8

Marxist Lies and Rhetoric

“The Marxist state is a society of slaves at all levels, a society of liars, thieves, and murderers.”

“But Marxism is a disease by any account if you look below the surface. Their obsession with controlling the means of production is meaningless because new ideas and new industries don’t come from central planning, so they have to steal from the West. Again.”

“It’s a parasite at best, unable to come up with anything new on its own, because the people are not allowed to, and have no incentive either, so they have to copy and steal from the West, and couldn’t exist on their own without collapsing on itself.”

“It’s like a bunch of slackers claiming the right to control the production of X when X doesn’t even exist because none of them can be bothered to invent it (because there’s no reward). So they have to steal X from the outside, from others, they themselves contributing nothing.”

“Even if you try to plug the holes of this bankrupt economic ‘theory’ by looking at the West and mimicking some of its practices, the political theory side of it is purely totalitarian, no better than fascism, only with better propaganda, well, if you prefer Marx over Nietzsche.”

“You can rave sanctimoniously about the workers taking charge of production and the government all you want, but once you do so, you’re no longer a worker but a dictator, and there are no checks on your power or any stipulated rights to the people.”

“Stalin, Mao, Xi, etc. are not the proletariat, and they are the ones with absolute power, not the workers who have no power at all except what the dictator gives them. The Marxist propaganda is a lie, exploiting your sympathy for the workers to endorse a totalitarian regime.”

“If a Marxist wants to pretend that Marxism is not a dictatorship, then they better add something to the theory because there’s nothing to separate it from dictatorship as it stands, nothing other than the supposed good intentions of the revolutionaries.”

“And we all know how that turned out, all those Communist revolutionaries proving themselves as among the worst of dictators. Where are the truly righteous revolutionaries when you need them? China sure could use some right now.”

“The American revolutionaries at least had a plan for a republic guided by democratic principles, understanding how easily power can corrupt, understanding the need to spell out the rights of the people explicitly and to put in place various checks and balances.”

“It wasn’t enough, its run has come to an end, but at least they tried, at least they understood the direction they needed to go. There’s nothing of the sort in Marxism. There is not even any awareness of the dangers of power or how to deal with the inevitable corruption.”

“What does it even mean for workers to take control of the means of production or the government? Will all the workers share the power of governance equally? Will they vote for a leader, like a (selective) democracy? And why would they be any less oppressive?”

“The rhetoric is pretty. ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.’ It sounds nice, like a utopia, everyone will have their needs met, even their pleasures, and everyone can contribute what they can. What could go wrong?”

“Everything, of course, that was a rhetorical question. To start with, there’s no way that everyone can have everything they want, for example, the biggest mansions, the biggest yachts, the rarest jewelry, the most desired paintings, etc. It’s just not possible.”

“If we limit it to that of needs only, that may be possible (theoretically), but that’s hardly a utopia because it just means you have enough to survive. For example, a dirty, disgusting homeless shelter and the worst food may suffice for survival, hardly a selling point.”

“And what’s to be done with the rest? How are they to be distributed? Since there are no guards against corruption, of course, it’ll be arbitrary, it’ll depend on the whims of the dictator. Tough luck for you if you’re not on good terms with that guy!”

“But even if you figure out a way to distribute them equally without too much bureaucracy (good luck!), that’s very little added to the basic needs because this is a formula for the lowest productivity, lowest creativity, due to there being no rewards whatsoever.”

“If everyone gets the same thing no matter what they do, how much they produce, how great a job they do or don’t, why would anyone bother to do a great job, why would anyone work hard, why would anyone give a shit? There’s no reason at all!”

“So everyone will do the absolute minimum or pretend to do even that much because there’s no motivation to do more or to invent new ways to improve things or outright invent new things, thus stuck in the old ways, old technology forever.”

“You say they can choose what work they can do, and by doing what they enjoy they’ll produce good work even with no further motivation? But even doing something you enjoy, say writing, is still work, still requires focus and dedication to do well.”

“And there’s no reason to put in such dedication, to develop such discipline, which is required if you want to develop the skills necessary to produce truly good writing, the commitment required here ranges in decades which is very unlikely with no motivation.”

“I don’t care how smart you are, how talented you are, that’s just the potential. You still have to put in the work, hard work. You still have to develop the discipline necessary to achieve the skills at the highest level to do something worthwhile with your talents.”

“There are plenty of Mensa members who don’t achieve anything significant in life despite very high IQs because potential isn’t enough, just enjoying something isn’t enough, they’re helpful but are nothing without determination, without consistent hard work.”

“I’m not saying it’s impossible. Some people can achieve impressive things without external motivation, but in general, such things can’t be expected, at least not in a system with no rewards for exceptional achievement.”

“And if no one enjoys digging, farming, cleaning, etc. the central planners will have to arbitrarily force people to do things they don’t want to do. Any boring, repetitive, or dangerous jobs will have to be forced upon people, basically slavery.”

“If the assignment were dictated by what people want to do, there’d be no soldiers, janitors, etc. because no one wants to die at the first conflict, no one wants to do boring work, everyone would rather stay home and draw or sing or tell other people what to do.”

“But not everyone can be a central planner, or an artist, etc. because then no work would get done, work necessary for survival. So there would necessarily be slaves and forced labor. The gulags are no accident, not just the result of mere tyranny, but of economic necessity.”

“And there would have to be a lot of forced labor because of minuscule productivity, or introduce punitive measures to force people to work harder in a job they have no choice in, a real slavery just not labeled as such.”

“The old Soviet-era adage ‘We pretend to work and they pretend to pay’ is an apt description given the system’s lack of rewards, lack of any motivation, resulting in very little work done and therefore very little produced to pay them with, the absolute loser of an economic system.”

“Moreover, according to ‘from each according to his ability,’ you won’t be able to choose what work you’ll do but forced to do the things you’re good at whether you want to or not, thereby removing the ‘enjoyment’ factor possibly.”

“This introduces a horde of other problems. How would you (or the central planner) even know what you’re good at when you haven’t done anything? Especially a problem for young people entering the workforce who generally aren’t good at anything.”

“And they generally won’t be until they’ve worked long enough at something to develop sufficient skills. And once they have, they’re stuck at that job because they’re not good enough at anything else compared to the old job.”

“Also, a strict adherence to such dictum will result in a lot of wasted labor in some sector and not enough labor in another because even here there is such a thing as the market for labor, the supply and demand of what sort of work is badly needed and what isn’t.”

“In a capitalist system, the fluctuations in demand will be reflected in the wages offered, how likely to get such jobs, etc. so that workers can balance the reward against their desires and skills, but in a Marxist system, it’s not clear how this will be solved.”

“A central planner might notice a discrepancy or two and try to minimize wasted labor somewhere and meet the demand at another, but the market is large and very complex, and even a large team of dedicated central planners will have trouble dealing with this market.”

“And even if they could spot all the trouble spots, they’d have to violate their dictum, i.e. the whole idea of who’s good at what, to fill the spots needed rather arbitrarily. The utopian idea of doing whatever you please, or what you’re good at, begins to disappear.”

“Not only disappear but revealing the true dystopian nature underneath, where you’re always guessing and trying to plug the numerous holes of the sinking system, a system that’s least efficient, least productive, least innovative, barely sustained by enormous slave labor.”

“And the problem of corruption becomes more acute because some can snag their preferred work of being an artist, for example, no matter how primitive their artistic skills are, while others are forced to do the dirty jobs in the worst conditions.”

“Not only is it stupid, producing stupid art no one wants, because it’s not a market-driven system, but you’re fundamentally a slave of the state, only catching breaks through corruption or other illicit means, breeding resentment, envy, and hatred.”

“You have no say in your purpose, in your worth, in your life’s work, contrary to what was promised in the rhetoric. You’re just a slave, dependent on the whims of the state, the dictator, except for the privileged few who have learned the ways of corruption.”

“And even they, the privileged few, are not free, even they are slaves because they know of their ill-gotten gains, because they know that everyone knows, aware of everyone’s resentment, having to watch their back at all times for betrayal, deception, even murder.”

“Such things can happen even in the best of societies, sure, but they’re expected in a totalitarian state, because it’s a fundamentally corrupt, unfair system, full of misery, resentment, hatred, and distrust, making it necessary to spy on your own people constantly.”

“The Marxist state is a society of slaves at all levels, a society of liars, thieves, and murderers, not as an exception but as the rule, where peace and harmony are not possible to achieve, not even for the dictator.”

“If you try to introduce some form of meritocracy utilizing, say, aptitude tests, IQ tests, and such, that may better match some people with work more suited to them, but it would not be enough for most people whose aptitudes are not so clear.”

“It would not do much except to make the system slightly more efficient because the problems of lack of motivation and choice remain, exacerbated by rampant corruption and universal resentment, a mutually antagonistic system through and through.”

a monologue about social, political, and moral philosophy cleverly disguised as a dialogue between me and my imaginary daughter Annie: first, next.