I hope the general public realizes that the basic cause of today's turmoil in not just politics, oil, or religion but philosophy. When we do not learn from history, we are forced to repeat it. Nothing further from the truth could be said about today's world events.
I was dismayed to hear during a sermon last month a reference from a rabbi which called for the redistribution of wealth as one of the ways to address the terrible issues of the day. I hope people in general realize that this is a marxist-socialist principle which has been discredited by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the pathetic squalor of numerous other socialist societies.
Capitalism can function without socialism, but socialism soon comes to a dismal end without the capital on which it feeds. Not because it bankrupts one's purse, but because socialism denies the soul. The philosophy of socialism stops at giving a hungry man a fish because that is how to keep him subservient to the State. If he is free, taught HOW to fish, and allowed to keep his fish, what need has he for assistance?
The societies around the world which have been devastated by socialist principles now threaten the healthier economies not because charity was denied, - no country in the history of the earth has been more generous than the United States, - but because these socialist governments have starved their populations and deprived them of their individual autonomy. Socialists are taught NOT to support themselves and as a result become subservient to the government (read despots) on which they depend from cradle to grave. North Korea is a fine example; it supports its nuclear armament program with an illicit arms trade and by starving its population- a population which has been isolated from the world and fed nothing but propaganda of hate.
That begs the question, what is capital? Is it monetary wealth? Hoarding? Greed? None of these. Capital is the physical manifestion of human endeavor and spirit. In other words, SOMEBODY had to work to make the profit. It is the concrete manifestation of human striving, talent, independence, and pride in one's work. And it is the right to be free to hold property and keep the profit of one's endeavor without being forced to give away one's wealth. It is also the freedom to sell one's labor without compromising one's beliefs.
Even though many socialist countries contain huge resources in human potential, such potential is never realized because the will to succeed or do better is fettered by socialist inertia and back-biting. Nothing can be done without committee approval, therefore mostly nothing gets done. But more and more resources are stripped from individuals in the form of crippling taxes - a veritable slavery to the "State" which is in reality the socialist bureaucratic class.
Socialist propaganda is rife with references to the negatives attributed to capitalism, but the popular media of today ignores the millions of "politically incorrect" people who were liquidated by Stalin, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot, Hitler and other despots too numerous to mention. Yes, Hitler's regime was a socialist party - quaintly known as the National-sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei.
My grandmother's parents were taken to their village square and murdered in front of their children and neighbors because they refused to deny their Christian faith and denounce their church. Nor would they surrender their farm to the State. They had a working farm, mind you, not a luxurious estate run with serfs. They believed their church should not bow to the demands of any secular power. As church elders they defied the socialists and were tortured and died as martyrs for their faith and their political beliefs. Their children were left to wander the countryside to find the nearest relative, a three day's walk away, as their neighbors were forbidden to help. With God's grace working through American Christian services, my grandmother came to the United States to be FREE.. to live free from the depravity of socialism, to EARN her living decently, and to worship God.
These political conditions are as alive today as they were for my grandmother. Make no mistake. It begins with a compromise of private property and individual liberty - the "get the rich" and "we'll get our share" philosophy which is the socialist plaint and moan. It ends with a sickening deprivation of the soul, the denial of a supreme deity, and, ultimately, the revocation of the most fundamental of human rights.
America is country that is rich, yes. But its greatest wealth is the individual freedom its citizens enjoy. A freedom, I don't have to remind you, which came at a cost of many lives. A freedom which continues to be challenged to this day.
If war darkens our sky once again, it is because the disease of socialism should have been eradicated much earlier. And all the things which socialists endorse like communal property, communal living, communal sex, etc. which are touted as enticing, experimental, and progressive, in reality are NONE of these. In reality, they are fissures in the dam.
So please consider your sources carefully for your arguments. If you are a rational person, ask yourself if you could actually live like a socialist, with little or no consideration for God and self and only the so-called "State" as the center of the universe. For in the socialist world there is no room for any higher authority than the politburo committee and the despot or despots pulling the strings.
In God We Trust