What is the Difference Between Socialism and Communism?

The young socialists of today call themselves Democratic Socialists. They are "green" on the outside and "red" on the inside. They truly believe that they can do socialism in America much better than it was done in the twentieth century in the Soviet satellite countries which called themselves democratic socialist republics.

These countries were not democratic; they were tyrannies controlled by the Communist Party. The Communist Party represented about ten percent of the population while the other ninety percent were subjugated by the total control of the top Communist Party executive leaders.

The Communist Party leaders had a huge standing army, a huge street police apparatus, and a large security police controlled by the Dear Leader. The ultimate power resided with the tyrant and his wife.

What is Socialism?

Socialism is a societal form where the central government [the Communist Party] controls all the means of production, the centrally planned economy, government banking, all press, education, travel, health care, all churches, arts, publishing, and all media.

When asked what socialism is, people on the street answered this way:

-           Socialism is a political party that takes care of people; you Americans are not taking care of your people

-           Socialism is being friendly and sociable with others

-           Socialism is compassion, fairness, and equality  

-           Socialism is the other word for communism, and it was horrible, it killed a lot of people

-           I don’t know and I don’t care

-           Socialism is like a worm which destroys its host nation

-           Free stuff like the Nordic people get

Twenty-first century American socialists or Democratic Socialists as they call themselves believe that they can dispense with the political tyranny of socialism and keep the economic programs and thus do socialism the right way, never explaining what the right way is.

The elephant in the room is that under socialism, economic programs did not exist, you had to work hard for a meager salary. There was no incentive to work harder since everybody was paid about the same. This gave rise to the performance motto: “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.”

Under socialism, land and farms were confiscated, private real estate like nicer homes and hotels were confiscated. Any criticism of the government’s decisions landed one in prison for years and worse.

Shouldn’t rational human beings be able to learn from the experience of millions of people who suffered and died under socialism in the twentieth century, without having to live it personally in the twenty-first century?

The most obvious case against socialism is that it creates abject poverty, loss of all freedoms, and no prosperity because no human is so altruistic that would be willing to share all personal wealth and hard work with the lazy.

Socialism is propaganda, deceit, lies, and false promises. The Government uses force to control and change society. It is a tyrannical society of thieves. The main goal of socialism is communism. Vladimir Lenin wrote, “what is usually called socialism was termed by Marx the ‘first,’ or lower, phase of communist society.”

According to Paul B. Skousen, socialism has seven pillars. (Paul B. Skousen, The Naked Socialist, Ensign Publishing Co., 2014)

1.      All powerful RULERS

2.      Society divided into CASTES (see India) and CLASSES

3.     All things in COMMON

4.     All things REGULATED

5.      Compliance is FORCED

6.      Control of INFORMATION

7.      No UNALIENABLE RIGHTS

Skousen also wrote that there are 46 goals of modern socialists:

1.      Promote Socialism

2.      Demean capitalism

3.      No national boundaries

4.      Install Environmental Rulers (green energy)

5.      One-world currency

6.      Control the Internet

7.      Establish economic rulers

8.      Economic equality

9.      Ruler’s Law (bypass national law)

10.                             Render Congress irrelevant

11.                             Subordinate local government

12.                             Destroy representation (no free elections)

13.                             Deflate constitutional convention

14.                             Uphold 17^th Amendment

15.                             Regulate all transportation

16.                             Regulate all energy

17.                             Eliminate private property

18.                             Destroy family culture

19.                             Redefine normal and healthy

20.                             Destroy the sacrament of marriage

21.                             Discredit the traditional family

22.                             Destroy gender distinctions

23.                             Universal access to abortion

24.                             Limit family size

25.                             Replace God-centered religion with Humanist religion

26.                             Destroy church economies (tax exempt status)

27.                             Eliminate cash in the marketplace

28.                             Nationalize health care

29.                             Supreme World Court

30.                             One-World Super-Legislature

31.                             Environmental rights supersede Human rights

32.                             Nationalize all natural resources

33.                             Destroy nuclear weapons unilaterally

34.                             Neutralize Israel

35.                             Nationalize all industry

36.                             Synch animal rights with Human rights

37.                             Infiltrate and regulate all education

38.                             Control all information

39.                             Infiltrate and regulate labor

40.                             Uphold all labor as Optional

41.                             Discredit the U.S. Constitution

42.                             Discredit all Freedom Heroes and Founding Fathers,

43.                             Rewrite history to discredit American culture.

(The Naked Socialist, Paul B. Skousen, 2014, pp. 493-500)

What is communism?

Communism is a classless, stateless society. Communism promises that a communist society, even in the absence of work incentives, will produce greater quantities of goods than any other economic and political system in existence and each person will be provided according to his/her needs.

In the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote that property is to be eliminated and used for public purposes, income tax must be progressive or graduated, property of all emigrants and rebels should be confiscated, credit, transportation, and communication should be centralized in the hands of the state, a common plan for all production and agriculture must exist, all must labor in industrial armies, town and country must be abolished, agriculture and manufacture must be combined,  and education must be free.

“Communist production will produce a state of absolute saturation where all human needs will be satisfied. Supplies are to be stockpiled and distributed according to the needs of every person. Services are also to be made available at central depots and are to be available in such quantity that all elements of competition among consumers will be eliminated.” (W. Cleon Skousen, 2014, The Naked Communist, p. 87)

So, greed, selfishness, jealousy, coveting, markets, money, and prices will disappear? And who decides the needs of each person and by what metrics? You will own nothing and be happy about it? Who will measure your happiness quotient? Who will suppress dissention and dissatisfaction? How would selfishness be eliminated, which, according to communists, leads to class struggle?

 

Cultural differences

As an 18 year old in Romania, it has never occurred to me that cultural differences can doom a marriage. As a typical naive teenager, I truly believed that people were the same, no matter what country they came from. We laughed, cried, experienced emotion, hurt, love, and enjoyed the simple pleasures in life the same way. What can cultural differences possibly do to one's relationship with another human being of the opposite sex? Quite a lot, I found out along the way.

For starters, growing up with freedom and taking it for granted, made enduring the indignities of living under a dictatorship quite unbearable. As an American, one can enter pretty much any official or government building. Not so under communism. I was shocked the first time I was allowed to enter a U.S. air force base and move about without ever being asked who I was or what I was doing there. We had clearance and business to enter. In Romania we were not even allowed within miles and miles of a military base, a sort of area 51, no man's land. If you dared approach the forbidden area, you did so at your own risk, you would be shot. Government buildings were off limits to its citizens, but particularly to foreigners. My American husband could not understand why he was not allowed to enter government buildings. His frustration grew and grew with every new rule and regulation he encountered that stifled his freedom to move about, to be who he was, a free man. He took out his frustration on the nearest person who was always beside him, me.

Traveling through Romania was a challenge and quite expensive. Every time we spent the night in a hotel, we had to reserve two rooms, one for me, and one for him. It was not that we were going to have company or lavish parties. We could ill-afford to pay for two rooms when we were going to use only one. The law dictated, since I was a Romanian citizen, although married, I could not spend the night in the same room in a hotel with my American husband, a foreign national. We had to present our passports each time and receive reservations separately. Interestingly, room rates were double what Romanians were paying. This put a strain on our daily serenity and our budget. One hotel in Mamaia at the Black Sea was across the street from the police precinct. We were envisioning what would happen when the police came to arrest us since I was not spending the night in my room but in his. Only under communist tyranny, from their desire to control every aspect of the citizens' lives, such strife and discomfort would be created between husband and wife.

Food was always a bone of contention in our marriage. I approached grocery shopping as a list of things I wanted to cook for the week. He shopped for food based on perceived basic needs. Having been a farmer's son, an abundance of food came from the fields, canning, farm animals, and other farmer's markets. Luxuries came from the store. I grew up as a city girl and our food was scarce most of the time. On every grocery trip, I picked up extras, as if next time the shelves would be empty. This angered my husband as he thought these groceries unnecessary lavish spending.

Saving money was sacrosanct and was decided by the husband - generations of Smiths* have done so quite successfully. Women were not perceived as smart or worthy of going to college. Leaving finance up to women was derisive and degrading to a man since it indicated loss of control over his family. We were really poor in Romania and, if we had extra money, we were hard-pressed to save it in the only existing bank, the National Bank, knowing that the government could step in at any time and confiscate our savings. Shortages of most basic things meant that each family kept a lot of cash on hand in order to spend it on short notice on perceived future needs, not necessarily current ones. Hoarding was encouraged and desired as it provided a safety net for the very real possibility of famine. Thus our opposing views on saving became a source of distress at times. Living for the moment to me, as a survival mechanism, was more important than living for a distant time in the future.

My orthodox religion and faith were considered heathen, only baptists were the real children of God. My mother-in-law expected us to re-marry in the baptist faith in order for our children to be recognized as legitimate heirs. This prospect gave me great pause since we had already married twice, once in a civil ceremony for the sake of the government and once in the orthodox church, for the sake of our family and our faith. A third marriage to the same man? Impossible. Did it cause a lot of problems? Certainly, in many ways, not the least of which was the baptism of our two daughters. We compromised, after all, my husband was a descendant of the McNeil* clan, and he chose the Church of Scotland - both became Presbyterians as babies. I fully expected them to change their religious status as they matured and chose for themselves. There was a strain in our marriage that I could cut with a scimitar worthy of the Gordian knot.

My parents emphasized education as a way out of misery, poverty, and dire circumstances. The Smiths* believed that a woman's place was in the kitchen, barefoot, and pregnant. Trying to pursue a doctorate put a strain on our marriage since my husband wanted me to wait until we raised our children, he finished his education, and we had enough money to pay for it in cash. I knew that time was of the essence and I could be a mom, a student, and a wife. I had youth and boundless energy on my side. I proved it - I finished three degrees in the time it took him to complete his bachelor's. I mothered my children and took care of the house quite well. I slept very little but I was determined to succeed and prove him wrong. The only casualty to my success was our marriage. I received my doctorate by the time I was 29 but the victory was bitter and Pyrrhic. My doctorate euphoria bubble was burst quickly when, my well-intentioned uncle Gelu, mom's oldest brother, God rest his soul, announced to my Romanian family that I had printed the graduation invitation and commencement announcement in my kitchen. I could not convince them that young people in a free America could actually pursue and obtain doctorates in any fields. Communists had made it so difficult that only old people were accepted into doctoral study and they had to have the approval of the communist party. Non-members were not allowed to apply. The president's wife, Elena Ceausescu, a woman with only elementary education to her name, in her delusional megalomania, had given herself a Ph.D. in Chemistry.

Child rearing was also vastly different in our two cultures. The Smiths* were strict disciplinarians and punished their children severely for minor offenses. I, on the other hand, rarely spanked my children. If I grounded them, I would soon forget and not follow through with the entire length of the grounding sentence. My husband took beatings from his dad with a belt and he understood that to be the only way to keep children compliant. I disagreed vehemently and forbade him to punish our small daughters in such a cruel way. As an only child, that was all my parents could afford to feed, I was cherished by my parents. Mike* thought such coddling would raise a spoiled, bratty child.

Our values in general were so different that I could not fathom why I had married him in the first place. He loved country life in the middle of nowhere, preferably a desert, with no noisy or nosey neighbors. I loved people, grew up in a bustling city that slept through curfews and lots of neighbors and loud kids. The thought of having to spend another day on a lonely, deserted farm brought me to tears and depression. Violent storms scared me to death, tornadoes and straight winds were a part of everyday southern life. Uprooted trees and totally demolished homes were unnatural and frightening to me. Creatures that I had not seen before became part of my nomenclature of dangerous animals to avoid - poisonous snakes, alligators, poisonous spiders and, the nuisance of them all, the huge cockroaches or Palmetto bugs. Stifling humid heat made everything feel like a hot oven - I could not breathe outside for several months until my blood adjusted and thinned. The misery index escalated with the soft water that was so soapy, it was impossible to rinse. I was grateful to have water all the time though, without interruptions from the government.

Dinners were strange and ritualistic, with the oldest male presiding over the meal and dishing out insults to women, foreigners, and pretty much anyone who was not Scottish. I am not sure the insults were intentional or malicious, it was just an accepted way of life. We ate with real sterling silver, a luxury which I found ludicrous and out of place. This was at a time when a complete silver setting cost as much as $3,000. No to mention that it had to be shined weekly. I was so happy to have plenty to eat that I would have used plastic cutlery or even my fingers all the time. Sometimes the favorite dogs from the twenty plus big mutts milling about the farm would circle the dinner table for scraps. I never owned dogs before and found this habit to be unsanitary - we kept dogs outside for protection not as pets. Food was very different in appearance and taste and my in-laws were very impatient with me - I was supposed to like everything overnight and not have any preferences whatsoever. To decline something to eat was a personal insult to them. I had an arduous road ahead of me if I was to survive in this culture, this family, and keep my identity and sanity.
* Not their real names