All totalitarian ideologies have a death toll, if they did not then they would not be totalitarian. However, out of all the various totalitarian ideologies that have emerged since the mid 19th century, Socialism in its various forms have the biggest death toll of all. We quite rightly, if we are reasonable people, can look at something like National Socialism and condemn it and avoid supporting it, because we can see its faults and discern the tens of millions murdered in the name of this ideology and because of the policy of this ideology. But all too often people ignore the far greater death toll, something between 80 and 100 million lives lost, caused by Socialism. In the West we have the ludicrous situation where the German Swastika is quite rightly abhored and in some cases prohibited, because of what it means whilst the hammer and sickle, the icon of Socialism, an ideology that has caused tens of mega deaths, is either tolerated or those who carry it and march behind it indulged.
Brian of London over at Twitter asks why Socialism still survives despite how we now know just how bad socialism really is. He said:
Go through my @Sheikh_Anvakh Twitter timeline. I’ve said the same for years
Yeah just seen.
If only it were that simple, I’ve known plenty of lefties that were definitely intelligent enough to know better. Why they didn’t know better is an interesting question. Often I think it is down to a narrowly focused education. Some of us know enough about history and geography to be aware of the many failures of socialism, past and present. It is also a reasonably fair comment that there are different degrees of socialism, not all of which end in piles of dead bodies. Usually this is due to democracy though, the problem is limited by the population being fed up with the crapshow and voting for Thatcher.
You make some good points there. Like you I’ve met ostensibly intelligent left wingers who really should have known better than to continue to support an ideology that always ends in disaster. It may be as you say that they’ve been educated narrowly and not broadly, however there is also the factor of personality and an individual’s desire not to have to abandon a previously cherished belief system. Having abandoned the Left myself I know how difficult it was for me to have to admit that I was wrong, to admit that socialist economics ends up impoverishing people, that multiculturalism is at odds with decent MLK style colour blindness, that not all religions are peaceful and that many of the things that socialism has ‘achieved’ have not made things better but made things worse. It must be much worse for those academically inclined individuals who have been brought up and lived in academic left wing bubbles to admit that they were wrong. For them it must be like a Vicar suddenly losing their faith to admit that the left is the god that failed.
You are correct that a good knowledge of history and geography should make people aware of the constant failures of socialism.
I agree with you that there are degrees of socialism. The Labour Party of the past was firmly based on Methodist social action rather than Marxist revolutionary ideas. It is indeed interesting that when Labour have shifted to the Marxist side it has been rejected by the electorate. I’m really saddened by the way that the Labour Party has gone. This is because any government, even one I voted for and have mostly supported in the past needs an effective opposition to keep them in check. Unfortunately such a necessary opposition can no longer come from the Labour Party as it is currently run. This is bad for politics and bad for democracy.
Recall the labour politicians who, on being defeated, claimed that the “Voters let them down”. At least one further stated “I hope they don’t come to regret it” (or similar).
Lefitsts IMO are convinced that they are the “good guys”. They are certain that they are “progressive”, at the fore-front of social progress, striving for justice and social justice etc. which are good things (which is not to say that they are right about any of the things they *claim* for themselves). Thus they are right and any who disagree are regressive ignorant idiots.
Thus the failures of socialism are not inherent. Just as voters “let them [lefties] down” and “let themselves [the voters] down” by not voting for lefties, so socialism is let down by the wrong people getting in charge when it is tried. And, of course, if the right sort of people (i.e. the leftist speaking, progressive, socially aware, woke etc.) were at the helm a peoples’ utopia would obviously result.
The disconnect is that they prioritise ideology over reality and human nature and so cannot realise that only the most ruthless reach the top of a totalitarian system (left or right), usually climbing there over the bodies of their rivals. Neither do they realise that the inevitable emergence of a Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot etc. would result in them being amongst the first to be purged.
In fairness let me also note that I regard politics as circular: the outcomes from fascism and communism for most people are, IMO, essentially the same. Both result in massive repression and grotesque body-counts.
Yeah that Labour guy’s comment about how it was ‘the voters fault’ showed us a lot about the bad state of the Labour Party. Spot on about prioritising ideology over everything else.
I also agree that there is not much to choose morally from between the far right and far left, they are both awful authoritarians.