Equality and Marxism

The backbone of Marxism is equality. Equality is like an artificial limb that replaces one that has been severed or has been withered by disease. Equality can be viewed in one of two ways: Equality of opportunity, or equality in outcome. The two are vastly different and, if one or the other were implemented, it would produce widely divergent results. Today, they are seen falsely, either as one and the same, or used interchangeably.

When it was found that taxation could be crafted for purposes of social engineering, the old idea of viewing taxes purely as a revenue stream withered on the vine. Politicians now consider taxation as a vehicle to advance their own careers, used primarily to reward supporter and punish opponents. Social engineering is always dependent on fostering a false impression of groups which are then goaded to oppose each other. With a population thus fractured, it becomes possible for politicians to pick through the shards and build a base of support. Sometimes their fingers get bloodied.

This system has worked successfully for politicians; so much so, that these have now evolved into a parasitic, elite class with powers and privileges quite divorced from the everyday experience of its constituents. Today we are, in effect, no different from countries like Russia or China.

There are two reasons why it has turned out that way (or has worked to promote the fortunes of career politicians like Ted Kennedy): One, the public does not understand that for the government to punish one, it punishes all. (The same is true for bestowing favors at the expense of others.) The public is yet too unsophisticated to realize that it is government itself that is inherently prone to evolve into an existential threat to their freedoms; that this danger does not derive from proxy skirmishes between parties or artificially defined population segments. Two: the public remains unaware of its own power in the shaping of policy; that without public support, government is reduced to an empty shell.

The battle we face today is not between Republicans and Democrats; it is not between progressives and blue dogs; it is not between rich and poor; old and young; blacks and whites; male and female; etc. The battle is between a (hopefully) united people and their now clearly illegitimate government. Government has grown too large; too unresponsive. This is not a new phenomenon. Incrementally, this has been building for some time. It is only since the Obama administration has come to power that the American public has been awakened to the possibility of being held hostage to unaccountable totalitarianism because of Obama’s insistence on heading toward full government control within the span of a single presidential term.

No doubt, big changes lie ahead. No doubt, the American people will re-discover their footing, and a dystopian future can yet be averted. There will be disruption; there will be chaos. But when the dust settles, the steady advance of government intrusion into the lives of ordinary Americans will have been thwarted and turned back to reflect a more reasonable balance everybody can live with.