Socialism Creates a Living Nightmare

A couple years ago, I helped a retired businessman from California compile his memoir. His experience included smuggling Bibles into the Soviet Union and China in the mid- to late 1970s, a time when that literally meant risking your life.

Some historical research I did to flesh out background details of his story were a great reminder of the harsh, oppressive regime that characterized the Soviet Union—and still does China. Just ask residents of Hong Kong.

My client’s encounters in Russia included a pair of meetings, the first with a trio of young adults whose views of the U.S. had been shaped by Communist propaganda.

They seemed interesting in determining if he was one of those “oppressed Americans” they had learned so much about.

“I asked, ‘What is the possibility of your coming to visit me in America as I have been able to visit your country?’” he said. “I believe they felt the impact of that question since they did not respond.”

Restricting Freedom  

Later that week, the businessman met another young Russian in a line at Lenin’s tomb.

When they chatted later that day and exchanged family photos, he posed the same question he had to the other young adults: Would he be able to come visit the U.S?

With a somber look on his face, the Russian replied, “Not really.”

The author commented that after everything he had experienced, he could assure readers that he saw no glory in Communist Russia nor anything else there we would want to emulate.

“In our free nation, I see dangerous storm clouds looming,” he wrote. “Many of our young people are being brainwashed into similar socialist thinking as our nation’s faith in God slips away.

“They know little of the respect we need to embrace for those who have given of their lives to retain our freedom.”

Abuse of Power

The question that puzzles me is how people can fail to see the abuses of power, failed nations, and economic disasters that characterize socialism.

In trying to create a socialist utopia, its architects create a living nightmare. Aside from the repressive crackdowns occurring in Hong Kong, consider the ongoing disaster known as Venezuela.

Six months ago, I wrote a story about churches in Colombia who were reaching out to refugees from Venezuela. Residents there have been fleeing the socialist-governed nation like rats off a sinking ship.

The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this year 5,000 per day were leaving. Some project the overall number who have left since 2014 will hit six million by the end of 2020.

Why anyone would want to bring the cause of such a chaotic mess to our nation is beyond me.

Socialism: A Failed System

Now, to give socialism’s supporters some credit, I understand there is an underclass that struggle to survive on our shores.

I read Time magazine’s profile of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez soon after she was elected to office. The story provided insights into the tough circumstances she endured growing up, which fuels her outlook.

Still, I can’t go along with the idea that the purveyors of socialism seem to argue: it’s not a bad system, it just hasn’t been done right yet.

More than a century after the Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian czars, I wonder how many times socialists have to get it wrong before people will wake up to the fact that it stinks.

It inevitably leads to an overbearing government no one can afford, with elitist leaders who ultimately enforce their dictates from the end of a gun.

No thanks. People flourish better when they are free.