mrwil65
Active member
How then, should we view socialism today? How should we define at Listen to the definition offered by the World Socialist Party of the United States: "The establishment of a system of society based on the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of society whole... We call this common ownership, but other terms we regard synonymous are communism and socialism.
Socialists believe the world's means of production--including infra- structure, farms, factories, energy, natural resources, medicines, and more-should be under the control of "the people. In other words, society as a whole should own the raw materials and the systems that produce wealth. In a free market system, these materials are usually controlled by companies or individuals, but in socialist countries they are owned by "the people."
Of course, there's no way to make decisions based on such a loose concept as "the people." So under socialism, the government becomes the sole authority and controller of the means of production. Unfortunately, governments are controlled by specific people-often the kinds of people who seek out power. And those people are entirely corruptible by greed, selfishness, lust, vindictiveness, violence, and the overwhelming desire for authority. As more power flows to the government, the handful at the top become dictatorial.
While I was writing this piece about socialism this afternoon, a news network ran a story about a Chinese woman named Xi Van Fleet. She had survived the brutal communist regime of dictator Mao Zedong. In an impassioned speech to a Virginia school board, she elaborated on the similarities between what happened in China during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and what is happening in the United States right now. She said, "They use the same ideology, and same methodology, even the same vocabulary, And with the same goal. The ideology is cultural Marxism. And we were divided into groups as the oppressor and oppressed.... And the take out methodology is also very similar. It's cancel culture, We basically canceled the whole Chinese civilization pre-communism." In his book We Will Not Be Silenced, Erwin Lutzer Pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, Illinois., helped us understand the kind of Marxism we're seeing
"Today we face what is known as cultural Marxism. It is not being imposed on people on the war battlefields; instead, it's a form of Marxism that wins the hearts and minds of people incrementally by the gradual transformation of the culture. Bombarded with exaggerated and illusionary promises, people accept it because they want to, they welcome it because they are convinced of its "benefits." It promises "hope and change." income equality, racial harmony and justice based on secular values rather than Judeo-Christian morality. It is known for professing inclusion rather than exclusion and promoting sexual freedom rather than what they view as the restrictive sexual ethics of the Bible. It is not stifled by allegedly narrow religious traditions but espouses progressive ideas that are deemed worthy of an enlightened future."
Socialists believe the world's means of production--including infra- structure, farms, factories, energy, natural resources, medicines, and more-should be under the control of "the people. In other words, society as a whole should own the raw materials and the systems that produce wealth. In a free market system, these materials are usually controlled by companies or individuals, but in socialist countries they are owned by "the people."
Of course, there's no way to make decisions based on such a loose concept as "the people." So under socialism, the government becomes the sole authority and controller of the means of production. Unfortunately, governments are controlled by specific people-often the kinds of people who seek out power. And those people are entirely corruptible by greed, selfishness, lust, vindictiveness, violence, and the overwhelming desire for authority. As more power flows to the government, the handful at the top become dictatorial.
While I was writing this piece about socialism this afternoon, a news network ran a story about a Chinese woman named Xi Van Fleet. She had survived the brutal communist regime of dictator Mao Zedong. In an impassioned speech to a Virginia school board, she elaborated on the similarities between what happened in China during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and what is happening in the United States right now. She said, "They use the same ideology, and same methodology, even the same vocabulary, And with the same goal. The ideology is cultural Marxism. And we were divided into groups as the oppressor and oppressed.... And the take out methodology is also very similar. It's cancel culture, We basically canceled the whole Chinese civilization pre-communism." In his book We Will Not Be Silenced, Erwin Lutzer Pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, Illinois., helped us understand the kind of Marxism we're seeing
"Today we face what is known as cultural Marxism. It is not being imposed on people on the war battlefields; instead, it's a form of Marxism that wins the hearts and minds of people incrementally by the gradual transformation of the culture. Bombarded with exaggerated and illusionary promises, people accept it because they want to, they welcome it because they are convinced of its "benefits." It promises "hope and change." income equality, racial harmony and justice based on secular values rather than Judeo-Christian morality. It is known for professing inclusion rather than exclusion and promoting sexual freedom rather than what they view as the restrictive sexual ethics of the Bible. It is not stifled by allegedly narrow religious traditions but espouses progressive ideas that are deemed worthy of an enlightened future."