“The revolution needs the enemy. The revolution needs for its development its antithesis, which is the counter-revolution.” (Fidel Castro)
America has been, for most of its history, a free market, capitalist country, with, so far, a not-too-crushing dose of government interventionism. “Freedom” means relatively free markets, and the ability of the individual to start a business and succeed or fail on his/her own efforts and merits. It hasn’t worked perfectly, but then, nothing human-devised in history ever has, does, or will.
Marxists believe that private property is the greatest retardant of human freedom and equality. Marx didn’t invent that idea by any means; it’s ancient. But Marxism is the modern manifestation of it: he said, “My object is to dethrone God and destroy capitalism.” Marxist societies have been trying to do both for over 100 years now, and never with significant success. God has a way of repeatedly showing up, and so does capitalism; the latter, along with theft, lying, and intimidation, is the only thing that saved China’s economy. Marxist socialism is a failure in many ways: inherently, economically, and hence, historically.
But they keep trying, mainly sourced from some humans’ insatiable desire for power, and other humans’ incurable stupidity and historical ignorance. Socialism/communism fails because of its own attributes, so, as Fidel Castro rightly pointed out, the “revolution” (the socialist revolution) needs an enemy, some Baba Yaga, some detestable Beelzebub to elevate before its minions to cover up the malfunctions and keep the brainwashed inspired. Of course, in America for the last ten years, that enemy has been Donald Trump. The hatred of that man on the Left is almost legendary. But, when Trump finally leaves the scene, there WILL be another one. It’s the only way the “revolution” can survive.
Recommended
The socialist revolution of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin is a globalist revolution. That’s been its aim all along. Lenin said, “We have always emphasized that one cannot achieve such a task as a socialist revolution in one country.” And, “in November, 1917, we knew that our victory would be a lasting victory only when our undertaking would conquer the whole world, because we had launched it exclusively counting on the world revolution.” Otherwise, he believed the combined forces of capitalism would arise and crust the revolution. The aim of the Left has ever been, and still is, global conquest.
The greatest enemy—as a nation—has always been the capitalist United States, and thus mighty efforts have been put forth, and still are, to bring America into the globalist, socialist camp. That is exactly what the Democratic Party is trying to do today. Most Americans don’t know, or see, that, but as I have pointed out (how many thousands of times?), most Americans are utterly historically illiterate.
Well, of course, the worldwide revolution didn’t succeed in Lenin’s day. Lenin’s problem was that he wanted to go too fast, not understanding that history moves slowly. Most of us want to see success in our own lifetime, and Vladimir Lenin was no exception. He failed, not because he didn’t try, but because socialism is doomed to failure, and the world wasn’t ready for him yet. It still isn’t, but even though there aren’t as many “communist” countries today as 50 years ago, the Left is still having success, perhaps even more now in subtler ways. They’ve certainly captured the Democratic Party in America, and are dominant in Canada, England, and many other formerly pro-capitalistic countries.
Since the world revolution didn’t work (Hitler tried it, too: “We are socialists!” he proclaimed), Joseph Stalin opted for the “socialism in one country” idea. However, that was only temporary, and it didn’t work, either. It became quite clear that the full transition to global Marxism would take longer than Lenin had envisioned.
Folks, they haven’t given up. We think we “won” the Cold War, and it was a blow, geographically, for the socialist cause. But, ideologically, it is undeniable that God and capitalism, while in no means dead in America and Western Civilization, are certainly not as strong as they were 100 years ago—or even 50 years ago. Humans tend to think, historically, in small chunks, i.e., in their own lifetime. America, in our generation, hasn’t fallen to socialism. But given current ideological directions, what will the country be like 100 years from now? I don’t know, but I do know that many Marxists, unlike Lenin, did talk in terms of hundreds of years, not overnight. We need a broader, more comprehensive historical perspective. Just compare America today to the 1950s and tell me you can’t see the difference.
But socialism, for numerous reasons I’ve written about before and mentioned in this article, will never succeed. It simply is a gross violation of human nature—its biggest flaw. So, the “enemy” is needed. In America and in Leftism around the world, Donald Trump is the current manifestation of evil. But it has other forms, too: Western civilization, “white supremacy,” Israel, racism—whatever stirs up the masses of ignorant, idealistic idol worshippers. They’ll never look at the misery and death foisted upon literally billions of people over the last 100 years of socialism; they will NEVER look at that. Facts mean nothing to ideologues; only the vision. And they’ll never give that up.
This is a never-ending fight, folks. We haven’t won anything yet. And it will certainly outlive us old-timers, and maybe our children and grandchildren as well. The Marxists are in it for the long haul, and the cancer is widespread. Maybe even fatal for the world.
There will always be an “enemy of the revolution.” It has to be that way because the “revolution” can never succeed on its own merits.
Subscribe to my Substacks: “Mark It Down! (mklewis929.substack.com), and “Mark It Down! Bible Substack” (mklbibless.substack.com) for Founding Fathers, current events, history, Christian evidences, etc. Both free. Follow me on “X”: @thailandmkl. Read my western novels, Whitewater , River Bend, Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma all available on Amazon.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member