Last Updated on August 21, 2021 by web manager
Written by Father Sirba and published over 4 weeks from August 1st through August 22nd in parish bulletins:
A long time ago, I took a college philosophy class called “Dialectical Materialism.” It was based upon the teachings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels who were the founders of Communism. Marx and Engles based their world view on the idea that there is no spiritual or supernatural world and hence no God. For them, everything was and is material, and so, they believed that we must make our own way in the world. That being the case, it would be foolish for anyone to hope for help from beyond. In fact, Marx called religion “the opium of the people.” In other words, like a narcotic drug or alcohol, religion may help people get through the trials and tribulations of life but religion did nothing to address the root causes of those problems. Marx saw religion as an obstacle to human progress and this explains communism’s consistent opposition to all religions. Dialectical Materialism also maintained that economic systems naturally evolve from more primitive systems until they finally reach the perfect state of communism. In that system, goods produced are distributed “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” In this perfect economic state, all would work for the common good. You might say that it would be as close as you could get to a heaven on earth. However, Marx believed that a fundamental problem existed. Those in positions of authority and power, the bourgeoisie, would seek to hold on to their power and wealth at the expense of the weak and the powerless, the proletariat or workers. Thus to advance economic systems to higher and more perfect order and ultimately to communism, class struggle would be both necessary and inevitable. Furthermore, in this class struggle, it would be morally acceptable to do whatever was necessary to bring about a communist state because to leave society in a more primitive economic system would be to ignore and even hinder human progress and to leave the majority of people in misery.
(Part II) Followers of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels increased throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their first opportunity to put their political and economic theories into practice came in Russia. There, in 1917, Marxist revolutionaries, led in part by Vladimir Lenin, ultimately prevailed against the imperial forces of Czar Nicholas II. Once in power, the Communists began to implement their political and economic theories. They began with “purges” in which those deemed members of the ruling classes or bourgeoisie were imprisoned, exiled or executed. Clergy and religious also met the same fate. The ruling classes were eliminated because they were seen as natural opponents to the inevitable establishment of communism. The clergy were eliminated because they were seen as giving false hope to the workers by promising them eternal happiness. This promise would distract the workers from participating in the class struggle and working to overthrow their capitalist oppressors. In time, following the logic of Marxist theory, there were more and more purges. Ultimately, tens of millions of people would be shot, tortured, imprisoned, or sent to a vast network of concentration camps that came to be called the gulag. From Russia, communism spread to various countries throughout the world. Most notably, much of eastern Europe shortly after the end of World War II, China in 1949, followed shortly thereafter by Korea, Vietnam and southeast Asia beginning in the early 1950s, and Cuba in 1959. There have also been numerous conflicts inspired by Marxist revolutionaries in Central and South America and in Africa. In every case where communism has become established, there have been mass executions, imprisonments and injustices on a massive scale. Some estimates have placed the number of deaths since 1917 at 100 million people (see for example “100 Years of Communism –and 100 Million Dead” which appeared in the Wall Street Journal, 11/06/2017). Aside from the human costs, Communism as an economic system has been a colossal failure. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” sounds great, but as one wag put it, no farmer is going to leave his warm bed in the middle of the night in a Russian winter to take care of sick state-owned cow!
(Part III) The great philosopher Aristotle once said, “A small error in the beginning leads to a large one in the end.” The political and economic theories of Marx and Engles were flawed from the very start, and these flaws led to horrendous errors. Marx and Engles made their first mistake in their denial of God’s very existence. Then, instead of paying attention to our eternal happiness, and our salvation, they concentrated on making life on earth man’s only concern. A second mistake Marx and Engles made was their failure to properly address suffering. Their goal was to eliminate suffering here on earth as much as possible (a goal also shared by those of us who follow Christ). However, we know that this is impossible in an absolute sense. Even if a “perfect” communist state could be achieved, there would still be suffering. There would still be illness and death, and some people would still behave badly. So, if suffering can never be entirely eliminated, then what are we to make of it? The Marxists have no answer whereas Christians do. For Christians, suffering is valuable in that it purifies us of selfishness and when united to the Cross of Christ, it becomes a powerful prayer. In fact, it was Christ’s suffering on the cross which redeemed the world. In the face of suffering, Marxists can only wail and gnash their teeth. A third mistake was to deny Original Sin. Our human nature is wounded, and because of that, we need strong motivations to rise above our selfish inclinations. Communism does not provide those kind of motivations. So then, what does one do with members of the working class, the proletariat, who fail to work hard for the state? Marxists only solution was imprisonment or death. A final mistake was the assumption that all those in authority, the bourgeoisie, were evil and self-seeking and without any redeeming qualities. All of these mistakes led to the absolute failure of Communism as an economic and political system whenever and wherever it was implemented.
(Conclusion) Today, a few countries such as Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam are still ruled by Communists (China is said to be a Communist state but it is now really more of an oligarchy). There are also a fair number of Communists who still survive in our American Universities, and who spread their errors to young minds at taxpayer expense. However, for the most part, communism is now almost universally regarded as a failed economic and political system, and the reasons for its failure can be traced to its founding principles which are deeply flawed. Contrary to Marxist theory, there is a God to whom we are accountable. Suffering is an unavoidable part of life and will never be totally eliminated in this world. Original Sin has left us all with deep spiritual wounds that cannot be easily overcome and only then with the help of God’s grace. Finally, not all “workers” are good and not all “bourgeoisie” are evil. Here it should be noted that this fatal flaw of dividing people into groups and then pitting them against one another is in fundamental opposition to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Our faith teaches that we are all one in Christ, that we are brothers and sisters in the Lord. We who follow Jesus Christ have a common faith, a common heritage and a common goal. As Saint Paul wrote in his Letter to the Galatians, “All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:27-28).” From this, one might also add that there is neither rich nor poor, and neither black nor white. The fact is the Jesus Christ unites and the devil divides. Communism was divisive on every level and ended up destroying the lives, liberty and happiness of millions and millions of people. It is here in the way it sews division that Critical Race Theory is like Communism. Critical Race Theory separates us into groups. Just as communists saw all those in authority, all owners as irredeemable oppressors, so too proponents of critical race theory see all whites as either conscious or unconscious oppressors of blacks. This is simply not true. No group is ever universally homogeneous. Yet, critical race theorists essentially charge all whites with racism and place them in the position of having to defend themselves when, in fact, they have done nothing wrong. In some schools, white children are being taught that they have somehow contributed to racial injustices simply by being white, and this leaves many of them guilt ridden. Finally, critical race theorists teach blacks that they are all victims of an unjust and systemically racist system, a system maintained by whites to oppress them. Obviously, teaching people they have been and are being oppressed can only foster resentment and anger. Just like Communism, Critical Race Theory divides people. Furthermore, because Critical Race Theory is founded on the idea that there are oppressors and oppressed, things can only change when the oppressed rise up and take power from the oppressors who – will naturally resist. Consequently and inevitably, the end result will be violence. If we apply lessons learned from history, we can predict that in the end, after much turmoil, Critical Race Theory will be no more successful in curing societal ills than was Dialectical Materialism. For that reason, we all have a duty to oppose this unchristian theory whenever and wherever it is proposed.
