The Naked Socialist

by Paul B Skousen

  The issues then at hand were the pirates of Algiers selling American citizens into slavery. Washington’s outrage was supported by a few who said, “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.” Seven months after Washington’s appeal (July 19, 1794), the pacifists persuaded Congress to pay a ransom of $800,000 to the pirates to leave U.S. shipping alone. The true slogan of the pacifists should have been “Millions for tribute and not one cent for defense.”781

  The war between force and choice is not just a fight for the right kind of congressmen, president, soldiers and diplomats. Resisting the mind-set and oppression of socialism with understanding and firmness, and working for the expansion of freedom, is everyone’s job.

  There is great hope and peace of mind that comes from studying the principles of freedom, but there’s more to living that elevated type of liberty than just having a certain knowledge of current events.

  The Role of Judeo-Christian Ethics in Liberty

  Anatole Lunarcharsky (1875-1933), the former Russian Commissar of Education, once declared, “We hate Christians and Christianity… Down with love of one’s neighbor! What we want is hate. Only then will we conquer the universe!”

  What is it about Judeo-Christian ethics and beliefs that are so damaging to Lunarcharsky, Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and a host of other barbarians who sought to create the world in their own images? History makes the answer clear: Judeo-Christian ethics promote freedom of personal choice along the lines taught in the Bible, and thereby effectively inoculate a nation from internal decay and eventual enslavement. Those ethics and moral choices include—

  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.782

  Blessed are the peacemakers.783

  It is better to give than to receive.784

  Do not hate your enemies but do good unto them.785

  Be as humble and teachable as a little child.786

  Be wise, aggressive and alert to promote good and preserve peace.787

  Perfect yourself by overcoming personal weaknesses.788

  Follow the commandments of God to increase the value of your life and blot out the scars of past mistakes.789

  The greatest happiness comes through the greatest service.790

  Do good secretly and God—who seeth in secret—will reward you openly.791

  Do socialists promote these ideals, or do they seek to tear them down and replace them, by force, with their own morality? The Bible teaches that we are responsible to God for our daily conduct, even for our thoughts.792 And from such personal and responsible behavior come the traits and reliability that will support lasting freedom and the prosperity it creates. A nation cannot be destroyed by an enemy until it first destroys itself from within. A virtuous people prevents such decay, but virtue must be a voluntary choice, that is the key.

  In 1839, Gardiner Spring said it this way: “Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is impossible that a nation of infidels and idolaters should be a nation of freemen. It is when a people forget God, that tyrants forge their chains. The principles of liberty and the principles of the Bible are most exactly coincident. A vitiated [spoiled] state of morals, a corrupted public conscience is incompatible with freedom. Nothing short of the strong influence of that system of truth which God has revealed from heaven is competent so to guide, moderate, and preserve the balance between the conflicting interests and passions of men, as to prepare them for the blessings of free government.”793

  What, then, can we do? Because national leaders are products of the cultures in which they were reared and raised, the first step is to secure that culture and return it to its base. We must return to thinking like jealous lovers of freedom, aware of our past, aware of our present, and determined to secure our unlimited potential—

  How May Parents Help?

  A quote often attributed to Vladimir Lenin declared, “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” Regardless of who said it, every parent knows this to be true for both good and evil. The best starting place, therefore, to change a socialist thinker into a freedom thinker is at home.

  Good parents stay close to children and teach them to think like Washington and Lincoln (“how do I solve my own problems?”), not like Marx, Lenin, and Che Guevara (“give us the power and we’ll solve your problems for you.”)

  Good parents provide both physical and spiritual needs for their family. A basis in religion helps children understand that socialism worships the god of force, while the real God is one of kindly persuasion, love and choice. Good parents take their children to church, they don’t send them. And, they make sure their children are getting true religious values, not modernistic debunking. As Karl Marx saw things, an atheistic mind is already three-fourths conquered.

  Good parents help their children grow, they don’t fall for the current sophistry that they are a detriment to their children. Parents are only a detriment when they don’t do their job.

  Children need to know their boundaries and that there are consequences to their choices. Discipline—not extreme harshness—teaches a child that he lives in an orderly world, and such lessons learned early in life improve human development.

  And, good parents keep a home library of educational materials that support principles of freedom, industry and knowledge. Keeping up on current events and being quick to point out news that slants a story against traditional values will help children see the benefits of Judeo-Christian values in maintaining freedom.

  Children borrow their attitudes from mom and dad. Good parents practice what they preach and work to learn, understand and teach, always being careful not to leave these parental responsibilities to others.

  How May Teachers Help?

  Teachers are in the front-line trenches of the battle for lasting freedom. It is important that they have a good background in history and an understanding of how liberty is eroded so they can detect the old subversive ideas quickly whenever they appear in curriculum.

  Teachers should define for students the difference between what made America the first free nation in modern times, and those seven bad ideas that destroy freedom whenever the socialists take charge.

  Teachers can help students understand that free enterprise has produced and distributed more material wealth than any other system man has yet discovered. Point out that it also permits most of our citizens to make a living doing the things they enjoy, and lets them change jobs if they don’t like what they are doing. It is also vital for students to appreciate that the remaining weaknesses in our system are important, but they are minute compared to the monumental problems of the bare-subsistence economies that always exist under socialism and communism.

  Teachers should be aware of educational organizations that are socialist-oriented. They should organize and involve other alerted teachers and move forward as a group, and retake control.

  Adopting new textbooks is not as automatic as it once was. That’s because alerted parents and teachers are on the lookout for slanted and biased passages, content and omissions that advance certain beliefs that are destructive to time-tested traditional values.

  A major milestone was achieved by socialists when God and the Bible were outlawed in the classroom, and most of today’s generation sees no problem with that—an unfortunate outcome. “Separation of church and state” was to keep creeds out of the curriculum, but not God. It would be as unconstitutional to teach irreligion in the classroom as it would be to emphasize some particular religion. Teachers are not to teach a particular faith, but parents are within their rights when they insist that the classroom not be used by those few teachers who seek to destroy faith.

  Teachers who believe that teaching atheism is a necessary part of a good education are not really qualified to teach in a Judaic-Chris-tian culture. They are entitled to be atheists, but, as public employees, they are not entitled to teach it. If they
do, they are violating important constitutional principles represented in the First Amendment (establishing a religion (atheism) or prohibiting free exercise of religion), Article IV (prohibition of religious tests), and the Fourteenth Amendment that prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion by securing “the equal protection of the laws” for every person.

  How May Students Help?

  A student will never have more time to study freedom and socialism than while at school. Gaining a genuine understanding of these philosophies, histories, and fallacies will serve as a point of reference for all things political and economic for the rest of a student’s life.

  Most students don’t have the patience to detect slanting in textbooks and lectures. When something doesn’t sound right, bring it to the attention of parents and talk it over. This helps students work up their own answers to the ever-present push to exchange freedom and capitalism for centralized government and managed economies.

  Students should be aware that most people look at world events through one of two windows. Out of one window the students (and sometimes the professor) see only blue skies. Out of the other window the student can see storm clouds—this is the window to watch. This is where history is being made, and the person who doesn’t keep his eye on this window is caught unawares when the storm breaks. On the day of the attack on the World Trade Center towers, most Americans had to move from window No. 1 to window No. 2 with great speed. They came close to being too late. Damage from the world’s threatening political storms can be avoided only by anticipating them—by being vigilant, educated, and alert.

  How May Businesses Help?

  Remember that Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Madison, Adams, and the rest of the founding fathers were not “colonial aristocrats” as some textbooks portray them, but were successful businessmen. Because they were willing to sit down and think through the problems of their day, we inherited a free nation.

  Business owners may play a similar role if they choose to. By staying informed and taking an active role in the political party of their choice is a good starting place.

  Watch for the strong socialist influence which is trying to take over both parties. Do not hesitate to throw your financial strength and your time behind the fight for freedom. It cost Washington $65,000 to leave his business and serve in the Revolutionary Army. In current inflated money values this would represent more than $1.5 million.

  Become a sponsor of essay and speech contests in school to promote American ideals and resist socialistic deceptions. Stir the local Chamber of Commerce to join you as a sponsor. Keep the entire community alert. Furnish views and suggestions to State and federal legislators, and invite State legislators to participate in freedom forums or presentations to schools.

  And, strive to promote anyone standing up for a balanced budget, a reduction in the size and scope of the federal government, and a more equitable tax structure that is not arbitrary and confiscatory.

  How May Legislators Help?

  The war between freedom and slavery can be lost in the legislative halls of free men. The wave of socialism that is sweeping many free western nations toward a kind of suppressive feudalism is gaining ground. In this battle our legislators are on the first line of defense.

  The entire fabric of American security has been badly weakened by technical decisions of the Supreme Court in recent decades. Creeping elements of Ruler’s Law have been allowed into American society to the point that many of King George’s abuses that triggered the rebellion in 1776 are now firmly entrenched in the cultural fabric of the United States.

  The two party system that the founders fought against 225 years ago has grounded the U.S. Congress in stagnation and conflict. Instead of solving problems together, it is competing for political power at the expense of the American people’s well-being. A good executive might have calmed that acrimony, but to the socialist, it is not about anything but the consolidation of power.

  Like turning the Titanic before it hit the iceberg, trying to save the federal government from an implosion requires several steps.

  The senators have not been responsive to the people ever since the 17th amendment was passed. This needs to be repealed and the senators need to have new bosses in the form of attentive state legislators who have the power to hire and fire senators if they stray from the people’s will, as so many have for a century.

  The Judiciary answers to no one, making it a super-legislative body exactly as Jefferson warned. A call to the states to override any Supreme Court decision by a 3/5ths majority vote, and restricting the justices to 4 or 6 year terms, renewable only by the States, would go far toward removing today’s political activism from the court’s rulings.

  How May the Press Help?

  The blatant bias in media reporting in recent years has rendered too many reporting institutions irrelevant in the great debate of ideas. With the advent of the Internet, such bias is exposed and spread to millions of people at the speed of light. Both the politicizing of news reporting and the advent of technological transmission of information has replaced printed newspapers and news magazines as the principle source of news. Hundreds of papers have gone out of business as a result—in particular, those caught with blatant bias in their reporting.

  In fulfilling the task of exposing crime, corruption and inefficiency in the American culture, reporters should be careful not to destroy confidence in American institutions. Because the negative forces in our society are more likely to be “news” than the positive accomplishments, it is easy to over-emphasize the negative side and provide extremely damaging propaganda to the enemies of freedom. Balanced reporting should always reflect a solid American interpretation of the problem. Isn’t that also bias? No, that’s telling the whole truth.

  A constant diet of how bad everything is, without the opposing viewpoints of hope and courage by applying correct principles, not only reduces subscribers but it puts the loudest proponents of the destruction of the American way of life forefront in the news on a regular basis. Dig deeper so principles of liberty can play their part.

  How May Ministers Help?

  The religious foundation stones of freedom may be found throughout history and among the peoples of the Bible. These witnesses to the proper role of government serve no purpose if they are excluded from regular Sabbath day teachings. As representatives of God in the lives of millions, the ministers play a necessary role in teaching God’s gift of choice, self-control, personal refinement and responsibility. These identical qualities are necessary in political leaders. As Paul taught, if a man cannot rule his own being, how can he rule the Church of God?794 The principles are all the same on every level.

  Ministers today need to be wary of purveyors of deception who seek to bury true principles in false declarations. Some of these falsehoods include labeling Jesus as the first true socialist, or that the early Christians practiced all things in common ‘as good socialists should,‘ or that God rules by force instead of persuasion, patience and love. Prior chapters in this book address those teachings.

  Until the ministers understand for themselves the eight unalienable rights, the seven pillars of socialism, and passages in the Bible where these come in conflict, it will be difficult to persuade a congregation that political freedom is the same as personal righteousness. Leaders reflect the attributes of the people from whom they rise.

  The gospel as originally taught is in total harmony with the principles of freedom as protected in the Constitution. An interesting scripture search would be to discover those passages that promote limited and representative government, protection of minority rights, and the lasting damage that results from violating God’s laws by forcing people to obey somebody else’s version of “good.”

  The Birthing Grounds of Freedom

  In the 1770s, the rugged settlers of a rough-hewn agrarian society, grossly underrated as mere American colonists, launched a
unique and unprecedented revolution against the world’s greatest military power.

  From these humble beginnings, pockmarked with risk and resistance, grew an uprising of the noblest kind.

  Their ensuing shout for freedom was no coincidental gasp of the beleaguered. It was a brilliant declaration of principle. It was founded not on guns and cannon fire, nor bayonets and open fields of slaughter. This revolution was rooted in the simple but eloquent words of Jesus, “... know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”795

  What is this truth that exposes and reveals so much with such liberating strength as to serve the cause to “make you free”?796 Has truth the fortitude to abolish socialism?

  The truth is, the “laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” are at the foundation of all good government. It is a condition of liberty that natural law be honored and sustained, and that the people have a natural affinity and love for “Nature’s God,” God’s laws of justice, and their fellow man.

  The truth is, self-mastery is necessary for freedom. It is a condition of liberty that “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom,” because “as nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”797

  The truth is, religion is the most efficient structure to elicit individual self-restraint and selflessness for an orderly and peaceful society. It is a condition of liberty that religion be freely allowed to work its refining influence on the people—without force or compulsion—as the means to prepare leaders and followers with the highest caliber of integrity, honesty, compassion, virtue, and ethics.

  The truth is, all people possess unalienable rights that no other has the moral authority to abrogate. It is a condition of liberty that rights be jealously guarded and preserved as the well-spring from which solutions to all problems will emerge.

  The truth is, all men are created equal, but that’s all. After birth, the only equality is in the eyes of God, in the eyes of the law, and in the endowment of unalienable rights. It is a condition of liberty that life’s struggles remain unimpeded by government intervention except to rectify violations of moral law.