Faith Revolution

Communist?  Could it really be that we have become what we fought against not too many decades ago? 

From the Princlples of Communism by Frederick Engles (1847), a Karl Marx contemporary with my comments in italics: 

“All religions so far have been the expression of historical stages of development of individual peoples or groups of peoples. But communism is the stage of historical development which makes all existing religions superfluous and brings about their disappearance.”

(In God We Trust…not anymore.  We trust the US Government) 

“The main measures, emerging as the necessary result of existing relations, are the following: 

(i) Limitation of private property through progressive taxation, heavy inheritance taxes, abolition of inheritance through collateral lines (brothers, nephews, etc.) forced loans, etc.

(Our private property rights have been limited by over-regulation.  We have progressive tax rates as we desire for the rich to pay “their fair share”.  Inheiritance taxes are over 50% on larger estates that are not passed on to a spouse. Forced loans?  A lot of people are losing their homes to banks because of the credit crisis.  More people must have large amounts of debt in order to live.)

(ii) Gradual expropriation of landowners, industrialists, railroad magnates and shipowners, partly through competition by state industry, partly directly through compensation in the form of bonds.

(The government is the nation’s largest employer, not counting government contracts to private or public companies)

(iii) Confiscation of the possessions of all emigrants and rebels against the majority of the people.

(iv) Organization of labor or employment of proletarians on publicly owned land, in factories and workshops, with competition among the workers being abolished and with the factory owners, in so far as they still exist, being obliged to pay the same high wages as those paid by the state.

(Unionization, the ever-increasing minimum wage, the forcing of private companies to pay for social security, medicare, and other “free” benefits for workers…sorry, but it is true!)

(v) An equal obligation on all members of society to work until such time as private property has been completely abolished. Formation of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

(vi) Centralization of money and credit in the hands of the state through a national bank with state capital, and the suppression of all private banks and bankers.

(Have you heard of Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernake and the Federal Reserve?  The loss of local banks right up to the loss of the gold standard has led to the confiscation of individual wealth through inflation and debt)

(vii) Increase in the number of national factories, workshops, railroads, ships; bringing new lands into cultivation and improvement of land already under cultivation – all in proportion to the growth of the capital and labor force at the disposal of the nation.

(viii) Education of all children, from the moment they can leave their mother’s care, in national establishments at national cost. Education and production together.

(Does more need to be said?  God not allowed in public schools.  Public, centralized schools that are funded and mandated by the federal government.  “No Child Left Behind”.  All day kindergarten, Day Care and Head Start.  The disdain for and propeganda against home-schoolers.)

(ix) Construction, on public lands, of great palaces as communal dwellings for associated groups of citizens engaged in both industry and agriculture and combining in their way of life the advantages of urban and rural conditions while avoiding the one-sidedness and drawbacks of each.

(Public Housing, section 8, government-backed mortgages)

(x) Destruction of all unhealthy and jerry-built dwellings in urban districts.

(xi) Equal inheritance rights for children born in and out of wedlock.

(We have a lot of those, don’t we?)

(xii) Concentration of all means of transportation in the hands of the nation.”

 The Federal Aviation Administration, The National Traffic Safety Bureau, AmTrak, Federal air traffic controllers)

Karl Marx and Frederick Engles were both formational in communistic thought. 

You can read (pdf) Engle by clicking here: Engles, The Principles of Communism

You can read (pdf) Marx by clicking here: The Communist Manifesto

Something to think about as you listen to the candidates and the pundits this presidential election year.