The Wreckage of Socialism is Not Just Economic

[Annie]

https://stream.org/the-wreckage-of-socialism-is-not-just-economic/

First let me clarify that this is about “real” socialism as found in the USSR, Cuba, China before its relaxation, and Venezuela.

it is not about democratic socialism, social democracy, the earliest followers of Christ in Acts, etc.

But the most devastating effect of socialism is not economic. Power corrupts human beings. People inevitably abuse and misuse it. Jesus insists that within the Christian community, the ones who want to be great must act as servants instead of wanting to be looked upon as stars. In the secular world, however, the only way to prevent such an abuse is to allow competing powers to coexist through a system of checks and balances. Checks and balances are totally absent in socialism. A centralized planned economy demands that power be solely placed in the hands of the government.

This creates an elite class at every level of society. Exerting power over others brings enormous pleasure and satisfaction to the ones who are in authority. The lure is strong. It’s almost impossible to give it up under any circumstance. In the course of protecting their power, these elites will often use intimidation, manipulation, fear and anxiety as tactics to ensure subjects’ total obedience.

interesting… I had always thought that bullies had risen to dictator, but the author suggests that the socialist system itself may feed those tendencies.

 

[1cthlctrth]

Does Catholicism Support Socialism? | Catholic Answers Q&A

No one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist (Pius XI’s Q uadragesimo Anno , 120).
The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modem times with “communism” or “socialism” ( Catechism , 2425).
Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum explicitly rejects several main tenants of socialism.

Socialism severely curtails rights to private property. The Church, on the other hand, upholds the individual’s right to private property ( Catechism , 2401).

Socialism goes against the 10th Commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.”

Socialism was a catastrophe in Venezuela, Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea, Nicaragua…

 

[1cthlctrth]

In the Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas identified private property as important to maintain order in a society.

It is lawful for man to possess property. Every man is more careful to procure what is for himself alone than that which is common to many.

Aquinas concludes, “The ownership of possessions is not contrary to the natural law, but an addition thereto devised by human reason.”

Socialism treats family as the ultimate inequality, so it replaces family with The State. Socialism squashes religion. Socialism increases poverty.
(source: Trent Horn’s book, “Can A Catholic Be a Socialist?”)

 

[Annie]

St. Thomas Aquinas identified private property as important to maintain order in a society.

I wonder if this goes with some of what the article in the OP discussed such as the power hunger?

Maybe of someone has his private property, he has enough to do and doesn’t need to pry into other people’s business ?

 

[yankeesouth]

The Wreckage of Socialism is Not Just Economic…

http://www.vatican.va/content/leo-x...iii_enc_28121878_quod-apostolici-muneris.html

1. Even family life itself, which is the cornerstone of all society and government, necessarily feels and experiences the salutary power of the Church, which redounds to the right ordering and preservation of every State and kingdom. For you know, venerable brethren, that the foundation of this society rests first of all in the indissoluble union of man and wife according to the necessity of natural law, and is completed in the mutual rights and duties of parents and children, masters and servants. You know also that the doctrines of socialism strive almost completely to dissolve this union; since, that stability which is imparted to it by religious wedlock being lost, it follows that the power of the father over his own children, and the duties of the children toward their parents, must be greatly weakened. But the Church, on the contrary, teaches that “marriage, honorable in all,”(13) which God himself instituted in the very beginning of the world, and made indissoluble for the propagation and preservation of the human species, has become still more binding and more holy through Christ, who raised it to the dignity of a sacrament, and chose to use it as the figure of His own union with the Church.

 

[JerryZ]

Tell me about it. First hand knowledge of the horrors these “Mythologies” yes this is what I call them socialism, communism they are all parts of the same cancer that eats and destroy society. Breaking apart families. Destroying the patrimony of generations that have toiled to bring a better future for their children. And all is wasted.
This touches a very raw nerve in me, family and friends have died because of it. And seeing the people of this country fall for the song of the mermaids pushing these ideologies baffles me to no end. Hard times are coming to this country if they win. And then there will be no where else to run to. The end of the road.

Peace!

 

[Annie]

“Mythologies” yes this is what I call them socialism, communism they are all parts of the same cancer that eats and destroy society. Breaking apart families. Destroying the patrimony of generations that have toiled to bring a better future for their children. And all is wasted.

The destruction of the family seems like it would lead to feelings of pointlessness and hopelessness.

 

[1cthlctrth]

Our largely free market economic system is a great antidote against poverty.

According to the Pew Research Center:
“The U.S. stands head and shoulders above the rest of the world. More than half (56%) of Americans were high income by the global standard, living on more than $50 per day in 2011, the latest year that could be analyzed with the available data. Another 32% were upper-middle income. In other words, almost nine-in-ten Americans had a standard of living that was above the global middle-income standard. Only 7% of people in the U.S. were middle income, 3% were low income and 2% were poor.

Compare that with the rest of the world, where 13% of people globally could be considered middle income in 2011. Most people in the world were either low income (56%) or poor (15%), and relatively few were upper-middle income (9%) or high income (7%).”