The ruler in the Virtuous City uses his superior human reasoning ability to direct the people, with or without personal divine revelation. It’s his job to force the citizens to be obedient to the laws of happiness. The author chose democracy for the ideal system of government, but gave society a rigid stratification with rulers at all levels to make sure—with force—that everyone behaved correctly.
BOOK: Utopia, published in 1516—full title: A Truly Golden Handbook, No Less Beneficial Than Entertaining, About the Best State of the Commonwealth and the New Island of Utopia.
AUTHOR: Thomas More (A.D. 1478-1535)
SYNOPSIS: Written as a dialogue between two people (More and a friend, Peter Giles), the tale spins around the island of Utopia, where there is no private property or money. Everyone is forced to work the farms and must learn a craft that will benefit the city. Their clothing, hair styles, and homes are all the same. No locks on doors—in fact, houses are swapped by lottery every 10 years.
Meals are eaten in common and all venues of vice (taverns, brothels, etc.) are forbidden. There are no secret private places, and permission is needed to take a stroll or leave the town.
The Utopians are pagans who found “god” in all things. The narration criticizes European society of the day, and weaves the possibilities of brilliant regimentation among the island’s people into humanity’s failings—from which solutions to everything are found.
BOOK: City of the Sun, published 1602
AUTHOR: Tommaso Campanella (A.D. 1568-1639)
SYNOPSIS: This is another seafarer story where a Grandmaster asks a sea captain to tell about his latest voyage. The spokesman describes an island in the Indian Ocean where a priest rules all. He knows everything and is therefore brilliant, wise, and understanding, and able to meet the needs of all the inhabitants (called Solarians).
All things are in common, including women and children. Everyone receives their needs from the community, and the officials make sure no one gets more than he deserves or goes wanting. Everyone must work four hours a day—the rest of the time is spent “in pleasant occupation with the sciences, in discourse and in reading.”
BOOK: New Atlantis, published 1624
AUTHOR: Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
SYNOPSIS: This story takes place on a mysterious island called Bensalem, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, west of Peru. These people manage to create the perfect socialistic society, including the ideal college, “Salomon’s House.” Living in such isolation, it is curious how they became Christian and how they acquired so much knowledge from the outside world. These puzzles are resolved in the book—in particular, how they send fellows in disguise around the world to collect the best inventions and ideas (all created, of course, in free societies) and bring them back to benefit the island.
BOOK: The Law of Freedom, published 1652
AUTHOR: Gerrard Winstanley (1609-1676)
SYNOPSIS: As a leader of the Diggers movement, Winstanley complained to Oliver Cromwell that the English revolution did not help improve the poor. His “Law of Freedom” presents his socialistic view of a future day when money and private property are not needed. The government regulates everything, and all production is put into a central storehouse. Regimentation exists on all levels of society, and neighbors can have each other arrested for violating the rules of society.
BOOK: How the Other Half Lives, published 1890
AUTHOR: Jacob Riis (1849-1914)
SYNOPSIS: Riis was a so-called muckraker who photographed the poor and their run-down housing in New York City. The shocking exposé served to unite public demand for government intervention—people wanted strict laws to improve housing, standardize the building codes, and improve sanitation.
To everyone’s satisfaction, more or less, the government did step in and force change, all at the expense of free-market solutions. Why couldn’t the market fix these things? The socialists say it was because of greed. The free market was too slow, too irregular, and too inefficient—or so the socialists said.
BOOK: The Jungle, published 1906
AUTHOR: Upton Sinclair (1878-1968)
SYNOPSIS: It’s not too difficult to make a slaughter house look disgusting and unsanitary, but Sinclair’s creativity helped launch a nationwide examination of how America’s meat supply was processed. The descriptions of filthy handling and packaging processes prompted lawmakers to pass the Meat Inspection Act in 1906.
The free market has a way of fixing things if left to its own devices. To this point, the financial incentives to clean up the meat packing processes were curtailed by government intervention. It was an easy activity to regulate, and government control carried popular support. Since then, government regulations have spread into nearly every aspect of American society because of the same concerns and presumptions of control. Proponents of the free market insist, once again, that the free market would do a better job were it left to its own creative ways.
BONUS BOOK: Communist Manifesto (1848)
AUTHOR: Karl Marx (1818-1883) & Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
SYNOPSIS: This short book is mostly Marx’s passionate call for a grand revolution. He and Engels tell the workers of the world to unite and overthrow capitalism, abolish private property, install a heavy graduated income tax, eliminate the family as a social unit, abolish all classes, establish industrial armies (unions), overthrow all governments, and enact communism with communal ownership of property in a classless, stateless society. Alas, as with all the other books on socialism, the Communist Manifesto has a very bad ending.
Learning to Recognize Socialism
What is a trade union? What is its primary purpose? Which of the seven pillars of socialism are used by unions today?
Is the freedom for employees to associate together and organize a union protected by the Constitution? Is the right to strike, and not be fired, a vested right or an unalienable right? Explain.
Is a business owner’s right to control his property protected by the Constitution? Is that right violated when the government prevents the owner from firing striking union members? Explain.
Why are unions in decline? Name three instances where union intransigence resulted in a company going out of business. Whose rights were not protected in these disasters?
Do unions promote or inhibit the free exercise of unalienable rights? Are unions necessary today?
Frederick Denison Maurice hated competition, and encouraged profit-sharing as a means to create the perfect Christian society. Can profits be created without competition? Explain.
Why did the communal township of Hopedale fail? Can good, wholesome Christian attitudes overcome the natural inclinations of self interest and competition?
Why did nearly all of the 200 communal towns set up by Brigham Young in the mountain west eventually abandon “all things in common”? What basic principle was violated? When they started following that principle, what happened?
Name three actions that Robert Malthus suggested to ensure there would be enough food production to meet world-wide demand. Who, in recent decades, tried to follow Malthus’ suggestions?
How did Darwin’s theories influence those of Karl Marx? Do Marx’s theories advance human freedoms? Explain.
What did John Dewey think about traditional values? What did he suggest as an alternative? What role did he play in the writing of the Humanist Manifesto? Name three of his theories in practice today in public schools, entertainment, and government.
What does Plato suggest as a structure for an orderly society as expressed in his The Republic? Are his ideas any different from goals and promises put forward by today’s socialists?
In Thomas More’s Utopia, are people free to do as they please? What are some things they are compelled to do?
Regarding Sinclair’s The Jungle, what are some free-market ideas that could have cleaned up Ameri
ca’s meat-processing industries without requiring government intervention or regulation?
If a meat-packing company president could be personally sued for problems attributable to his product, how do you suppose that industry might be different today? Would government regulation and oversight be necessary if producers were personally liable?
If you were personally liable for your company’s products, how careful would you be to make sure it met all promised purposes?
What does the Communist Manifesto teach about unions? Taxes? Families? Private property? List examples of those goals being achieved today.
Part X--Revolution of the Socialists, Part: 3
“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?”
* * *
397 Will Durant, The Life of Greece, Chapter XX, p. 513, Simon and Schuster, 2011.
Chapter 62: Revolutionary: Bad Amendments
For lack of understanding about the correct principles of freedom, Americans busied themselves amending away their liberties—a little here, a little there—until suddenly, the country was back on a path toward Ruler’s Law.
14th Amendment (Ratified 1868)
Of all the Amendments, the Fourteenth (passed in 1868) is one of the longest, perhaps the most poorly written, and certainly one of the most difficult to understand.398 Whole books have been written to explain its creation, passage and subsequent ramifications.399 It lacks the more careful and calculated calmness typically present in other bills and amendments.
The 14th is repetitive but it plugged some holes left by the 13th in regards to giving former slaves their full rights of citizenship. In some States the former slaves were “forbidden to appear in the towns in any other character than menial servants,” or were excluded from some jobs, or barred from testifying in court against a white.400 These lapses, among others, were dealt with by this amendment.
The 14th added three new limitations to States’ powers: 1) States may not violate citizens’ privileges or immunities, 2) States may not deprive them of life, liberty or property without due process, 3) and States must guarantee equal protection by the law.
Good Points in the Fourteenth
Citizenship: Every person born in America is automatically a citizen. This was passed to stop the abuse of former slaves that continued despite the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery.
Rights: States may not pass laws that violate the rights belonging to all Americans. This principle actually repeats what was already granted in Article 4.2: “The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.”
Full Hearing in Court: No State may deprive anyone of life, liberty, or property without a full hearing provided by law. This principle repeats what was already guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment: “No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
3/5ths Designation Abolished: The anti-slavery provision in Article 1.2 regarding “3/5ths” was to prevent the South from counting slaves for tax and representation advantages. The 14th did away with that 3/5ths designation, a change that suddenly gave southern states more political power. How? When slaves became free persons, the increased voting populations of the south warranted the election of additional congressmen. Bad Points in the Fourteenth
Only the federal government may define or declare “privileges or immunities” regardless of what the people in any particular State vote on. This violated the 9th and 10th Amendment rules that powers not given the federal government by default belong to the States.
Unequal Protection: When Pres. Obama defined morning-after pills and abortion as a protected privilege, States and businesses opposing those actions on religious grounds were compelled to obey. The Supreme Court later ruled with Hobby Lobby that certain businesses could rightfully exercise their religious rights regarding some abortion-causing drugs.When Congress imposed the graduated income tax the 14th prevented the States from protecting its wealthiest citizens from paying more. The States could pass no law to the contrary.
Citizenship: Every person born in America is automatically a citizen. Those entering the U.S. illegally who then give birth may see their offspring today receive the gifts of citizenship, free hospital care, welfare, Medicaid, education, reduced college tuition, Social Security, and other benefits that legal immigrants often wait years to receive. This expensive American gift has been abused to strengthen a political base and flood the States with immigrants they can’t filter.
Deprived Leadership: Section 3 prevented the South from putting its most capable leadership into federal office (because they had “engaged in insurrection or rebellion”). Six months after the 14th was ratified, President Andrew Johnson erased this bad provision by giving a full pardon and full amnesty “unconditionally and without reservation” to all who had been engaged in the Southern cause.401
Impact: Debate continues on whether or not the 14th imposed the Bill of Rights on the States, rights that were meant to be a restriction on the federal government. This gave congress power to vote on laws that traditionally had been the States’ responsibility—a step closer to Ruler’s Law. The volumes of writings pointing to inconsistency and narrowly interpreted meanings and nuances in the 14th are in ugly contrast to the brevity and clarity present in most other amendments. 16th AMENDMENT (Ratified 1913)
The Sixteenth Amendment was advertised as a “soak the rich” scheme that backfired terribly and has been soaking everyone for a century. This Amendment gave Congress the power to extract taxes directly from everyone’s personal income.
Good Points in the Sixteenth
For the socialists, this Amendment provided the mechanics to generate virtually unlimited funding for their progressive programs. It footed the bill so they could promise anything in exchange for the voters’ support: “Keep me in office, and when we retake the White House, think of all the money I can bring to our State!”402
Bad Points in the Sixteenth
Direct Taxation: The Amendment violates the more thoughtful and less intrusive process of taxation given by the Founders in Article 1, Section 2 and 9.
Violates Privacy: The 16th inadvertently repealed the 4th Amendment by opening up American homes and private lives to the prying examination of snooping tax collectors. The 4th Amendment declares: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ...”
Destroys Capitalism: The 16th implements Karl Marx’s strategy to destroy a capitalist society with steep and unequal taxes. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx called for “... A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.”403 This supports his maxim, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”404 It is those very profits the “rich” earn that are spent or invested to generate more activity in the market place—more sales, more buys, more jobs. Disproportionate taxes remove that necessary horsepower from the market place.
Discriminates: Graduated taxation takes more from those who have proven themselves better capable of generating great profits than from those who don’t know how, or are just lazy.Impact: When T. Coleman Andrews, the Commissioner of the IRS, resigned from his post in 1950, he blasted the Sixteenth Amendment as one of the worst course changes America had made: “I am convinced that the present system,” Andrews said, “is leading us right back to the very tyranny from which those who established this land of freedom, risked their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to forever free themselves.”405
Most of this tax money went to federal programs that the Founders declared should remain State responsibilities. A whole generation of “progressive” thinking is to be blamed for breaking down these chains of protection. The resulting rampant and immoral accumulation of tax power has grown into a futile a
ttempt to fulfill the utopian pursuits of cradle to grave care by the government. Such spending has bankrupted America to the tune of trillions of dollars.
17th AMENDMENT (Ratified 1913)
The original job of a senator was to represent the State as a sovereign entity. The State legislature selected their representatives (the senators) to go back to Washington and make sure their State’s best interests were protected and represented—such as keeping taxes as low as possible, balancing the budget, helping calm the abrupt extremes of the House that might erupt from time to time, and providing stability in the government. Senators were supposed to be the seasoned senior statesmen who kept things moving forward.
The 17th Amendment ruined this important link in representative government. It made both the senators and the house members representatives of the popular ebbs and flows of emotional rambunctiousness, actions that typically lead to bad choices for leaders. That’s why congressmen were allotted only two years in office, so they couldn’t do too much damage before their reckless ways could be exposed and they were kicked out. That’s why senators were beholden to the legislature—the legislature could fire them immediately. But today, almost six long years must expire before the next voting cycle when voters are empowered to replace a bad senator.
The momentum to vote senators into office (instead of appoint) began with prolonged debates over the subject during the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Rumblings opposing appointment continued over the decades and all the way into the early 1900s. The final blow came when Senator William Lorimer (R-Ill) literally purchased his way into office by bribing the whole legislature to appoint him as senator. The nation was in an uproar over the corruption and demanded protection in the form of popular election.
Ever since, nearly all seated senators have pointed to that corruption as justification for keeping the 17th Amendment in place. They do not want to answer to the direct scolding of legislators for betraying their state’s best interests—appealing to the mass of inattentive voters is so much easier with good ad campaigns at election time. Many senators like to run on a platform to repeal the 17th, but once in office, they claim their presence in the Senate is so valuable, “let’s repeal it later.”
The Naked Socialist Page 34