:10 makes it clear that if you do not work you should not eat.
Communism is not a system of charity but a system of one purse which runs to evil and we are warned against.
The idea of "primitive communism" originated from the teachings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. They of course argued that hunter-gatherer societies were traditionally based on egalitarian social relations and common ownership. They used their faulty logic to promote the covetous ruler-ship of collectivism through the state which was one of the great disasters of our time.
Their ideas about Communism eventually produced some of the most bloodthirsty governments of the last millennium robbing and destroying some of the most productive members of society.
Suggesting that "primitive communism" is the natural course of society is utter nonsense.
Define liberty
Communism hates liberty.
"Who may define liberty?"
It is far more than independence of a nation. It is not a catalog of political ‘rights.'
Liberty is a thing of the spirit – to be free to worship, to think, to hold opinions, and to speak without fear – free to challenge wrong and oppression with surety of justice.
Liberty conceives that the mind and spirit of men can be free only if the individual is free to choose his own calling, to develop his talents, to win and keep a home sacred from intrusion, to rear children in ordered security. It holds he must be free to earn, to spend, to save, honestly to accumulate property that may give protection in old age and to loved ones..... It holds, both in principle and in world experience, that these intellectual and spiritual freedoms cannot thrive except where there are also these economic freedoms. It insists equally upon protections to all these freedoms, or there is no liberty." The Challenge to Liberty, by Herbert Hoover, pg. 2
Primitive Inuit
Among primitive Inuit you would commonly share any seal you caught in hope that if you did not catch a seal the next day others might share with you what they caught. You owned your knife, your spear, your bow, your mukluks and parka which might be the total of your wealth. And if you were a really good hunter people would make sure you got the lion share of food and even gift warmer mittens to you because you were more important than others.
This idea of "primitive communism" by Marx and Engels is fiction.
A sharing society and communism are not the same thing.
They would have been better to call those early sharing societies "primitive capitalism".
The hunter or gatherer accumulates food or resources because he owns his personal means of production, his labor. What he gathers is his. He may consume it, use it, store it or he may take it back to the camp or tribe where he then may choose to share with other hunter-gatherers in that he will win or earn their favor and appreciation to win favor and promote community.
This "primitive capitalism" was practiced by whole nations which had a system of voluntary redistribution of wealth through what was called altars.
The egalitarian society is one where all people deserve equal rights and opportunities not a right to what others produce, hunt or gather. A sharing society dependent upon charitable love for one another was the tradition of the early Church and Moses but John the Baptist and Jesus were specific that you should not force that sharing by an exercising authority over the other.
Yes, Justin the Martyr and Tertulian talked about sharing bread and the apostles rightly divided bread from house to house, but this was within a system of charity and choice. There was no Benefactors who exercised authority one over the other in the Christian community.
Jesus was not a socialist nor did the early Church practice communism. Communism is not a system of charity but a system of one purse which the Bible says runs to evil and we are warned against.
Montero and others who misinterpret the "all things common" quote incorrectly fail to understand the separation of the Church and state or people. Like the Levites of old, Moses and Jesus created a system of self-government where the ministers were separate and titular from the general population of the people. They could not exercise authority one over the other like the Benefactors of the world. While they owned all things in common they did not exercise authority one over the other. The people did not belong to the body of Levites but individually belonged to God[4] Himself or so is the intention of God. The ministers of the Church in the wilderness and the early Church owned all things in common [5] but the people were returned to their possessions and their families[6].
The same as the Church in the wilderness the early Church as a group of appointed ministers called out to minister to the Kingdom of God at hand was composed of men and women who belonged to God, were not of the "world" and were assigned to feed his sheep just as the Levites served the tents of the congregations by providing a Daily ministration through the Corban or sacrifice of the people given as Freewill offerings which the New Testament calls charity. They, the Church and its ordained ministers, held things as joint heirs of a society with a mission of charity as unhewn but lively Stones from which the living Altars of God may be built.
The sheep of Christ hear his voice and live by charity not by force, the appointed shepherds of Christ provide a network of charity and a daily ministration of righteousness according to The Way of Christ.
In fact you cannot be a Communist nor even a socialist and a Christian at the same time. If we are going to define a Christian as someone who believes Jesus and wants to do what he said. Socialism relies upon men who call themselves Benefactors but exercise authority one over the other.
Montero does see the Church and the Christian community as a system of self-supporting charity where people provided and cared for one another but those who think the Christians were communists or even socialist are misled in their final conclusion because they do not understand the nature of the relationship of the appointed Church and the people they were meant to serve and the Kingdom of God and how it works and does not work.
Jesus was not a socialist. We were to take care of one another but only by freewill offerings motivated out of a loving heart and not a covetous one.
Communist Altruism
- “PHILOSOPHICAL opinion is heavily weighted against the notion that members of a large community can care about one another except in cases of extreme emergency, such as war or natural disaster... Humans are simply born with a limited amount of caring capacity...Marx disagrees. He thinks that an unalienated society is possible. It is a society in which members of the community take an interest in the interests of their fellow citizens non-instrumentally.” The Possibility of Communist Altruism J. L. Jenkins History of Philosophy Quarterly Vol. 12, No. 1 (Jan., 1995), pp. 95-109
What if 'members of the community take a covetous interest in the interests of their fellow citizens'?
It is not the system that saves society but the morality. Morality is a choice made by individuals. You cannot enforce morality or altruism without becoming a Cain, Nimrod or Caesar of the world. You can seek to protect your neighbor from falling victim to the abusive choices of others by seeking the Kingdom of God, which is the right to be ruled by God in your heart and mind and by seeking the righteousness of God whose son came to serve.
Early Israel was a large community that operated entirely by freewill offerings. It had no king or ruler, no property, sales or income tax. It did have a tithe but you chose to whom you would give it and there was no enforceable penalty for failing to do so. It had an all-volunteer army and was virtually invincible. It did not oppress the stranger in its midst and had good relationships with many of its neighbors because of the sacrifice of the "Red Heifer".
Modern Christians and most Jews have little understanding of how that system of government worked and functioned. Even Israel forgot the secret of their success and chose a king, a ruler which was a rejection of God. God allowed them to pick someone to rule over them but listed five things to write down and read to him every day as a reminder of his limitation.
Any constitution that tries to set up a government without those limitations on those who will be in power would not be a biblical constitution.
But who is aware of those restrictions and why they were to be written down. Karl Marx certainly did not. Marx thinks a communist society will be able to operate according to the principle “from each according to his ability and to each according to his need.”
The operating word here is “from”.
Who decides the “from”?
Who should decide the legitimacy of a “need”?
In basic capitalism the one who sweats and toils to produce gets to decide the fate and distribution of the products of his labor, sweat and blood, but in communism someone else who did not travail and toil to produce will decide for those who do. Certainly there can be abuses created by individuals who start out practicing capitalism because capitalism leaves the choice in the hands of the individual.
Communists, socialists and other progressives want to take choice away from the individual and give it to the collective or its representatives. There can be little or no Communist Altruism because the system itself is predicated on the principle of taking choice away from the individual which is the primary characteristic of basic capitalism.
Personal selfishness allows society to neglect their neighbor. This is why both Jesus and Moses said you must love your neighbor as yourself and why Jesus condemned the Pharisees for their system of Corban and their failure to attend to the weightier matters.
- “Freedom is the Right to Choose, the Right to create for oneself the alternatives of Choice. Without the possibility of Choice, and the exercise of Choice, a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing”. Archibald MacLeish was an American poet, writer and the Librarian of Congress. (1892 – 1982)
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Footnotes
- ↑ Archibald MacLeish
- ↑ Ezekiel 7:23 Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
- Ezekiel 9:9 Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah [is] exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
- Ezekiel 22:2 Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations.
- Ezekiel 22:3 Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD, The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself.
- Ezekiel 24:6 Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum [is] therein, and whose scum is not gone out of it! bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it.
- Ezekiel 24:9 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the bloody city! I will even make the pile for fire great.
- Hosea 6:8 Gilead [is] a city of them that work iniquity, [and is] polluted with blood.
- ↑ Ezekiel 9:9, Ezekiel 11, Ezekiel 22:3, Habakkuk 2:12, Jeremiah 22:13, Micah 3, Hosea 6:8. It is the cities of Cain, and Nimrod, Pharaoh's Egypt or Caesar's Rome but also FDR's New Deal and LBJ's [New_Deal#Great_Society|Great Society]] where the people have one purse, bite one another to obtain free benefits, and love the wages of unrighteousness. It is the Welfare State where Legal charity has replaced the love of Christ and the modern Churches of the world tickle the ears of the people.
- ↑ Numbers 3:12 And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel: therefore the Levites shall be mine;
- Numbers 3:45 Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be mine: I am the LORD.
- Numbers 8:14 Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be mine.
- ↑ Acts 2:44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; Acts 4:32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
- ↑ Leviticus 25:10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
- Leviticus 25:41 And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.