"Marxism" by Thomas Sowell

Marx's teachings:

Systems create evil, rather than individuals who can be evil in any system.

Everything is a series of processes which are justified in the time in which they occur. This would include mass murder and collectivization, according to Lenin. According to Marx (p. 23) it specifically includes slavery and incest. He calls it "historical justification." Physical and mental progress should be unlimited and more important that material expansion. People created religion when they were not allowed to freely progress.

Philosophic Materialism: There are no gods. All things are done to achieve human happiness. If there is a God, then He is not involved in our lives.

Holbach taught that evil is not due to human nature, but to preventable social disorders and injustices (p. 40).

Note: And yet, people can be extraordinarily brave and courageous in the most evil of circumstances. It seems to be an excuse to be cowardly and weak.

When men worship God, they are worshipping themselves.

Note: Marx tries to prophesy or predict the future by reasoning. He doesn't see that people can be ingenious or creative even if they're laboring all day. The agency and personal desires of individuals are completely out of the picture. There is no American dream of achieving and doing better than you've done in the past.

There would be no evil or immorality in a purely socialist society.

Dictatorship of the proletariat: Rule by the masses. Should lead to an end of the need for a state.

Communism and socialism became synonymous during Marx's and Engel's later lives. Their ideas were first called communism because socialism had a definition which has since faded with time. Lenin introduced the idea that socialism came first and evolved into communism.

Revolution: Evolution or change from one kind of society to another.

Sowell's conclusions:

p. 14 "The degree of correspondence between [Marx's communism and 20th century Communism] is an empirical question to be investigated at the end of the analysis, not a foregone conclusion to be assumed at the outset."

p.188 Marx left a legacy of behavior as well as words. You can't separate the man from his ideas; he is the fruit of his ideas. "Marx's tradition of speaking boldly in the name of the workers - not only without their consent but in defiance of their contrary views and actions - made Marxism an instrument of elite domination, with a clear conscience, long before Lenin or Stalin." (emphasis mine)

"Marx and Engels argued that an individual or an era must be judged not by what they intend or conceive, but by what they actually accomplish. Marxism itself cannot be exempt from this standard."

"Marxism was intellectually exhilarating and conferred such a sense of moral superiority that opponents could be simply labeled and dismissed as moral lepers or blind reactionaries."

"Lenin [had to] confront the failure of his assumptions while literally millions died around him. This represented the hubris of imagining that a whole society could be constructed from the ground up on the vision of one man."

"The Communist Manifesto, written by two bright and articulate young men without responsibility even for their own livelihoods - much less for the social consequences of their vision - has had a special appeal for successive generations of the same kinds of people."

"Intellectuals enjoy an ... insulation from the consequences of being wrong in a way that no businessman, military leader, engineer or even athletic coach can."

"People who could never be corrupted by money or power may nevertheless be blinded by a vision."

"Freedom to" and not "freedom from" gave a blank check to abuses of power "for the greater good." As in, freedom from unemployment conveys a right to be employed. Freedom to work conveys a right to work if you chose.

p. 207 "The inner logic or tendencies of a system of thought must be distinguished from the ad hoc statements or even genuine intentions of its creator." Note: Sowell, in each of his books that I have read, is very concerned with the difference between intentions and actual results.

As socialism grabs hold in our country, it's being done not by the proletariat or working class but by elitist intellectuals telling them what they should want, think, and feel.