“Far from dead, communism as a governing template, seems only to be getting started.” (Sean McMeekin, “To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism”)
I’m an historian with a Master’s degree, almost a PhD in history, and taught history in colleges for two decades.
I’ve read literally thousands of history books, and Sean McMeekin’s “To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism” (2024) is, easily, in the top five I’ve ever read.
Meekin is an historian, having taught at Bard College and other locations, and has written several books, nearly all of which I’ve read and find excellent.
And “To Overthrow the World” is his best so far.
I don’t know McMeekin personally, and I don’t know, or care about, his politics. All I know is he writes excellent history.
“To Overthrow the World” is a survey of communism from before Marx to the very present. He is historical, which means he fully, accurately, and effectively elucidates what communism did under Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, indeed, all over the world, though he emphasized the USSR and Communist China.
His epilogue—which is worth the price of the book—illustrates how the Left’s current attempts as social control (such as Covid lockdowns) insidiously manipulate people into doing what the Left wants them to do.
McMeekin brilliantly, and perceptively, exposes how, with astonishing stupidity, Western capitalists are 2 fulfilling Marx’s prophecy, “The last capitalist we hang shall be the one who sold us the rope.”
When it comes to communism, the West is its own worst enemy. McMeeken give credit to communist China for its rapid economic growth, but also explains why and how it happened.
Greedy American capitalists, not only built the Soviet Union’s industrial might in the 1930s, but have been the catalysts behind Chinese economic growth, a growth they are using to destroy us.
Read McMeekin to get the whole, disgusting, revolting picture of communism in the last century, and the frustrating way in which, if the West isn’t careful, it’s going to commit suicide, and never realize it is doing so.
“To Overthrow the World,” indeed.
That’s been the goal all along. To hang ourselves with the rope we sell the communists.
As someone well said, the problem with socialism is socialism, the problem with capitalism is capitalists.
Very few American politicians have ever understood Marxism, and so many of them, in their monumental stupidity, have bent over backwards to kiss the communist rear end.
Franklin Roosevelt was blinder than a bat in this regard. Stalin made a fool out of him, which didn’t take much, yet American historians still rank FDR as one of the country’s greatest Presidents. When the Soviet Union finally collapsed in 1991, those were heady days for Americans. Francis Fukuyama, in 1992, grandly announced in a best seller, that the victory of the West in the Cold War was “the end of history.”
The fall of communism “marked the endpoint of man’s ideological evolution as western liberal democracy was revealed to be the final form of human government” (McMeekin).
When I read 3 Fukuyama’s thesis back in the early 1990s (I remember it well), I couldn’t believe anybody would be dumb enough to believe that. But then, folks, I often wonder how people can be stupid enough to believe some of the things they believe. In case you haven’t noticed, communism hasn’t died and western liberal democracy hasn’t swept the world. In fact, it looks like it’s going the other direction.
Sadly, tragically, indeed, horrifyingly, but not surprisingly, politicians are among the worst. When Bill Clinton worked to get Communist China into the World Trade Organization, his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, “By entering the WTO, China committed to free itself from the house that Mao built, including state run enterprises, and central planning institutes.”
China did no such thing and never intended to. Madeleine Albright was an incredibly stupid woman. Why is it that governments, especially ours, continually attract such people? I hate to be ugly and call somebody “stupid,” but it's just the truth, folks. There are some incredibly dumb people in the world, just like there are some incredibly evil people. And the sooner we learn that, the better off we're going to be. It’s not a difficult concept to master. It has always been this way, always will be, but humanity refuses to learn the lesson.
The history of communism, especially the CCP, demonstrates how effectively stupidity can be exploited by evil. That's another of the great lessons of history. Evil exploits human stupidity. Marxism has inherent features within that led to its collapse in the Soviet Union, and will eventually do the same in China. But during its existence, Stalin utilized the stupidity (and greed) of the West and killed millions of 4 people in the process.
The Chinese have done, and are doing, the same thing, and we have merrily let them do it. Fortunately, Ronald Reagan knew an “evil empire” when he saw one. Hopefully, Donald Trump does, too, because no Democrat, and very few Republicans see China for what it really is—evil personified into a empirical monster.
But, of course, the Democratic Party, increasingly Marxist itself, has been doing pretty much the same thing within our borders--evil exploiting stupidity for its own self-aggrandizement and power. Intelligence is not determined by IQ, folks. I have met countless numbers of incredibly stupid people with very high IQs.
True intelligence begins here: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. If you don't start there, then the farther away you get from it, the dumber you are going to be, regardless of how high your IQ is.
As James Madison said, “The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.”
We’ve forgotten that, for sure.
Read McMeekin. You’ll profit greatly.
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