It is now roughly one hundred years since the world became enamored of Socialism. In the intervening decades, the infatuation with the socialist experiment has led to environmental despoliation, mass starvation, the demise of entrepreneurial initiative, and the spread of a welfare mentality.

The rise of demonic monsters such as the Castro brothers, Mao Tse-Tung, Stalin, Hugo Chavez, Kim Jung Un, among others, was the direct consequence of the extinguishment of individual initiative, human dignity, and citizen freedoms.

Currently, in the United States, political leaders with an unquenching thirst for position and power are at it again proselytizing to the public that Socialism is in the best interest of the nation. They count on the economic illiteracy of the citizenry to vote them into power on the strength of a myth that Socialism renders equality for all.

The florid rhetoric of Socialist fanatics aside, Socialism is unworkable the moment central planners substitute their actions for the myriad actions of players in a free-market society.

At the heart of the unworkability of Socialism and why it is always destined to fail is that, as the great Austrian economist Ludwig Von Mises asserted, the absence of the private ownership of an enterprise it is impossible to establish market prices that reflect actual market conditions. And, in the absence of true market prices it is consequently impossible to make judgements about the most effective uses of economic resources.

Rest assured, proponents of Socialism are not able to cite one historical antecedent where the egoism and presumed “wisdom” of central know-it-alls were an able substitute for the actions of countless sovereign consumers and producers in a free-market society. The irony of America’s greatness, however, is that both demagogues and democrats have an equal opportunity to stir the masses.

Left unsaid, of course, is that violence is part and parcel of the Socialist calculus. As Lenin famously said, “We must not depict Socialism as if Socialists would bring it to us on a plate all nicely dressed. That will never happen. Not a single problem of the class struggle has ever been solved in history without violence. When violence is exercised by the working people…then we are for it.” Who is to say but that the violent convulsions we are now experiencing in our nation’s cities are not faithful to Lenin’s precepts.

The defense of America comes easily to those who are united by the uniquely American principles of liberty, democracy, equality of opportunity, the rule of law, individual choice, and the sanctity of private property. Citizens who fail to grasp these “self-evident” truths owe it to themselves to undertake self-study, if not self-examination, to reaffirm that the American Dream is indeed not a slogan but a unique experiment that can only be realized in our great nation.

Raul Pupo

Management Advisor