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Real Answers™
gh108
Copyright: © 2008 Gary Hardaway
700 words

SOCIALISM GOES BY MANY NAMES

By: Gary Hardaway

If you were born in 1933 – and if my math is right – you’re seventy-five years old, or pretty close. Your memory of the world radically exceeds that of the average citizen with much less history. That blankness looms large in 2008, especially because of the upcoming election.

In 1933 two world leaders appeared on the scene. Hitler came to power in Germany; Franklin Roosevelt was elected president of the United States. They joined two others who had already ascended to vast influence beyond their borders. Joseph Stalin’s soviet socialist republics that would eventually control much of Asia and Europe. In Italy, Benito Mussolini had already ruled for some years, with widespread international approval.

How many of the above were socialists? A typical American might say, “Just one, Stalin.” Our respondent might add, “Hitler and Mussolini were Fascists, and Roosevelt was a liberal Democrat.”  Yes, but there’s more to the story.

Let’s take Hitler first. He personified Nazism – that is, the National SOCIALIST party of Germany. Was he a Marxist, who absorbed the ideas and spirit of the father of socialism? In a nutshell, yes. The Fuhrer simply defined the heart and soul of the socialist cause differently.

Marx had called out, “Workers of the world, unite!” Hitler had no interest in the plight of the international worker.  To him just one thing mattered: Germans. Germany. The Aryan race. Hitler, in effect, called out, “True, pure Germans, unite!” Unite into a national community with me as “The Father.”

Hitler’s methods turned out to be quite similar to Stalin’s: control over all social, political, and cultural institutions, including family and religion. The government-sponsored religion was neo-paganism; the hated religious enemy in both regimes was Christianity.

Years before, Mussolini, the most intellectually gifted of the four, had already realized that international communism held little appeal to Italy. However, the dream of revived Roman glory could mobilize popular support. He even staged a “March on Rome,” a pageant of sorts imitating Julius Caesar.

Before Hitler and like Stalin, Mussolini took control of things. “Socialism is in my blood,” he declared. He actually invented the word “totalitarianism,” which he marketed as a good thing, a blessed state led by a benevolent dictator. An enemy of Christianity, Mussolini preached Fascism, the worship of “Italianism,” as the “fundamental direction of our lives.”

Though fascism is a dirty word today, associated with blood thirst and the Holocaust, in 1933 many prominent leaders and pundits admired it -- and communism as well. Mussolini “made the trains run on time.” Hitler reenergized the pitiful German economy.  Henry Ford, Will Rogers, Charles Lindburgh, the Chicago Tribune and The New Republic all expressed their praise. The more intellectual types – philosopher John Dewey, for example -- visited Russia and came back aglow.

As Roosevelt became president, both communism and fascism were held in high esteem by many politicians, entertainers, writers, professors, and ordinary Americans suffering amid the Great Depression. Government intervention certainly seemed appealing and potentially therapeutic. Roosevelt’s many governmental programs borrowed considerably from socialistic models, and in 1933 that was not considered as negative criticism. Only later did Fascism, Nazism, and Communism drench the world in blood.

Today we may ask, “So what? This is now.” The answer lies in our souls more than in our politics. These ideologies seek to convince us that God-like leaders can replace God himself. That our imperfect world can be perfected by expert social engineering. That a messianic world order will solve all our problems.

Ultimately this is paganism. Already our courts have legalized abortion – the pagan rite of child sacrifice. Same-sex “marriage” desecrates the sanctity of real marriage and family.  Porn recreates the orgies of Baal worship. Extreme environmentalism morphs into a cult that deifies “Mother Earth,” the goddess we must most urgently placate.

Make no mistake. Paganism invariably seeks to destroy our religious loyalties. Socialism and Fascism prepare the way.

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” is the first and foremost commandment. History emphatically warns us that other gods ruin the nations that serve them.

Note: Several of the facts and quotes in this article are found in Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg.

Gary Hardaway is executive director of Summit School of Ministry in Northwest Washington. He holds a Ph. D in foundations of education and is a member of the National Association of Scholars.  He has taught in universities in the USA, Lithuania and Canada. "Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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