Tag Archives: Mussolini

Bill Lockwood: What is Cancel Culture? 4 (1)

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by Bill Lockwood

Western culture is built upon Christian presuppositions. The word cult, in its original connotation, meant religion. Religious ideals at the foundation of society make up what we call “a culture.” This is why almost every definition of the word “culture” includes such items as values, beliefs, and customary views of a society.

These “customary beliefs” of America, which many have taken for granted, are summed up in the Declaration of Independence; specifically, that our individual rights are gifts from God and that the prime role of government is simply to protect those rights. Biblical values all. Our culture not only sprang from these concepts, but is the only culture in the history of the world to provide this framework for a nation.

This is all anathema to Marxists who play a heavy hand in America today. Karl Marx, one of the founders of what we know of as Marxism/communism, whose efforts to explain the world solely in terms of materialistic philosophy is well-known, actually began at the starting point of atheism. His Manifesto called for “the abolition of religion.” His Marxists followers, whose number are legion, Goosestep with the same hatred for all things religious—particularly Christian.

Antonio Gramsci was an Italian communist, born in 1891. After founding Italy’s Communist Party, he moved to Russia where he expected to find that Marxism was a success. On closer inspection, however, he concluded that Stalin’s terror was unnecessary. But he did not relinquish the atheistic worldview which was at the center of Marxism. Instead, after moving back to Italy and then being imprisoned by Mussolini, he gathered his thoughts on how a nation could be made into a “Marxist paradise.” These thoughts are in nine volumes, known as Prison Notebooks.

His notes included the following.

Any country grounded in Judeo-Christian values can’t be overthrown until those roots are cut … Socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity … in the new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches and the media by transforming the consciousness of society.

In these revolutionary ideas is the “cancel culture” being carried out in America today. First, there is the “overwhelming” of Christianity, the basis of western culture. Cut the Christian roots of society. Second, replacing Christianity is the “new order,” the “religion of socialism.” As with Karl Marx, criticizing, even condemning and blaspheming Christianity, would be the very foundation of the new world order. This is socialism—a new religion.

In the “German Ideology” (1845), Marx and Friedrich Engels opined that “for the widespread generation of this communist consciousness, and for the success of the cause, it is necessary that man himself should suffer a massive change.”

Georg Jung, a Marx contemporary and member of the Doctors’ Club along with Marx himself, reflected that Marx was not a political revolutionary, but a theological-philosophical revolutionary who was attempting to overthrow the entire social system, not just an economic system.  This is the “massive change” required for cancel culture—the overthrow of Christianity.

Bill Lockwood: Irreconcilable Differences 0 (0)

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by Bill Lockwood

A recent article in Market Watch by Shawn Langlois highlights a frightening prospect for America’s future. A new survey released by the non-profit Victims of Communism in Washington, D.C., 36% of millennials say they approve of communism, which is up about 10 percentage points from a year ago. Added to that is that 70% of millennials say they are “likely to vote” for a socialist candidate. Further, 22% of the same age bracket say that “private property ought to be abolished.”

This is not merely about lack of education of the youth. It is about mal-education, specifically at the collegiate level, although High Schools and Junior Highs are preparing children for that brainwashing via the doctrine of Climate Change. As these young people begin assuming leadership roles in America, our society will be completely turned up-side down. This is the case precisely because socialism is not simply about economics, but is about a “cultural change.”

Charles Scaliger, in a recent article in The New American print magazine, explains. Socialism is “first and foremost… a social movement, not an economic one. The primary objective of socialism is to destroy the social and moral fabric of society, using economic control as a major tool.”

But this cultural change traces to a different view of human nature than that upon which western civilization has been built. This foundation is a biblical concept of man, nature, and society. Man was created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27) and life itself is a gift from God. Ideas of limited government, liberty and private property are by-products of this religious heritage.

For this reason, our Founders with one accord referred to this as a Christian nation. On the other hand, all forms of socialism reject this concept of human nature, and consequently, our free society forged by the Bible.

Socialism and Communism

Socialism and communism are two peas in the same pod, as seen from the Victims of Communism poll. Communism is merely a form of socialism. Both seek to overturn society, one by the bullet and the other by the ballot. Both trace their heritage to the philosophy of Karl Marx and his atheistic view of human nature and both therefore fervently reject the concept of human nature as presented by Moses in Genesis. Marx’s view in brief is that man’s nature is created solely by the economic system and one’s relationship to it. Society is therefore changed by altering the economic system.

That both socialism and communism are the same philosophy, consider also the fact that the Labour Party, the Socialist Party in Britain, put out in 1948 a Centennial Edition of The Manifesto of the Communist Party with an introduction written by a fellow socialist, Harold Laski. In 1961 the Socialist Party in America listed The Manifesto on its reading list as a socialist classic. Norman Thomas, who was known in yesteryear America as “Mr. Socialist,” said that the Manifesto was the first formulation of socialism.

Socialism and Fascism

Fascism is also another form of socialism. Professor Thomas DiLorenzo, in his excellent treatment of the entire topic in The Problem with Socialism, points out, for example, that Benito Mussolini was always a socialist. Fascism is merely national socialism as opposed to international socialism. National socialism, or fascism, is content to allow private business to survive as long as they are directed by government subsidies and policies—which is exactly where America is today.

View of Human Nature

Without suggesting that socialists follow Marx in everything, it is the case that all these views—socialism, communism, fascism– explicitly or implicitly accept the view of human nature that Karl Marx set forward. College students today are feasting at Marx’s table which eventually influences them adopt his world-view and specifically his view of human nature. This is why the differences today between the Left and Right are irreconcilable. These views begin at a different place regarding God, nature, and humanity. In reality, socialism itself is atheistic.

See how the atheistic view of human nature lies at the bottom. Mussolini wrote that “The Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with the State….It is opposed to classic liberalism … [which] denied the State in the name of the individual.” (Quoted by DiLorenzo, 68).

The fact is is that Mussolini wanted the individual is to be subsumed into the State. What is the difference between this and the current proposals of the Democratic Party? State redistribution of wealth, income taxes, reparations, minimum wages, universal socialized medicine, guaranteed living income, and more make up the panoply of old socialist ideas pushed by the Democrats. All for the state, very little individual liberty. This is why the Democrats in America are always, and have always been, on a collision course with biblical values.

Vergilius Ferm, in his Encyclopedia of Religion, explains the depth of the conflict between Christianity and socialism:

“American socialism is heir to the tradition of materialism and atheism. It relies on the growth of automatic perfection, not indeed by virtue of the given natural faculties of man, but as the product of causally inevitable economic changes. The result is parallel to that of the liberal utopia, a self-contained world of man, individualistic here, collectivist there, and redeemed from evil, once and for all, by the economic process, much as this requires men conscious of their opportunity. This is an overtly anti-Christian doctrine.”

The social and moral fabric of American society must be remade, per the socialists, aka Democrats. This is also why the war in America occurring now is not simply about politics, left or right. It is all about biblical values and whether we will honor them.

 

Trump and Fascism? 0 (0)

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Trump and Fascism?- “Hatred is the lifeblood of the Left and has been since the French Revolution.”

by Bill Lockwood

Michael Kinsley, a contributor to the Washington Post, along with hundreds of other street “organizers” protesting Trump’s inauguration, has labeled Trump a “fascist.” Kinsey thinks that Trump “strong-arming” manufacturing jobs to stay in America or that he “upset” the “delicate balance” of our “relations with China and Taiwan” with a “phone call” is explained by the president’s “fascism.”

The Socialist Alternative website, founded by Kshama Sawant, contains dire warnings to the American people in the wake of Trump’s “right-wing” presidency. Quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Sawant pushes for a complete socialist society. “There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward democratic socialism.”

Sawant calls upon Democrats in Congress to “obstruct” Trump’s “hateful right-wing agenda” and “tens of thousands of people” to “shut down highways and find other ways to shut down ‘business as usual.’” Sawant says we need “mass, peaceful, direct actions to block efforts to deport our immigrant brothers and sisters.” “People and the environment” must be put “above the profit-driven agenda of big business.” Marches this last week are promised to be only the beginning.

May 1 is International Workers Day in which Sawant calls for millions to protest in the streets and fight for “immigrants.” Open borders are what socialists demand in order to complete turning our nation upside down. “In these struggles” Sawant wants “unions, immigrant rights, women’s, civil rights, LGBTQ, environmental organizations…Sanders supporters, …Greens and socialists” to pour into the streets to disrupt society.

David Horowitz, a one-time leftist radical, observed: “Last weekend’s marches” were filled with embarrassing lewdness and obscenity. “They allowed speakers like actress Ashley Judd to make fools of themselves and showcased politically senile retreads like Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem. They were accompanied by violent mobs that trashed shopping centers and fought with police.” All of these “protests” have been “dressed up in light heartedness, but the silly hats couldn’t disguise the fact that they were hatefests in action.” This shouldn’t surprise us, Horowitz reminds us. “Hatred is the lifeblood of the Left and has been since the French Revolution.”

Leftwing hate groups such as Socialist Alternative operate on what he calls “The Big Lie.” What is this? It is “an exercise in what Freud called ‘projection’ and which psychologists define as denying abhorrent emotions in oneself by attributing them to others.” In other words, though there are certainly “haters” on the right, for the most part they are on the fringe in small pockets. But the LEFT seems motivated solely by hate. It is the primary fuel that runs the machine. Where is the hatred directed?

Make no mistake. The real hatred here is a hatred of freedom. Let’s dig a little deeper.

Fascism?

Fascism, Nazism, and Communism are all hard left philosophies. They differ only in degree. The foundational structures are all very similar and tactics rarely vary. All three systems are species of collectivist style governments. Hitler was, after all, a “national socialist” and Mussolini, known as the father of fascism, wrote: “Everything is in the state, and nothing human or spiritual exists, much less value, outside the state. In this sense fascism is totalitarian…The state, in fact, as the universal ethical will, is creator of right…For fascism the state is an absolute before which individuals and groups are relative…The fascist state is will to power and government.” Mussolini’s dictum was: “Everything for the state, nothing outside the state, nothing above the state.”

No individual rights can be founded upon the core that all three share–atheism. Marx’s statements are well-known; Hitler described himself as “anti-Christ” and “an atheist” and Mussolini was just as devoted to Nietzsche as was Hitler. He flatly denied universal rights and wrongs and in the statement just quoted equated the state to the creator of rights “before which individuals are relative.”

Lacking concepts of individual rights, all three systems favored dictatorships. A natural outcome is this when denying value to individuals. When persons are considered cogs in a collectivist machine, authoritarian control is the result.

Wherein then does communism differ from Nazism and fascism? Only in the degree to which the state would control the economic machine. How heavy-handed need be the government? Communism favors complete state control while the others allowed “partnerships” between individual business-owners and the government. But government was the sole arbiter and dispenser of rights and privileges.

From this vantage point it might be helpful to recall now the insult of “fascism” actually was popularized. It became frequent on the lips of communists who did not think that fascists were going far enough in state authoritarian control of business. “Fascist” became a hiss and byword among communists and has been trumpeted by the liberals in America, such as Bill Ayers, to describe from their perspective what is to their right.

For Constitutionalists, however, who found their worldview upon individual rights due to man’s creation by God, fascism is a left-wing atheistic authoritarian concept denying value to individuals in favor of state autocratic control.

This bring us to Trump. In terms of state control, America is technically already a fascist state and has been since the time of FDR by virtue of the fact that private businesses have been hijacked by government coercion, be it regulation, taxation, or collusion between government and big business.

Democrat presidents such as Bill Clinton leaned on banks to make unsecured loans to minorities so that the politicians may stand and say, “See how many minorities we put into home ownership!” This and a thousand other examples demonstrate we are already in a fascist state, pretty close to communism when one considers the fact that the average American works from January to June to have his/her wealth redistributed by government.

Trump promises to roll back that regulation, taxation and redistribution. Communists and socialists are enraged. Like communists before them, from Vladimir Lenin to Bill Ayers, the socialistic masses cry “Fascism!” That is because the only thing they see to their right when sitting on the totalitarian extreme left is fascism. “Right-wing” to Socialist Alternative. These labels betray ignorance of the real nature of liberty and freedom. Trump wants not to remain in their leftist communist-fascist land, but to go back more to the center where we ought to be.