So what exactly is your problem with Communism?

By Mike Smith
15th of August 2011

At the heart of our claim to exist are what scholars of philosophy or ethics call “The right to life”.

This right constitutes the basis of just about every government constitution of just about every nation on earth. It is the basis of all law systems whether it be Roman Dutch, African tribal law or the the law between two men stranded on an island. Everyone claims himself this right to life as the most basic right of which all other rights are corollaries.

But who or what gave us this right? Was it our mothers who gave birth to us? Was it the doctors or midwives who smacked us on our bottoms to allow us to draw our first breath of air? Or was it God or Mother Nature…who gave us this “right to life”?

Wherever this right to life comes from, it causes a cognitive dissonance, because the same entity that granted this life also takes it away, which means the right to life did not exist in the first place.

Let me use an example. The same entity (God, Mother Nature, evolution, etc) that gives a lion the right to live, takes the right to life of the impala, his prey away. Does the Impala not have any right to life?

You cannot give one being the right to life, without denying another that same right. The moment you give the fish in the sea a right to life you take away the right to life away from the dolphin or the shark. The moment you give the impala the right to life, you take away the right to life from the lion.

Besides, when you give a human being the right to life and he goes and swims in the sea where sharks are, the shark will not care or not even be aware of the human’s right to life, let alone honour it.

Therefore I have to conclude that the “right to life” is a myth. It does not exist. Man and all beings, plant or animal has only one right and that is “The right to fight”.

Whoever one believes is in control, God, nature, evolution, doesn’t matter, one only has the right to fight…Fight for your own existence, fight for your right to life.

In nature the antelope has the right to resist the lion through running speed. The plants have thorns or secrete poison to resist, but so every being has developed his own right to fight for life.

Human beings do not automatically have any right to life. Nobody or nothing has given us any rights to life, least of all a piece of paper with ink on it called a constitution.

Compared to other animals, we are weak and slow. Our hearing, sight and sense of smell are pathetic compared to animals. Our weapons, our thorns, our poison, our speed, lies in our minds. Man survives by reason only. By using his brain.

When one speaks to Communists and one is weak of mind, weak of reason, one can easily be convinced about the goodness of Communism.

I recently had an interesting discussion with a former high ranking officer from a former Communist country. It came down to “What exactly is your gripe with Socialism/Communism?”…as he asked me.

On the surface Socialism/Communism sounds wonderful. All living in peace and sharing all property. All working towards the common good of society, etc.

When one points out the fruits of Socialism that more than a 100 million people have died in the last century due to it, then the Communist will tell you that, “Yes, there were despotic, sick leaders, that did evil things, but with the teachings of communism there is nothing wrong. You cannot say Communism is wrong just because a few leaders or people lost the way and now use it to prove that the teachings of Communism are wrong. Communism cares about humanity. It cares about about the downtrodden and exploited workers; It stands for the equal treatment of all and the sharing of wealth, etc”.

My answer to my communist friend was, “Communism takes away the right to own property”.

Immediately he was on his hind legs, his answer was, “Look,…in the end, the dear Lord gave us one earth and we all live on this one piece of land. What gives you or any person the right to claim one section of land for yourself. God gave it to all of us. Ultimately it belongs to Him. We should share it.”

Notice how he (an atheist) uses “God” to soften up his opponent.

So I said to him, “OK…let us leave God out for a moment, because many people are atheists or have other Gods with other values and belief systems, let us concentrate on reason.”

What exactly does this saying mean, “The right to own property?”, and why is it so important in our struggle for survival or this “Right to life” that most people subscribe to?

When you are born, you have nothing except your body. But almost immediately the body starts to fight parasites that want to kill it. Life is a struggle between parasites and hosts.

The body is essentially only a life support system for your brain. So to narrow it down, you basically own nothing, but your mind. Your mind is your ability to reason. Your mind is your weapon in your fight for survival.

Your mind and body is yours. You can do with it what you want in order to ensure your life and your survival and your pursuit of happiness. Nobody else owns it or can claim ownership of your body or mind.

When a primitive man takes some mud or sticks and builds himself a shelter, he takes up his “right to fight”. He uses his reason and his labour to fight the elements and to ensure his survival. It is then his property. If you take that modest abode away from him, you endanger his life or his “Right to life”.

When that same primitive man takes a stick and makes himself a spear to hunt with and takes a rock to make an axe with, it is his property and his tools to fight for his survival and his “right to life”. If you take away those tools, his property, you take away his right to life.

But he is still left with his mind and his ability to reason. So he takes a piece of land and through using his reason and his sweat he cultivates it, grows maize, domesticate animals and builds furrows to irrigate his land and provide the animals with water. This becomes his property and if you take that away from him, you endanger his right to life.

Not only do you endanger his right to life, but also that of his family and his pursuit of happiness. You then take away his right to produce offspring and survive.

If that man uses his reason to become an artisan, a spear maker, a bowyer and fletcher a shoemaker or a tailor and you take his little business away, you take away his right to life.

If you take away a person’s horse or carriage or car you take away his ability to go to work and in so doing threaten his life.

If a person is small of stature, old or female, he/she easily becomes prey to those who want to take his life or his pursuit of happiness away from him/her. Such a person will then again use his mind, his ability to reason to fight for his /her survival.

Such a person will invent a multiplier of force such as a sword or a firearm or whatever he thinks is appropriate to defend himself. Self defence is not a right in itself, the same way as the right to life is no right in itself. The only right an individual has is “The right to fight”.

If you take away his right to own a multiplier if he thinks it is what will ensure his survival, you take away his ability to reason and his right to life or his right to fight for his life.

But it goes deeper than that and it becomes worse…

Socialism aims to take away the rights to all those properties and make it the property of “The People” or society as if society is some anthropomorphic entity with its own reason and character called culture.

Communism aims to take away those same rights and make it the property of the State.

In both cases the individual is left with his body and mind that he owns, but he is not free to use it. Society or the state owns it and decides about his survival and what makes him happy, so he can use neither body nor mind to decide over his own destiny.

Both systems through taking his property away and letting others decide about his right to life and his pursuit of happiness then take away his ability to reason. This is called enslavement…not only of body , but also of mind.

When a person looses the right to reason, to think, to use his mind to fight for his survival, he becomes a slave to others and he ultimately loses his soul.

Such a person then has no incentive to use his mind or reason to exist. He has no incentive to produce. The only way to get him then to produce is through terror and threats to his life. The results are predictable…starvation, poverty and the slaughter of millions.

That is why Socialism and or Communism are evil. At the heart of it lies “The right to fight”, whether it be against the elements, parasites or an oppressive government.

Man can only ensure his right to life if he can use his reason and has the right to own property. If man is refused the right to own a spear, a bow or a piece of land, he will perish.

The only prevention of his death is for the individual to rebel against the ones who wants to take his right to own property away from him. The only way he can ensure his survival is to exercise his God given, “Right to fight”.

That fight might take many forms. It might be by the pen, the internet, the sword, politics or whatever…at the end it comes down to the right to reason, the right to think freely and express one freely. That is also why freedom of speech is so important in our fight for survival.

Freedom of speech does no physical harm to anybody. If freedom of speech and expression through art and music is taken away, then one’s freedom to express oneself through reason is taken away, and it leaves no other alternative than to express oneself through physical force.

In the end, if you take the right to property away, you take the right to everything else away. You take away the right to ownership of the mind of the individual…ultimately you take the right to fight for life away.

My friend listened and looked at me in astonishment without blinking an eye. I waited for his answer after an uncomfortable moment of silence.

Then he said: “Well I did not mean property as in owning spears and mud huts. I was talking about those big capitalist owning banks and big business exploiting the poor workers like us…”

http://mspoliticalcommentary.blogspot.com/2011/08/so-what-exactly-is-your-problem-with.html