Reason #3 that Marxism is an impossible utopian dream: Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

If you are a Leftist stargazer you might be half-aware that a Marxist system always demands that its citizens surrender all of their freedoms, all of their possessions and all of the fruits of their labor. Maybe you even think that is a fair trade for what you believe you will get in return: social equality and government fulfillment of your every need from your daily bread to all of your health care needs. Personally speaking that is a deal I could not go for. I just could not live without my freedom.

The energetic health care debate going on in this country has brought up comparisons to our system against those of countries that have adopted communist and socialist health care systems. Do those systems deliver on their promises? Let’s focus on the communist systems since communism, not health care, is the subject under discussion. Does communism deliver the equality and social security of its utopian promises? Yes, it does. At least it tries mightily to do so. It does the best job it can. It does it very, very badly; right up to the end where it finally collapses or morphs into a communist/capitalist bastardization of some kind.

‘So what’, you say? You would still chuck it all for a communist system that promises that it will not let you get eaten alive in the daily competition of a capitalist system. You are willing to accept the possibility that you may have to stand in bread lines and go home empty handed sometimes because in a capitalist system you’d have to work for that loaf of bread. And are aware that you will not be owning a car so you’ll be taking the bus or riding your bicycle to work every day to a job the government picked for you. Still, you will be getting paid the same as the guy digging in the trench next to yours. And that’s fairness. Everything he gets you will get. And the topping on the cake is that if you are black and he is white it’s not going to matter anymore. Social equality will have arrived.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m right there in the fight against bigotry in all of its forms. But the mere fact that I earn more than the average black, red or brown underachiever does not make me a racist. It probably just means that I’ve gotten my education and I’m working harder or smarter. If I’m better off because I’ve done the right things in my life I expect to earn and keep the rewards from my efforts. That’s the way it supposed to go in a free capitalist system. Hell, I even know some black people who have done well in life. And guess what. Them racists want to keep what they earned, too.

You say you would still give it all up for the dismal promises of utopian communism? You realize, don’t you, that if you turn all of your freedom, all of your possessions and all of your labor over to government you will have granted absolute power to that government? You know, don’t you, that absolute power corrupts absolutely? Do you know enough about history to name some nations that have allowed absolute power to take hold their governments? I’ll name a few for you just from the last century. Let’s start with the biggies:

Adolf Hitler of Germany. A conservative estimate of the number of people slaughtered in his name; 50 million.

Joseph Stalin of The Soviet Union. A conservative estimate of the number of people murdered in his name; 20 million.

Mao Tse Tung of China. 70 million victims.

Honorable mentions:

Mussolini
Sadam Hussein
Pol Pot
Hirohito
Ho Chi Minh
Kim Jung Il

…and a host of others too numerous to name.

Not all communists; for sure, but absolute dictators? Absolutely.

I’ve heard rumors…they are just rumors, don’t spread them…that in the American communist/anarchist underground they are talking about liquidating 50 million or more of our citizens when they get the power. I know that’s crazy talk. You didn’t hear those kind of rumors in 1918 Russia, 1933 Germany or 1943 China. People didn’t talk crazy like that back then. They were more sensible in those days.

A precondition of communism is the establishment of absolute government power. No absolute power - no communism. Absolute power is an essential axiom in the definition of Marxist communism. I don’t know how make it more clear than that.