So What's Wrong with Socialism Anyway?

By James Arlandson

You think the answer to the question is so obvious we don’t need to discuss it? You’ve never heard a student or young adult ask it today.  And what if Leftists rebrand their ideology and hide it under a current political party in American politics? It’s still going strong in Europe and numerous countries around the globe.  Further, you’ve also heard that socialism in its purest form is good, but no society has yet practiced it purely. So whatever you do, don’t use the old Soviet Union, China, and North Korea to tear down the purity of the doctrine. If only the doctrine could be implemented properly, the world would be better off.   However, does their pure doctrine have fatal flaws, inherent impurities?

First, let’s examine the claims of original Marxism, found in Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto, published in 1848 in London. Marxists today claim they don’t follow that old document. Fair enough. But the essential flaws in their ideology will be the same in their various updated expressions of socialism today.  Marx states his goal for the proletariat (workers or the Little People or the Many) clearly over against the bourgeoisie (the owners or the powerful, the Few):

The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest ((read: take by force if necessary) , by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e. the proletariat organized as the ruling class, and to increase total productive force as rapidly as possible. (Marx-Engels Reader, 2nd ed. p. 490)  .....To Read More......