The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the abortion of communism in Eastern Europe didn’t cause socialists to give up on the ideology. They merely redefined socialism. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said, “Don’t ever shy away from our progressive values… One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.” Any act of concern for another is socialism. Others have defined socialism as worker-owned businesses.
Socialist Christians who call themselves “progressive” to fool the gullible see Jesus as a socialist because he healed people, fed the poor and torched the rich. Telling the rich young ruler to sell everything and give the cash to the poor is Jesus advocating socialism. The church in Acts helped the poor so it was an example of a socialist commune. They imply that capitalists hate the poor and vulnerable and will not lift a finger to help them.
Of course, Ayn Rand promoted such a view of capitalism and saw all altruism as evil. She taught an atheistic philosophy called objectivism that merely included capitalism. But to let Rand define capitalism would be the same as letting her define Christianity, which she also despised.
Rand has damaged capitalism more than all the Marxists in the last 150 years by associating it with her immoral anti-Christian philosophy. But socialists have sinned as much as Rand by promoting her definition of capitalism. Capitalism is 400 years older than Rand, so it’s dishonest to identify capitalism with Rand only. I have written here about the Chistian origins of capitalism.
What is socialism? If socialism was merely neighborliness, then why force people to be neighborly at the point of a gun, for that is what the government programs of “neighborliness” are that Walz advocates. Americans give billions of dollars freely to many charities in the US and around the world. Many billionaires donate most of their wealth to charities when they die. So, why involve the government at all?
Socialism requires the government to threaten every citizen with violence if they don’t comply with its “neighborliness” because socialism never has been about loving one’s neighbor. Atheists invented socialism in early 19th century France. Google for Henri de Saint-Simon, not Karl Marx. Marx added little to Saint-Simon’s nonsense.
Christians took care of the poor and vulnerable for 1,800 years before modern socialism and without any help from the government. Marvin Olasky’s book, The Tragedy of American Compassion, demonstrates the outstanding charitable work of Christians. His “tragedy” describes modern socialism, not Christian charity.
Socialists don’t care about poor people. If they did, they would be capitalists because only capitalism has lifted people from poverty to wealth and it has done so for billions of people. In the last generation alone, freer markets have raised over 500 million Asians from starvation according to the World Bank.
Envy drives socialism, not love of one’s neighbor. Love drives Christians who give their own money to the poor or help the vulnerable. Envy drives those who demand the government take from the wealthy and give it to others. Politicians comply because it helps them buy votes.
A blogger writing about his trip to Hungary wrote that they have this odd saying that a Hungarian is happiest when his neighbor’s house is burning. That’s the definition of envy.
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