A statue in Trier, Germany, of the father of Communism of Karl Marx. Marx said “the theory of Communism may be summarized in one sentence: Abolish all private property.” Photo courtesy: Ronald Wittek/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
Marxism has inflicted untold misery on tens of millions of people who have been forced to live under regimes waving its banner. For much of the 20th century, 40% of humanity suffered famines, gulags, censorship, and other forms of repression at the hands of self-proclaimed Marxists. Marx spent most of his life analyzing the political economy of the industrializing mid-19th–century West. But his enduring relevance owes more to his ideas for the future and the implications they would have for society.
In considering his legacy, thinking people can not ignore this area of his thought. Marx regarded private property as the source of all evil in the emerging capitalist societies of his day. Accordingly, he believed that only abolishing private property class divisions would disparate and ensure a harmonious future. Under communism, his collaborator Friedrich Engels later claimed that the state would become unnecessary and ‘wither away.’ Engels did not make these assertations as speculation but rather as scientific claims about the future held in store. In America today, the unconstitutional administrative state is predicated on the need to follow the science even at the expense of individual freedom. President-elect Joe Biden
Repeatedly says follow the science and offers mandates that usurp freedom. But, of course, it was all rubbish, and Marx’s theory of history—dialectical materialism—has since been proved wrong and dangerous in practically every respect. The great 20th-century philosopher Karl Popper, one of Marx’s strongest critics, rightly called him a ‘false prophet.’
People who study Marxist ideology know the countries that embraced capitalism in the 20th century became democratic, open, and prosperous societies. By contrast, every regime that has rejected capitalism in the name 
of Marxism has failed—and not by coincidence or as a result of some unfortunate doctrinal misunderstanding on the part of Marx’s followers. By abolishing private ownership and establishing state control of the economy, one not only deprives society of the entrepreneurship needed to propel it forward; one also abolishes freedom.
Because Marxism treats all contradictions in society as the products of a class struggle that will disappear when the private property does, dissent after the establishment of communism is impossible. By definition, any challenge to the new order must be an illegitimate remnant of the oppressive order that came before. Thus, Marxist regimes have been logical extensions of his doctrines.
Public Service Commission of South Carolina is an intermediary step to total socialism by supposedly regulating a state authorized monopoly.
Governments that have embraced Marx’s mechanical and deterministic philosophy inevitably must turn to totalitarianism when confronting the reality of a complex society. They have not always fully succeeded, but the results have always been tragic. For example, if China’s development is being held back by anything today, it is the remnants of Marxism that are still visible in inefficient state-owned enterprises and dissent repression. China’s centralized single-party system merely is incompatible with modern and diverse society.
Two hundred years after Marx’s birth, it is undoubtedly wise to reflect on his intellectual legacy. However, we should do so not in celebration but to inoculate our open societies against the totalitarian temptation that lurks in his false theories.
Patriots, the fraudulent election of Joe Biden, was an attempt by socialist globalist Democrats to force Marxism on our constitutional republic and rob patriotic Americans of our inalienable freedoms. Conservatives must hold the Senate as the last firewall to control, if not stop, the Marxist ideology from infiltrating our free society. God bless America
Tommy Coleman is a retired SC public school teacher.
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