Marxism: Humanity Mesmerized by an Idea Resurgent

Dr. Juan R. Cspedes, Ph.D.

February 14, 2017

All Rights Reserved Worldwide

The Siren Song of Marx ! 3

Ideas vs Reality! 3

An Elite in an Egalitarian System! 6

The Educational System! 7

The Press and Media! 7

The Democratic Party of the United States! 9

The Socialist State is a Konak Jiji! 11

The Neo-Bolshevists! 12

A View to the Future ! 13

Sources! 15

Appendix A: Metamorphosis: The Transformation of the American Democratic Party

Into a Socialist Political Entity! 22

Appendix B: The Real Cost of the Welfare State ! 35

About the Author! 37

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History repeats itself, first as tragedy, the second as farce.

~ Karl Marx

The Siren Song of Marx

Marx and his social engineering ideas seductively calls to many of our youth today (and some
that are not so young as well). They seem to have forgotten, or perhaps never heard of the
words of Winston Churchill, Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the
gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery (in Perth, Scotland, 28 May
1948). The question that begs to be asked is: Why are so many youths attracted by the
extreme left? Socialism seems to be la mode. It was not long ago, at least in American
politics, that being called a leftist or a socialist was the highest pejorative as well as a political
albatross. However, millennials largely fueled the presidential aspirations of Bernie Sanders, a
self-described socialist, during the 2016 elections in the United States. The Iowa caucus
entrance poll found Sanders garnered an overwhelming 84 percent of the 30 and under vote.
Exit polls from New Hampshire found 85 percent support for Sanders among voters ages 30
and younger (Ekins & Pullmann, 2016).

Immunized through the educational system against Nazi ideology, and familiar with the horrors
perpetrated by that regime, the young simply have not received a like immunization against
socialism. For them, the Cold War is a distant historical occurrence with little current relevance.
The Soviet Union and its bloc is no more, and the Chinese communists are now ber
Kapitalisten. They are unaware of either the writings or the deeply moving life stories of
Armando Valladares, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, SreyRam Kuy, Jan Petranek, Liao Yiwu, Jerzy
Popieuszko, Thch Huyn Quang, Lech Wasa, las Damas de Blanco, Cong Thanh Do, Vera
Lengsfeld, or Luis Manuel Diaz.

For the young and nave, socialism is cool. Theyve never witnessed the spirit-crushing
methods of autocratic regimes or the grinding failure of centrally planned economies....Indeed,
for many millennials, socialism is simply shorthand for vaguely Scandinavian in the best
way (Emba, 2016). Interestingly, when Lars Lkke Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark,
addressed the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on a range of Nordic topics, he plainly stated, I know
that some people in the US associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism. Therefore I
would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark
is a market economy (Iacono, 2016). As of this writing, the economies of the Nordic countries
are once more returning to the free-market policies that ensure economic growth, following
serious long-term problems that developed over the last 30 socialist inspired years. These
changes include greater openness to trade, clear reductions in the tax burden, private provision
of welfare services, the introduction of personal retirement accounts (Sanandaji, 2015).

Ideas vs Reality
If one were to try to explain the pitfalls of socialism, the Bernieites (or should they be referred
to as Sanderistas?) are usually dismissive of said attempts by stating, But I am a democratic

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socialist. During a speech at Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, Scotland, on May 4, 1908, Churchill
summarized the differences between socialism and a liberal democracy best when stating
Liberalism is not Socialism, and never will be.1 [Cheers.] There is a great gulf fixed. It is not
only a gulf of method, it is a gulf of principle... Socialism seeks to pull down wealth.... Socialism
would destroy private interests.... Socialism would kill enterprise.... Socialism assails the pre-
eminence of the individual (The International Churchill Society, 2017). Among college age
millennials, 58 percent have a positive opinion about socialism, and 38 percent have a negative
opinion about capitalism. When taking into consideration persons surveyed who had higher
education and income, one finds that 62 percent of college grads, and 78 percent of those with
post-graduate degrees have a more favorable opinion of capitalism.(Elkins, 2015).

When conservatives use the word socialist as an intended pejorative, their planned target may
not fully understand what it means. Essentially, the overwhelming majority of millennials could
not define what socialism consists of (84 percent), nor explain how it is different from the free-
market (Elkins & Pullmann, 2016).2 With age and experience the numbers decline. Only 25
percent of Americans over the age of 55 have a favorable view of socialism. Exactly what does
a democratic socialist cut from the cloth of Bernie Sanders aspire to implement? The answer:
a highly graduated income tax rate (in France, averaging 52.55 percent), strong laws benefiting
labor, strong laws restraining or directly controlling businesses, heavy government involvement
in the direction of economic affairs, and a smrgsbord of government benefits provided at little
or no cost to the public such as child care, health care, and higher education. This narrative
paints government as a benign and generous custodian of the public good (Trading Economics,
2017; Qiu, 2015). It is perceived to be a way of aiding the perpetually submerged tenth3
ignored by society. Socialism framed in this way is difficult to combat, especially after eight
years of Barack H. Obamas ideology and his leftist ddekatheon preaching from their
respective bully pulpits.4

1Sadly, we have had a metamorphosis in terminology, the socialists of today call themselves Liberals. The
clarion call of socialists today is also progressivism, both terms subject to interpretation.
2 Those most apprehensive about a socialist future for the U.S. were those best able to explain it: 56 percent of
Tea Partiers accurately defined socialism. The young are not alone in their inability to define socialism.
Although Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton questioned if Bernie Sanders was a real Democrat
(Merica & Wright, 2016), and armed that she was not a socialist, she was unable to explain how Democrats
and socialists dier (Hunter, 2016). Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz
also couldnt explain the dierence between a Democrat and a socialist (Schwartz, 2015).
3 A term coined in 1890 by William Booth, the British Methodist preacher who founded The Salvation Army.
This referred to the ten percent (i.e., underclass/dclass) of any population which was living permanently in
poverty and misery, and were treated with little respect or consideration by their employers and the upper
classes.
4 Barack life of Julia and If youve got a business, you didnt build that, somebody else made it happen
Obama obviously being at the head of the 12 socialist Olympians, followed by Joe share the wealth Biden;
Nancy We have to pass the bill [i.e., Obamacare], so that you can find out what is in it" Pelosi; Van Jones, a
long-time communist activist; Anita Dunn, who said mass murderer and communist dictator Mao Zedong was
one of her favorite political philosophers. Other crypto-Marxist acolytes include David Bonior, Patrick
Gaspard, Mark Lloyd, John Sweeney, Barbara Lee, Timuel Black, and Marylin Katz.

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What does the Socialist Party USA really stand for? The following are excerpts of its platform
(italics are the authors) (Socialist Party USA, 2017):

A fundamental transformation of the economy, focusing on production for need not profit

Worker and community ownership and control of corporations

A livable guaranteed annual income

Cancellation of Third World debt

Expanded welfare assistance and increased and expanded unemployment compensation at

100% of a worker's previous income

The closing of all U.S.military facilities at home and abroad

An end to the Israelioccupation of the West Bank-East Jerusalem and Gaza, and an end to all
U.S. aid to Israel

The abolition of the CentralIntelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and all other
[similar] institutions

Unconditional disarmament by the United States

Disbanding of NATO

An end to U.S. arms salesthroughout the world

The right of soldiers to formunions

Support militant, united labor action.... boycotts, factory committees, secondary and sympathy
strikes, sit-down strikes, general strikes, and ultimately the expropriation of workplaces

The same benefits for part-time workers as for full-time workers

Oppose all efforts to declareEnglish an official language

The abolition of parentconsent and notification laws for reproductive health services, including
abortion

Lowering of the votingage to 15

Equal access to higher education for all people and support publicly funded higher education

Socialized health care system based on universal coverage, salaried doctors and health care
workers, and revenues derived from a steeply graduated income tax

The right of all people to high quality, low cost housing

Condemn the so-called War on Terrorism and call for the immediate repeal of the
U.S.A.P.A.T.R.I.O.T Acts and the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act

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 The abolition of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security,
and the death penalty

A world in which everyone will be able to freely move across borders

The rights of all immigrantsto education, health care, and full civil and legal rights and call for
an unconditional amnesty program for all undocumented people

Replacement ofthe police with community residents trained in conflict resolution

The decriminalization of druguse and the regulation of narcotics

Government ownershipof satellite and cable companies

Public funding ofnewspapers and magazines

The repeal of all existingcopyright extension laws

Oppose private ownership ofthe Internet

Revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, later known to the world by the alias Lenin, would have
been proud of the platform of the Socialist Party USA. It would destroy the United States as we
know it. It would transform the United States into a bankrupt, sarcomeric and authoritarian
government-run behemoth with little world influence or power. Its goals are frightening. Marxism
is the foundation for socialist thought, and a communist future is its ultimate and intended goal.
Socialist principles should be anathema to anyone who values the ideas and aspirations of John
Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Franois-Marie Arouet (better known by his nom de plume,
Voltaire), Denis Diderot, Baron de La Brde et de Montesquieu, Adam Smith, and Thomas
Jefferson.

An Elite in an Egalitarian System

The elite within the left knows what is good for the masses. Concerned with the future of the
communist movement, in 1901 Lenin wrote a political pamphlet titled What Is To Be Done?
Burning Questions of Our Movement (Russian: ?
). Published in 1902, Lenin maintains that the working classes, if
left to themselves, will not strive to create a new egalitarian and propertyless society, and only
be concerned by improving their wages and working conditions. In order for a true communist
society to eventually come into fruition, Lenin insists that a vanguard () of
dedicated and ideologically pure revolutionaries be formed within the party to motivate, spread
socialist consciousness among the workers, and draw greater numbers into the dialectical class
struggle.5 In the United States we have such a vanguard, which has worked diligently over the
years to insure that our youngsters, as well as a statistically significant and growing percentage
of the voting population embrace a socialist future.6 This vanguard has three major parts:

5In the opening lines of The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels boldly proclaim, The
history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.
6 The same can be said generally for Europe and most of the developing countries.

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The Educational System
The educational elite has indoctrinated a generation of young people. The dominance of the
Left is deep-rooted and for all to see, especially when it comes to the teaching of history....
Conventional political and military history has been broadly consigned to the dustbin by
contemporary academics. They are traditional relics, we were told as undergraduates, and
social and cultural history must come to the fore (Pearson, 2014). Many in the field of education
feel justified in using their lessons as a dais for spreading their socioeconomic world view. This
is a world view which is usually wary, if not hostile, to capitalism and private property, and any
counter-argument to their utopian, but myopic vision of communal engineering through
government intervention. Instances like the recent ones where Dr. Mireiille Miller-Young, an
associate professor at UCSBs (at Santa Barbara) Feminist Studies Department, attacked a
student who was peacefully protesting abortion, and Brent Terry, a professor at Eastern
Connecticut University, went off on a vitriolic tirade, stating that racist, misogynist, money-
grubbing Republicans will close colleges [and]...do not want black people to vote, do not want
Latinos to vote. Do not want old people to vote, or young people to vote. Because generally,
people like you are liberal (Bonham, 2014; Leef, 2014; Volokh, 2014;). The result of the
American education system being controlled by liberals is one where history must become
irrelevant. History, if it is taught, must be a history that is re-written, edited, or even fabricated to
suit a preconceived idea of political reality (Bruce, 2015).

Students are not the only victims, consider the case of James Miller, an economist at Smith
College in Northampton, Massachusetts. In spite of teaching a heavier class load each
semester, authoring a book, and having several academic articles published in reputable
journals (including the National Review), he was denied tenure. For all intents and purposes, the
only way for a professor to get a lifetime college appointment, wrote Miller, is to ...contribute to
the literature on why America is racist, sexist, and homophobic (Sweeney, 2017). Then there is
the astonishing decision by Hampshire College in Amherst to remove the American flag. The
colleges president, Jonathan Lash, stated that some students regarded the flag as a powerful
symbol of fear theyve felt all their lives because they grew up in marginalized communities,
never feeling safe (Bromwich, 2016; Prestigiacomo, 2016).

The Press and Media

A ten-to-one ratio of press criticism for conservative political figures and policies versus liberal
figures and policies explains why an increasing number of Americans see the the news media
as little more than a Pravda-like organ of the Democratic Party (Cusmariu, 2016).

Research headed by Robert Lichter, Professor of Communication at George Mason University,

revealed that 81 to 94 percent of what he termed the media elite 7 voted for the Democrat
presidential candidate from 1964 to 1976 (Lichter, Rothman, & Litchter,1990). The evidence

7Examining the profile of the average media worker Lichter finds a white, upper-middle-class male college
graduate earning $30,000 to $50,000 a year (the salary figures are from the mid-1980s), whose parents are also
college graduates and are often professionals. It is also noteworthy that 68 percent come from north-central or
Northeastern cities, have almost no anity for small-town America, and very few attend church or synagogue.
It is unsurprising that their handling of the news is tainted by their regional and class prejudices.

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concerning media bias accumulates. Research from an assortment of reputable publications
which include U.S. News & World Report, the Los Angeles Times, and the Freedom Forum
monitored the liberal or Democratic orientation of the press with almost identical findings, ...one
report found that 90 percent of the White House press corps voted Democratic. And according
to a meticulous and ongoing analysis of polling data by Indiana University, only 7 percent of
journalists now say they are Republicans (Harper, 2016). These failures amount to a self-
imposed propaganda that disconnects the media from understanding the wants and needs of
the average worker (Samuels, 2011).

The left is not the only accused purveyor of dezinformatsiya (Russian: ).8 The
fixation of the mainstream media in the 2016-pre-election period, fake news, was
manufactured information which demonized Hillary Clinton. Perhaps one of the biggest of these
faux stories was from the Denver Guardian, who reported that the FBI agent who investigated
Clinton's use of a private e-mail server, Michael Brown, had committed suicide under
suspicious circumstances. The Denver Guardian was discovered to be nothing more than a
hastily thrown together web site... created for the sole purpose of disseminating fabricated
clickbait news stories (Mikkelson, 2016). Facebook pledged to scrutinize and appraise the
validity of its contents. Watchdog groups published lists of websites to distrust (van Zuylen-
Wood, 2017). Since losing the presidential 2016 election, Hillary Clinton complained about the
proliferation of fake news as an epidemic with real world consequences which puts lives at
risk. The insinuation, if not the direct accusation, was that this disinformation was the cause of
her electoral defeat. Predictably, Clinton backed Congressional legislation to limit, if not stop
altogether, fake news (Merica, 2016; Neidig, 2016). However, the mainstream media was also
highly complicit in spreading Hillary Clintons own dezinformatsiya. Not the least of which was
that (a) the Benghazi attack was due to a protest against a YouTube video9, (b) Clinton never
sent or received classified email on her home-concocted email server10 , (c) her landing under
sniper fire during a 1996 trip to war-ravaged Bosnia, (d) telling an Iowa audience that her
grandmother was an immigrant, (e) falsely denying her previous support for the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (previously calling TPP "the gold standard of trade deals"), (f) stating that a sexist
recruiter spurned her 1975 attempt to join the Marines because she was a woman (Dulis, 2016),
and finally, (g) claiming to have been named after the famed explorer Sir Edmund Hillary,
climber of Mount Everest 11 (Rusty Weiss, 2015).

Perhaps the prima facie evidence of the medias incestuous relationship with leftist causes is
found in their reporting of hate crimes after the Trump election. The Southern Poverty Law
Center, based in Montgomery, Alabama, reported that in the 10 days following the election,
there were almost 900 reports of harassment and intimidation from across the nation that

8A transliteration of disinformation. A Cold War spy-craft term for intentionally false but believable
information spread by the USSR in a calculated way as to mislead and deceive targeted audiences.
9 Clinton said this while standing in the same room as the caskets of the four slain Americans.
10FBIDirector James Comey found Clintons excuses and later the repeated modifications of the original
statement, as more information came to light to be categorically false.
11 The explorer didnt climb Everest until Clinton was 6 years old.

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Many harassers invoked Trumps name during assaults, and furthermore, People have
experienced harassment at school, at work, at home, on the street, in public transportation, in
their cars, in grocery stores and other places of business, and in their houses of worship
making it obvious that the groundswell of hatred was derived in large part from Trumps election
(SPLC, 2016). CNN, the Associated Press, NBC, and the Washington Post, among others,
dutifully repeated the story. However, there is one major problem: the Southern Poverty Law
Center does not affirm that the incidents actually happened anywhere within its 14 page
communiqu, stating, it was not possible to confirm the veracity of all reports (p. 5).12 No one
in the organization had any idea if the alleged incidents actually happened or not. Yet, the media
at large was not deterred by the fact that there was no verification of the incidents in the faux
study. In effect, the generally leftist media at large should reconsider its own practices if it is truly
concerned about spreading incorrect information (Trinko, 2016).

The Democratic Party of the United States

President Barack H. Obama leaves behind a far more leftist party than the one he inherited.The
Democratic Party has been transformed during Obamas administration into a socialist entity
bearing little resemblance to the party of John F. Kennedy (see Appendix A: Metamorhosis: The
Transformation of the American Democratic Party Into a Socialist Entity).13 It is even further to
the left than it was in 2008, the first time Hillary Clinton ran for the presidency. The tide has
turned indeed. Hillary Clinton had to move strongly in the direction of Sanderista policies
concerning extensive entitlement programs, social security, and international trade. Democratic
strategist Jim Manley, a backer of Clinton, succinctly framed the problem faced by his Party,
...theissue is that many in the party have moved even more left in recent years. She [Hillary]
cant afford to antagonize these folks as we move closer and closer to the general election.Jim
Kessler, senior vice president for policy at the center-left think tank Third Way, 14 had a
Cassandra moment when he said, ...if the party moves too far left, Donald Trump will be
president.Like Cassandra, he was ignored (Fabian, 2016). Over the last twenty years the
Democratic Party has moved markedly further leftward than the Republican Party has moved to
the right. On most major issues the Republican Party hasnt moved very much from where it
was during the Gingrich era in the mid-1990s (Wehner, 2015). The election of 2016 certainly
seems to be a backlash against the liberalism of the Obama era. Centrist Democrats believed
that Reagan, for all his faults, had gotten some big things right. The Soviet Union had been evil.
Taxes had been too high. Excessive regulation had squelched economic growth. The courts had

12 The equivocation and ill-defined data in the report by the SPLC would earn a failing grade in any freshman
college research class. The organization goes on to state, The 867 hate incidents described here come from
two sources submissions to the #ReportHate page on the SPLC website and media accounts.
13Equally unrecognizable from the Democratic Party that existed during the administration of William
Jeerson Clinton, and his centrist strategy of triangulation, which came to power in the 1990s. Clinton
crafted policies appealing to middle-America which included welfare reform, NAFTA, the Omnibus Crime
Bill, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
14Ironically, Benito Mussolinis fascism was initially described as a third way between capitalism and
communism. The fascists claimed to provide an alternative that combined corporatism and class collaboration
(Morgan, 2003, p.168).

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been too permissive of crime (Beinart, 2016). However, the ideological pendulum within the
Democratic Party of the 21st century has swung in the opposite direction.

The Obama presidency saw the remaining Blue Dog conservative Democrats eliminated from
the Democratic party during his administration (Ponnuru, 2016). However, the seeds of the
Democratic Partys socialist drift were sown during the reforms instituted during, and after, the
1972 campaign of presidential aspirant George S. McGovern. The McGovernites marginalized
or ousted the old party and trade union leaders at the Miami Beach, Florida, convention and
replaced them with progressives closely allied to the identity group to which they belonged
(i.e., women, African-Americans, Latinos, students, etc.).15 The Democrats morphed from a
Main Street America centrist party concerned with worker rights and full employment16, to one
of the left, embracing the policies of class warfare that would eventually alienate middle-
America, and cause voters to move to the Republican side. That trend culminated during the
Ronald Reagan campaign, producing the large group [of voters] dubbed Reagan
Democrats (Radosh, 2016). Led by a talented and well organized leadership, the Republican
Partry would be able to make the Democrats pay a political price for going too far to the
left (Ponnuru, 2016). In a nationwide survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in
January, 2014, only 34 percent of Democrats identified themselves as liberal, compared with
63 percent identifying as moderate of conservative. In contrast, in the GOP moderate and
liberal Republicans make up a mere 32 percent of the Party, while conservatives make up a
67 percent majority (Pew Research Center, 2014; Kohut, 2014). It seems that the liberal wing of
the Democrats has finally pushed the party too far (Shaw, 2015). As we extrapolate the
consequences of these trends into the future, this writer believes that it would not be surprising
if there is a split in the Democratic Party: the traditional Democrats vis--vis the Social
Democrats (as in the United Kingdom) or the Mouvement Dmocrate Socialiste de France,
MDSF.17

Socialisms appeal is emotional, it tugs at the heart-strings, it aims for an egalitarian society that
is unfeasible and in many ways counter to human nature; In politics, aim for the heart, not the
head (Vedantam, 2006). It is as difficult to argue against the fantasy of a socialist utopia as it is
against the beauty of unicorns. Perhaps King Oscar II of Sweden best framed the problem when

15Held at the Miami Beach Convention Center, on July 1013, 1972. McGovern ran on a socialist platform
(although he didnt use that term) of implementing a guaranteed minimum income for the poor and immediate
withdrawal from the conflict in Vietnam. McGovern unabashedly embraced far-left liberalism and was an
instrument of the redirection of the Democratic Party away from its working class base of support (Graebner,
1973; Martin, 2012; Nicholas, 1973).
16Precisely the bread and butter issues that Lenin was afraid would distract the trade-union minded socialists
of the early 19th and 20th centuries. Lenins Bolsheviks, seeing themselves as scientific socialists, wanted to
create a propertyless and classless society.
17 TheSocial Democratic Party, or SDP, was founded in 1981 by four senior Labour Party members, dubbed the
Gang of Four by the British press: Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams. The French
MDSF party was founded in 1973. Among its founders were Max Lejeune, Andr Santini, Pierre-Cristophe
Baguet, and mile Muller. Both organizations have undergone political and organizational changes since their
founding.

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stating, A man who has not been a socialist before 25 has not heart, if he remains on after 25
he has no head (Wall Street Journal, 1923).

The Socialist State is a Konak Jiji

There is a lesson to be learned in all of this from Japanese mythology. In Japanese mythology
the Konak jiji is a malevolent little creature. Lurking in remote mountainous areas, it takes the
form of an infant and waits for an unsuspecting traveler to pass by. When the intended victim is
in sight, the Konak jiji begins to cry. Naturally, human nature is to want to comfort a crying baby,
and so most kindhearted travelers will seek out the wailing infant and make the fatal mistake of
picking it up. Once the Konak jiji is cradled in someones arms, it quickly grows to unbearably
heavy proportionshundreds of pounds in weightenough to usually kill the good samaritan.
Most of the time, its not possible to drop a Konak jiji, because the victim becomes paralyzed
with fear. The hypertrophic and sarcomized socialist state is like the Konak jiji. It also uses
deceit and fraud on the unwary. Once picked up, it grows exponentially in power, expenditures,
and bureaucratic restrictions, and individual freedom diminishes in equal proportions. As it
grows in power, its policies cannot be reversed. Eventually the nave citizenry is crushed
altogether. Throughout the world people are being crushed by Konak jiji style governments.18

Because it de-incentivizes people and increases their dependency on government, socialism

hurts the human spirit19, thereby undermining human self-worth and self-efficacy. All socialist
schemes punish the productive and reward the unproductive, thereby inherently rewarding
indolence and demoralizing the achievers in society. Thus, socialism, in addition to being a
political and economic malevolence, is a moral one as well.

The lesson to be derived from the economic experiments of the 20th and 21st centuries
fascism, socialism, and communismis that prosperity comes from encouraging
entrepreneurship and a free and thriving market. When this is not made obvious in non-capital
driven economic systems, it may be due to the fact that deferring the hidden costs of socialism
temporarily postpones it deleterious effects and even increase its popular support. Unlike the
collapse of the USSR 20, the modern version of deferred-socialism has effectively postponed
the economic impact of present expenditures in order to assuage demands for increasing social

18 Thiswriter first made the comparison between the Konak jiji and an ever growing socialistic state in The
Myopic Vision: The Causes of Totalitarianism, Authoritarianism, & Statism (2003).
19 The ne plus ultra socialist nanny-state, the Soviet Union, is the ultimate reference point for an all-powerful,
uncaring, and atheistic bureaucracy that crushed the human spirit at every level. The words of Gerald R. Ford
come to mind when he said, A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big
enough to take from you everything you have (Presidential address to a joint session of Congress, August 12,
1974).
20 This author has written at length about this topic in the Co%apse of the Soviet Empire (2010), where in
addition to the aforementioned excessive expenditures and economic failures caused by the de-incentivization
of the worker, the Soviets also failed in the six essential norms promised by their ideologically-driven
sociopolitical and economic structure: (1) providing the fundamental material requirements of the population,
(2) fulfillment of Marxist social principles, (3) economic eciency, (4) the promised advantages of
collectivization, (5) the fulfillment of non-material human needs, and (6) environmental responsibility.

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benefits paid by the public larder. The welfare states of Europe have accumulated massive
debts and unfunded liabilities, with the United States especially emulating them during the
Obama administration (Amadeo, 2017; Barrett, 2017; Boyer, 2015).21 The European model has
become the modus operandi for many countries worldwide. However, because the citizenry has
yet to pay all the taxes engendered by these social programs, the populace does not feel the
effects of that spending immediately (see Appendix B: The Real Cost of the Welfare State).

The Neo-Bolshevists
The idea of the populace being entitled to free services provided by government is bewitching
and difficult to counter by the fiscally responsible. The concept of receiving welfare has lost all
sense of shame (Twyford-More, 2014; Delaney, 2015; Lucas-Stannard, 2012). Instead,
...entitlements are viewed as a higher-order moral claim, owed [to] individuals.... So a huge part
of government spending moves off-limits to intelligent discussion (Samuelson, 2012). As is
often the case with members of the Occupy Wall Street, the Greens (self described as eco-
socialists), the Gamaliel Foundation, MoveOn.org, the Global Exchange, and other leftist
organizations of the same ilk, attempts at intelligent conversation may arouse a hateful
confrontation, even physical assault. The examples of the left purposely disrupting and
obstructing the democratic process and limiting or prohibiting freedom of speech and expression
are both plentiful and extremely disturbing (Brennan, 2017; Caruso, 2017; Gorner & Lee, 2016;
Luntz, 2017).

No civil or rational conversation is possible with the neo-Bolshevists, who, had the pages of
history turned differently, would have been totally at ease wearing the uniform of a gulag guard
la Soviet Glavnoye upravleniye lagerey ( , ) in a Marxist
America; ready to shoot anyone crossing an ideological or physical border. It is the ultimate
intent of the left to destroy our pluralistic democratic society and implement their version of
Orwellian group-think.22 Their methods and political behavior come directly from the pages of
the 1917 revolution in Russia. The strategy can be summarized as agitprop23 , disruption and
creating crisis through misinformation and violence, negation of the traditional socio-economic

21 President Obama added $7.917 trillion to the national debt, a 68 percent increase, in seven years.
22Every day, Gulag guards announced the march to work: A step to the left or a step to the right is considered
an attempt to escape. We will shoot without warning. Sadistic guard behavior toward inmates was a hallmark
of Gulag life.... Soviet authorities constantly sought to prevent any sympathy from the guards for their
prisoners. Guards were constantly reminded that they were the steel in the states sword battling the evil
prisonersenemies bent on destroying the glorious society being built in the Soviet Union.... The entire Gulag
apparatus was set up with incentives that... often even rewarded violence against prisoners... (Roy Rosenzweig
Center, 2017).
23 Agitprop: Theterm is a shortened form for the Agitation and Propaganda Section of the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Georgy Valentinovich Plekhanov, a Marxist theorist, defined
propaganda as the promotion of political slogans and half-truths to individuals or groups, and agitation as the
use of propaganda to mobilize the masses into taking actions such as demonstrations, strikes, or violent public
disturbances (Smith & Lasswell, 1946, pp. 41). ...agitation and propaganda, are a mighty and indispensable
weapon in the Partys revolutionary arsenal. (Saba, 1978).

12
order, and finally installing a one-party totalitarian system. Expect the left to be an unceasing
and increasingly vile opponent that knows no boundaries.

How will we pay for the socialist nanny-state? The mantra of the left is to raise taxes on the
rich, although the top ten percent of the population already pays nearly 70 percent of all income
taxes (Greenberg, 2015). Had the socialist Bernie Sanders been elected, both the top personal
income tax rate and the capital gains tax rate would have been a confiscatory 54.2 percent
(Smith, 2016). The neo-Bolshevists are actually in favor of an incredible 90 percent tax rate for
the wealthiest (Walsh, 2014).

That type of logic does not deter the young from the fantasy of a state-funded unlimited buffet of
free social benefits. It is a fantasy to imagine that raising taxes, or the myopic vision24 of
confiscating all the assets on the rich, will solve our economic problems. If the IRS expropriated
100 percent of income over $1 million, that would represent less than a third of a single years
deficit (Bigman, 2012). Additionally, such a move would be immoral. Wealth belongs to those
who have earned it honestly, not the government, and not your neighbor because he or she
somehow feels entitled to it. When the government takes what is yours (the euphemism used by
Marxists is expropriation by the state) it is simply theft. Every major religion in the world
condemns theft.25

A View to the Future

The solution to economic ills isnt found confiscating and distributing wealth, it is found in
creating wealth through a vibrant and unencumbered market with many competitors and a level
playing field. The typical youngster in the United States is not only ill-informed economically, but
also historically. In a ...survey of recent college graduates.... a third could not name a single
right guaranteed by the First Amendment (Skinner, 2016). In Jean-Paul Sartres famously
truncated quote that Marxism remains the insurpassable26 philosophy of our time. We cannot
go beyond it the lovers of individual freedom see a dismal future. Invariably, those countries
ruled by the ideology of Marx share common characteristics explicitly unascribed by the
sycophants of socialism. These are

1. Rule by a single political party and one leader.

2. Advancement is achieved by loyalty to, and the implementation of, party principles.

24 A phrase coined by this author in The Myopic Vision: The Causes of Totalitarianism, Authoritarianism, & Statism
(2013).
25Thou shall not steal (Judaism and Christianity. Exodus 20.15); To take to oneself unrighteous wealth is like
satisfying one's hunger with putrid food, or one's thirst with poison wine. It gives a temporary relief, indeed,
but death also follows it (Taoism. Treatise on Response and Retribution); The wickedness of evil-minded
thieves, who secretly prowl over this earth, cannot be restrained except by punishment (Hinduism. Laws of
Manu 9.263); As for the thief, both male and female, cut o their hands. It is the reward of their own deeds, an
exemplary punishment from God (Islam. Qur'an 5.38) (Wilson, n.p.d.)
26 Theword in French is indpassable. In its proper context, Sartres was at once descriptive and prescriptive
about Marxism and the future (Andler, 2010).

13
 3. Fraudulent elections with the candidate chosen by the party winning without exception.

4. Freedom of speech for the individual or the press is severely curtailed or nonexistent.

5. Travel within the country restricted, emigration forbidden.

6. A police state maintained by internal spying. The secret police is augmented by people
who volunteer (or are coerced) to spy on and report the activities of their neighbors.

7. An economic system controlled by the state. What will be produced, how it will be priced,
and how the products will be distributed is determined by the state. Industrial growth is
determined by political ideology.

The value of a well educated individual cannot be overstressed. Educating our young needs to
be our first priority, and a fundamental necessity for preserving a democratic and pluralistic way
of life.

14
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21
Appendix A: Metamorphosis: The Transformation of the American
Democratic Party Into a Socialist Political Entity
Dr. Juan R. Cspedes, Ph.D.

The Democratic Party Metamorphosis

The American Democratic Party, as it exists today, is a far cry from the democratic liberalism of
John F. Kennedy in the 1960s. JFK was no liberal by todays standards. Rather, his was a
Lockean philosophy founded on ideas of liberty and equality, combined with the principles of
economic responsibility.

The young president was an ardent proponent of stimulating the private sector and consumer
demand through tax-cuts, and slashing tariffs and regulations that restricted free trade. In a
speech during the 1960 campaign he stated, I do not believe that Washington should do for the
people what they can do for themselves through local and private effort (Peters, Woolley,
2016). These are policies vehemently denigrated today by the progressives on the left as
being regressive and disparaged as trickle down economics (Leef, 2013). Kennedy personally
scrutinized every agency request with a cold eye and encouraged his budget director to say
no (Jacoby, 2013). The present Democratic Party, the institution of Hillary Clinton, Bernie
Sanders, and Barack Obama, would consider JFK a minority-wing outsider at best. Clinton, who
promises to continue the Obama legacy, would presumably add to the $20 trillion debt
accumulated under the Obama administration (Boyer, 2015; Cave, 2016; WND, 2016). There
are many analysts who argue that the politics of the Democratic Party are moving the United
States to the radical left fringes (Loiaconi, 2016, Stevens, 2016; Wehner, 2016).

The USSA United Socialist States of America

Thus far, the United Socialist States of America has not come into being because there are
people presently in the country with firm beliefs. Words have weighty meaning, and an
overwhelming sixty percent of Americans respond negatively to the term socialism, according
to a study by Pew Research (Gregory, 2012). They firmly believe that although government has
an important role to play in creating conditions that serve the general welfare of the people, and
insuring equal opportunity, a government which is too large and intrusive stands in the way of a
truly prosperous society. They believe that government must live within its allotted revenues.
Furthermore, they believe that

The burden of the American taxpayer should be reduced whenever possible;

Government agencies are created to serve rather than to restrict, regulate, and punish
the American people,

Government should encourage work over idleness, personal independence over

government dependence, and a free market which is not controlled, dominated and
excessively regulated by the government,

22
 The American tax code should be simply structured and designed to create incentives
for income earning, saving, and investments in jobs and in expanding opportunities,

Personal responsibility is essential to the preservation of freedom, and government must

strictly hold accountable those who fail to act responsibly and to defend and support
those who are victims of criminal and irresponsible behavior,

Government should be a force that affirms traditional American values and stands
against the forces that threaten them, and,

Government should always be aware that it is a creature of the American public, that it
answers to the public for its failures and successes and should never be so arrogant as
to use its powers to diminish personal rights and freedoms guaranteed in the
Constitution.

The above annotations are not from Conservatives, Republicans, or the Tea Party,but from the
platform of members of the Democratic Party of the United States which refer to themselves as
Blue Dogs (Blue Dog Coalition, 2012).

Today the centrists and moderates in the Democratic Party are in the absolute and disregarded
minority (Davis, 2012). Some analysts predict that the Blue Dogs face extinction (Politico, 2012)
because, as lifelong Democrat Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, believes, the far left has taken
over Democratic Party (Los Angeles Times, 2010). Senator Joseph "Joe" Lieberman, senior
Senator from Connecticut, and former Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in the 2000
election (currently an independent), agrees, saying, this is not your fathers Democratic
Party (Morrissey, 2012). Gallup Politics concurs: More Americans See Democratic Party as
Too Liberal (Jones, 2009), and see the Democrats policies as extremist and out of touch with
the mainstream (Harsah, 2010).

It is obvious why the Democratic Party must avoid being correctly labeled socialist. That
moniker would be a weighty albatross, and if the Democrats and their liberal allies could not
control the political discourse in the popular media in this regard (as they generally do), they
could not win elections. They would counter that only irresponsible fanatics and right-wing
reactionaries would carelessly throw around such pejoratives and demented exaggerations. The
facts are that the Democratic agenda and the socialist agenda are the same. With the Bernie
Sanders phenomena of 2015-2016, the socialist moniker has become blurred and legitimized
with a significant population of the Democratic Party. Among Democrats, capitalism and
socialism were viewed similarly, with 52 percent of those responding giving a thumbs
up (Bump, 2015). To argue otherwise is to ignore the obvious. Alas, the obvious is often
ignored; as George Orwell so astutely said, To see what is in front of one's nose requires a
constant struggle (Klein, 2012).

By using the term socialist, this writer does equate the Democrats with Khrushchev, Castro, or
Ceauescu. But the Democrats do fall within the parameters of leftist politics which encompass
increased taxation, the passage of progressive laws controlling social interaction and
expression, increased government regulations, advancing welfare programs, deficit spending,
and the idea of a centralized government intervening and directing the economy; all which is

23
within the realm of statism and authoritarianism. By this criterion the Democrats are socialists in
the same vein as the Parti Socialiste (France), Partido Socialista Obrero Espaol (Spain), the
Socialistiska Partiet (Sweden), and the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Greece: known mostly
by its acronym , or PA.SO.K.).

European and American Political Roots

The European socialists trace their political origins to Marxism. After 1883 there existed a
widening schism between the scientific socialism of Marxist goals, and the other
unscientific (from the Marxist perspective) political parties describing themselves as socialists,
but who were essentially concerned with trade unionism and government sponsored welfare
programs. The political origins of the United States are traced to the principles of John Locke,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles de Montesquieu, and Adam Smith. These principles are the
intellectual foundation for individualism, free enterprise, limited government, and are embodied
in the Constitution. The European socialists have developed an extensive welfare state. Their
political opponents have no qualms about the likely impossibility of reversing it, in spite of
increasing worries about its financial survivability, and only entertain the possibility of modifying
it at the fringes.

European socialism is fundamentally bankrupt, and bailouts cant save the continent from a
cargo-cult mentality of receiving free goods and services (Rogoff, 2011; Feierstein, 2012;
Macke, 2012; Rickens, 2012; Tebbit, 2012). On the average, the European welfare states use
one-half of or more of their GDP to provide free medical care, pensions, extended
unemployment benefits, income grants, and a free higher education. After World War II, British,
French, and other socialist governments in Europe nationalized private enterprises with the
same failed economic results described in The Myopic Vision: The Causes of Totalitarianism,
Authoritarianism, & Statism (2013) 27. In many cases they have subsequently been returned to
private ownership (i.e., privatization) under leaders such as Margaret Thatcher,28 reversing often
precipitous economic declines and improving the quality of services rendered. However, upon
the return to power of socialist governments, private enterprise in Europe has found itself
heavily taxed and regulated to contribute to whatever the state defines as the general welfare.

The Party of European Socialists drafted a Declaration of Principles on November 2011

summarizing their agenda. In addition to the aforementioned points regarding taxation and
government involvement (some would say government interference) in the economy and
society, the following bullets are selected cornerstones revealing their essentially Marxist
agenda [italics are this writers] (Labour Movement of Europe, 2011):

A strong and just society must ensure that the wealth generated by all is shared fairly as
determined by the state.

27By the writer, 402 pages, (ISBN-13:978-1468091250, ISBN-10:1468091255) available in print and Kindle
versions at Amazon and other book retailers, see https://www.amazon.com/Myopic-Vision-Totalitarianism-
Authoritarianism-Statism/dp/1468091255 .
28Modern conservative leaders include Daniel Dalton, Amjad Bashir, Ian Duncan, and Andrew Lewer (UK)
Rafaele Fitto (Italy), Angel Dzhambazki (Bulgaria), Dawid, Jackiewicz (Poland), Sampo Terho (Finland), Helga
Stevens (Belgium), and Bernd Klmel (Germany), to name a few.

24
Democrats favor progressive taxes on the rich to redistribute income and wealth from winners to
losers and to ensure that all pay their fair share. As Barack Obama stated: When you spread
the wealth around, its good for everybody (Hurt, 2008).

Collective responsibility makes society stronger when people work together, and all people are
enabled to live a dignified life, free of poverty and protected from social risks in life.

Democrats favor collective responsibility and protection from social risk through the issuance of
food stamps, welfare programs, extended unemployment benefits, guaranteed health care, the
bailing out of big companies, forced renegotiation of mortgages, class action law suits, and
other socialist measures.

If unfettered by state control, market forces, driven by and greed and shift power to the
privileged few, deepen economic, geographic and social inequalities, and create economic
crises.

Today, the Democratic Party in the US advocates greater regulation, subsidies, and taxation to
persuade, or coerce, business to promote their perception of the general welfare, and shows a
distrust of market forces (if not outright animosity). Industries not part of his collective endeavor
(banking, medical/health, nuclear, oil, gas and coal producers, for example) are penalized.
Industries that serve the Democratic perception of the general welfare (green technology) are
to be subsidized even if they are rejected by the market or are economically inefficient
(Herszenhorn, Labaton, Landler, 2008). A comparison with the goals of European socialists and
the statements and legislative initiatives of the Democratic Party are nearly identical. It is
evident even at the highest levels of the party. In a revealing and unscripted slip President
Obama told the very socialist-minded Occupy Wall Street protesters: I appreciate you guys
making your point...You are the reason I ran for office (McCormak, 2011).

A Socialist Future?
A friend of mine was asked to a costume ball a short time ago. He slapped some egg on his
face and went as a liberal economist. 29

~ Ronald Reagan, 1988

The political choices faced by the world citizen are incomprehensibly stark. The language of the
left is seductive and immensely disadvantageous to the fiscally conservative right. It is difficult to
oppose ideas with an ulterior agenda, but which are couched in terms like fairness, social
justice, universal health care, sustainable growth, prohibiting price gouging, state
managed market economy (i.e., the French dirigisme), sensible gun laws, shared sacrifice,
spreading the wealth, social security, a living wage, the rich paying their fair share,
entitlements, and the ubiquitous common good. Criticism of the left ensures the vilest and
most despicable of personal attacks by a biased and generally leftist public media (Capitol
Commentary, 2012), similar to the attempts at personal censorship that was experienced by US
critics of Stalin in 1945. At the very least, the oft repeated clich (accusation?) is that

29Egg on his face is a figure of speech, meaning to be embarrassed by something one has done; to be
completely wrong.

25
conservatives are rigid, judgmental ideologues. Progressives, by contrast, are praised as
flexible pragmatists who seek practical solutions and go wherever the data lead them (Brooks,
2016). Only the politically sophisticated understand that these are encrypted terms with socialist
ideological underpinnings (Higgs, 1987; Higgs, 2005; de Jouvenel, 1993). Essentially, these
terms revolve around the idea of taking money or power from the individual and the productive,
and transferring it to the collectively underproductive and the state. Presented to the public as a
desirable and noble policy, the state directs individuals to comply with its goals (Higgs, 1991;
Holcombe, 2002; Mueller, 1989). The ability of the state to force individuals to comply with its
mandates increases in proportion with the power and size of government. The increasing power
of the state vis--vis the rights of the individual and private sector is the keynote struggle of the
future (de Jouvenel, 1993; Porter, 1994; Tanzi, 2000).

We in The US will not likely face a 1917-style revolution, but rather incrementally expansive
government resulting in incremental socialism. The size of the US federal government, as well
as state and local governments, increased dramatically during the 20th century. In the thirty
years from 1960 to 1990, the number of state and local government employees increased from
6.4 million to 15.2 million in the United States, while the number of civilian federal employees
increased from 2.4 million to 3 million (U.S. Department of State, 2012). As late as 1913
government expenditures were less than 8 percent in the US. By 1996, government
expenditures in the US were more than 32 percent. Moreover, government has vastly increased
the scope and societal penetration of its regulation, causing private individuals and businesses
spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year to comply (Higgs, 2005, pp. 279-300). History
has repeatedly demonstrated that during periods of government expansion freedoms are
commonly surrendered (de Jouvenel, 1993; Tanzi, 2000; Twight, 2002). Economists have been
of two minds concerning the role of government in the economy. The Keynesians and
Galbraithians argue that a nations economy requires continuous governmental adjustments to
operate optimally and correct the inefficiencies of the private-sector. In the opposite camp are
the von Hayekians and Friedmanites, who argued that capitalist economies naturally have
fluctuations which are part of the mechanisms of the market, and that arbitrary government
intervention aggravates economic instability in the private sector (Higgs, 1987, 1991).

Fear of market fluctuations, especially fear of another Great Depression, has fueled economic
policy since the 1930s, and has resulted in governments worldwide generally favoring Keyes
and Galbraith to a greater degree (depending on the administration which is in office) (Higgs,
1991, 2005; Porter, 1994). No politician wants to be at the helm during lean economic times and
face the wrath of the electorate. "[Its] the economy, stupid" was the derogatory but successful
slogan that Democratic strategist James Carville coined for Bill Clinton in the campaign against
sitting president George H. W. Bush in 1992 (Holcombe, 2002; Porter, 1994; Twight, 2002). As
of this writing, talk of the great recession has been greatly detrimental to the legacy of
President Obama, but not more so than his comments about forgetting its magnitude (Halper,
2012), or that the private sector is doing fine (Tapper, 2012). These gaffs have been
minimized, or gone unreported, by the leftist press. Clearly, politicians want to avoid being
dubbed, rightly or not, the countrys equivalent of a modern day Herbert Hoover. The result has
been increased spending on government programs, referred to as a social safety net, or
entitlements, by their defenders.

26
The concept of entitlements is dangerous to those that see a connection between increased
government and decreased individual liberty. The fiscally and individually responsible talk of an
entitlement mentality that threatens the finances and work ethic of the populace of the United
States (de Jouvenel, 1993; Mueller, 1989). They argue that one is only entitled to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness, and that too many people feel entitled to programs financed by the
productive and disbursed by the government (Higgs, 1987, 1991, 2005). Let's be honest about
this; the liberal agenda with failed stimulus plans and government entitlement programs is
crippling our economy and our quality of life says Alveda King, niece of civil rights leader Martin
Luther King (2012). Paul Ryan, the US Representative for Wisconsins 1st Congressional
District, points out the difficulty in reversing the ever increasing entitlements; Look, of course
people are scared of entitlement reform because every time you put entitlement reform out
there, the other party uses it as a political weapon against you (2012).

[In the 16 February 2009 issue of Newsweek "We Are All Socialists Now". Newsweek Editor Jon
Meacham and Evan Thomas observes that the America of 2009 has become a more socialist
country.]

Thus far, the United Socialist States of America has not come into being because there are
people in the country with firm centrist and right of center beliefs. In the United States, however,
socialist candidates outside of the orbit of the Sanderites, generally must maintain their beliefs
concealed, rather than face a hostile electorate (Mueller, 1989; Tanzi, 2000). Liberals, socialists,
and leftist Democrats of the Maxine Waters, John Conyers, Barbara Lee, Barbara Boxer, Russ
Feingold, Tom Harkin, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi variety bring to the political discourse a

27
profound distrust and misunderstanding of the free market, and a belief that the solution to most
problems lies in government intervention. Theirs is the philosophy of statism. All socialist
leaders, from British Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald to Paraguayan President Fernando
Lugo, to Argentinas President Hiplito Yrigoyen, rose to power with the assertion that their
policies would help the agricultural and urban poor. Their supporters allegiance was bought with
the promise of more abundant and cheaper food and other necessities (Holcombe, 2002;
Twight, 2002). Prices are then held down by arbitrary price controls, and the economic
emphasis shifts to the redistribution of wealth from the productive to the less productive, which
invariably leads to eventual shortages and growing resentment from the masses the
government intended to help. If the country is very lucky, the political pendulum swings from left
to moderate right. If it is not, and the man on the white horse is a Castro, Ho Chi Minh, or
Mengistu Haile Mariam, the next and final step is state-sponsored oppression in an attempt to
reverse decreasing production (de Jouvenel, 1993; Tanzi, 2000). History teaches us there is an
invariable and inverse relationship between individual freedom and the the growth of the state:
as the state grows in power, the significance and freedom of the individual decreases.

An Inescapable Historical Reality

The most heroic word in all languages is REVOLUTION.

~ Eugene V. Debs, five time Socialist candidate for the Presidency of the United States;
Revolution in New Yorker (27 April 1907)

The historical reality is that socialists everywhere have pursued policiesmyopic visions
which were detrimental to the poorest and weakest members of the population. Socialism is
also responsible for policies which resulted in rising expenditures, increasing the size of
government, deficit spending, increasing a welfare mentality amongst the populace, increasing
regulation which kills business, decreasing growth, and too often stretching the limits of, or
ignoring altogether, parliamentary and constitutional laws (Higgs, 1987, 2005; Twight, 2002).
Long before the hypertrophic and sarcomized state reaches metastasis, the criminality of the
government, the scandalous abuse of power, corruption, fraud, deceit, disregard for the
countrys judicial system and constitution, begins to show, perhaps at levels previously unseen

28
by the citizenry. When such scandals are quashed with little or no investigation, ignored by the
media, or accepted by a jaded populace, democracy is in peril30 .

From Robert Owen and Charles Fourier, to collectivization in Soviet Russia, to the Thousand
Year Reich, to the Great Leap Forward in China, to obligatory ujamaa villages in Tanzania, to
the Cambodian year zero; the last 200 years have been racked by grand statist schemes
myopic visionsthat have inadvertently brought disruption, misery, loss of freedom, and even
starvation to millions. Every one of these well-intentioned plans for improving the human
condition eventually went awry, often tragically so. Yet another indisputable fact of contemporary
history is that governments have repeatedly committed murder for ideological reasons. To be an
enemy of the state, to be an outsider or undesirable, nay, to merely question the policies of the
state can be deadly. Approximately six million innocent human beings were exterminated during
the holocaust by a rgime that saw them as outsiders (Blow, 2008-10). An even more dismal
fact is that governments have often murdered their own people, not simply the outsider.
However, people are reluctant to confront their own history. Roginsky (2008) states accusingly:

And one more thing: unlike the Nazis, who mainly killed "foreigners": Poles, Russians, and
German Jews (who were not quite their "own" people), we mainly killed our own people, and our
consciousness refuses to accept this fact.

In remembering the terror, we are incapable of assigning the main roles, incapable of putting
the pronouns "we" and "they" in their places. This inability to assign evil is the main thing that
prevents us from being able to embrace the memory of the terror properly. This makes it far
more traumatic. It is one of the main reasons why we push it to the edge of our historical
memory....Conclusion: our historical memory is divided, fragmentary, passing away. It has been
pushed to the periphery of popular consciousness. Those who hold onto the memory of
Stalinism in the sense that we use these words are very much in the minority today.

In the USSR alone, in what R. J. Rummel calls the unrivaled communist hecatomb (2002),
approximately 62 million Soviet citizens were murdered, starved, or worked to death, and the
actual total may be as high as 126 million (the world wide sum for all communist rgimes and

30 Some iconic moments in the growth of governmental power, and the corresponding trampling of legal
procedures, favoritism to the politically connected, and the erosion of the rights of the individual are Otto
von Bismarcks anti-Catholic Kulturkampf (1871-1878); Benito Mussolinis thugs murdering Giacomo
Matteotti (1924); Adolf Hitler and the Reichstag fire (1933); Edward Kennedy at Chappaquiddick (1969);
Mayor Richard J. Daley stealing Illinois' 27 Electoral College votes for fellow Democrat John F. Kennedy
(1960); Richard Nixons Watergate (1972); The Reagan administrations Iran-Contra scandal (1988); Bill
Clinton committing perjury in Lewinskygate (1998), and the Filegate scandal (1993-1994); as of this writing,
the Obama administrations Justice Department ignoring voter intimidation by the Black Panthers (2008);
Barack Obama appointing a self-described communist, Anthony Kapel Van Jones, to a newly created
advisory position (2009); Barack Obama signing the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, authorizing
the indefinite military detention of U.S. citizens arrested on American soil; Barack Obamas Justice Department
illegally selling firearms to drug cartels in Operation Fast and Furious; Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton
(as Secretary of State) covering up the reasons for, as well as the lack of a response to, the attack by Muslim
terrorists on the American Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi, Libya (2012); the Obama Administrations use
of the IRS to target conservative groups (2013); Barack Obamas Justice Department seizing the telephone
records of Associated Press reporters (2013), and the Obama administration authorizing and vastly
expanding the NSAs unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens (2013).

29
movements from 1900 to 1987 is an estimated 259 million). Marxism-Leninism and its variants
meant in practice bloody terrorism, deadly purges, lethal gulags and forced labor, fatal
deportations, man-made famines, extrajudicial executions and show trials, and
genocide (Rummel, 2002).

Ideas have consequences argued Richard M. Weaver (1984). Weaver contends that the
gradual erosion of the Western mind, evidenced by the decline in morality, education,
heightened cynicism and cruelty, has produced a plethora of societal ills, and the rise of what he
terms "The Great Stereopticon." Weaver proposes that deliberate measures must be taken to
begin the regeneration of the ideals found in Western civilization. Especially important is right to
private property, which he dubs "the last metaphysical right." Private property must be
maintained because it provides the basis for human sustenance, and thus furnishes an
individual, as it did the Thoreauists, with the means to be independent from a controlling and
corrupt system (Weaver, 1984). The left possesses a world vision in which the elite, the
intellectually and morally superior, pursues superior ends in spite of the indifference or
ignorance of others, and over their objectionsTHAT IS THEIR MYOPIC VISION. The modern
state has the proven ability to control the public media and to stimulate the masses, las turbas,
into frenzied actos de repudio31 against their opponents la Castros Cuba, Maos China, and
other Orwellian systems.

Is it not true that we all possess some destructive tendencies in our nature? The veneer of
civilization is very thin. Underneath lurks the animal in each of us. If I were young and had had a
working-class background, if I had been brought up to worship Mao and taught to believe him
infallible, would I not have behaved exactly as the Red Guards had done? (Cheng, 1987, p.
79).

Man, to remain a free individual, must first understand history in order to fight the technologically
enhanced collectivist thought control to which he is subjected by leftist politicians, newspapers,
film, radio, and televisionproponents of the myopic vision. For the greater part of the last 90
years, the political horizon of the economically advanced countries has been filled with
persistent and powerful interest groups seeking policies that increase the size and power of
government. The previous checks on such moves towards statism and authoritarianisma
culture of allegiance to democratic principles maximizing individual liberty and, for the American
public specifically, an emphasis on a Constitution long accepted as placing limits on the
governments role in the life of a nationhave essentially unravelled as unreliable and

31Actos de repudio or acts of repudiation occur when large groups of Cubans verbally insult, intimidate, spit
and throw rocks and other objects at the person or homes of their fellow citizens suspected of being counter-
revolutionary or against Castro-communist policies. Many of the victims of these acts have been severely
injured. There is no recourse and the police and security forces turn a blind eye to these mobs. These
occurrences are supposedly uncontrived and spontaneous popular demonstrations of outrage against those
who are critical of the system, are unappreciative of its benefits, or want to emigrate. The level of violence
during these acts has increased significantly since 2003. Naturally, the events are orchestrated by the Cuban
security forces in conjunction with the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (i.e., block captains/
spies: Comits de Defensa de la Revolucin) and the Rapid Response Brigades (i.e, shock troops used to quickly
quell any disturbance: Brigadas de Respuesta Rpida) as a means to terrorize the opposition and intimidate
others. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups have long been critical of
these acts of repudiation.

30
substantive detriments. As of this writing, such allegiance to emphasizing the principles of
individual liberty seem to be disappearing altogether from our culture. The myopic vision is
prevailing. In this vein, the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower during his 1953 inaugural address
now seem to possess a special meaning;

In the swift rush of great events, we find ourselves groping to know the full sense and meaning
of these times in which we live. In our quest of understanding, we beseech God's guidance. We
summon all our knowledge of the past and we scan all signs of the future. We bring all our wit
and all our will to meet the question: How far have we come in man's long pilgrimage from
darkness toward light? Are we nearing the lighta day of freedom and of peace for all
mankind? Or are the shadows of another night closing in upon us?

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world/us-economist-kenneth-rogoff-some-european-countries-are-fundamentally-bankrupt-
a-778875.html.

Rummel, Rudolph Joseph (2002). 20th Century Democide. Retrieved 27 December 2012 from
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM.

Rummel, Rudolph Joseph (2002, 28 November). HOW MANY DID COMMUNIST REGIMES
MURDER? Table 1. Retrieved 30 March 2013 from http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/
COM.ART.HTM.

Ryan, Paul (2012). Brainy Quote. Retrieved 18 August from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/

keywords/entitlement.html#8sZAKWvmZYT85lPm.99.

Stevens, Stuart (2016, February 12). How Far Left Has America Moved? The New York Times.
Retrieved 11 September 2016 from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/opinion/campaign-
stops/how-far-left-has-america-moved.html?_r=0.

Tanzi, Vito, and Ludger Schuknecht (2000). Public Spending in the 20th Century: A Global
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Tapper, Jake (2012). Jun 8, 2012 12:17pm. ABC News. President Obama Says The Private
Sector Is Doing Fine. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/president-obama-says-the-
private-sector-is-doing-fine/.

Tebbit, Norman (2012). Greece and Europe fall victim to the socialist cargo cult. Retrieved 12
August 2012 from http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/normantebbit/100157824/greece-and-
europe-fall-victim-to-the-socialist-cargo-cult/.

Weaver, Richard M. (1984). Ideas Have Consequences. University Of Chicago Press.

Wehner, Peter (2015, May 27). Have Democrats Pulled Too Far Left? The New York Times.
Retrieved 11 September 2016 from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/opinion/have-
democrats-pulled-too-far-left.html?_r=0.

WND (World Net Daily) (2016, May 17). OBAMA ON TRACK TO DOUBLE NATIONAL DEBT:
Will add more than previous 43 presidents combined. Retrieved 10 September 2016 from http://
www.wnd.com/2016/05/obama-on-track-to-double-national-debt/#hIJEo1x6j2IqRXib.99

34
Appendix B: The Real Cost of the Welfare State
COUNTRY COMPARISON : PUBLIC DEBT

Public debt compares the cumulative total of all government borrowings less
repayments that are denominated in a country's home currency....(CIA,
excerpts, n.p.d.):

JapanI I I 234.70%
GreeceI I 181.60
Lebanon I I 161.50
Italy I I 132.50
Portugal I I 126.20
Singapore I I 110.50
Belgium I I 106.70
Spain I I 99.60
Canada I I 98.80
France I I 96.50
Egypt I I 92.60
Puerto Rico I I 92.50
United Kingdom I 92.20
Croatia II 88.30
Austria II 85.80
Slovenia I 81.80
Serbia II 78.50
Ukraine I 78.20
Ireland II 77.90
Morocco I 77.00
Brazil I I 75.40
Hungary I 75.10
United States ! 73.80
Mongolia I 72.00
Albania II 71.00
Kyrgyzstan I 69.50
Germany I 69.00
Finland II 64.90
Netherlands I 63.70
Israel I I 63.20
Uruguay I 62.80
Malta II 62.60
Montenegro I 59.50
Iceland II 56.50
Argentina II 53.80
Armenia I 53.40
Slovakia I 52.40
India I I 52.30
Macedonia I 50.50
Thailand I 50.40

35
Mexico II 49.70

Government expenditures on promised health and social programs will increase, but as the
population ages the tax base to pay for these benefits will shrink. The results is that, all
European countries have large unfunded liabilities, and at least seven are near bankruptcy
(Frohlich, Kent, Stebbins, 2015). At this rate, the difference between the projected cost of
continued social expenditures and expected tax revenues will invariably widen exponentially. In
general (Gokhale, 2009) (excerpts):

The average EU country would need to have more than four times (434 percent) its
current annual gross domestic product (GDP) in the bank today, earning interest at the
governments borrowing rate, in order to fund current policies indefinitely.

By 2020, the average EU country will need to raise the tax rate to 55 percent of national
income to pay promised benefits.

By 2035, a tax rate of 57 percent will be required.

By 2050, the average EU country will need more than 60 percent of its GDP to fulfill its
obligations.

36
About the Author

Dr. Juan R. Cspedes is a veteran educator, lecturer, and prolific author. Born in Havana, Cuba,
he fled with his family from the Castro-communist dictatorship in 1960. For nearly three decades
Dr. Cspedes has shared his thoughts and research about history, politics, economics, and
international relations with a wide audience. An advocate of individual freedom, human dignity
and democratic government, he has traveled widely, studied, and reported extensively on major
topics such as the nature of totalitarian regimes, the Cold War, the causes of wars, and the
history of terrorism. He believes that a 21st century history education needs a comprehensive
view where the learner becomes an analyst conscious of social, economic, cultural, political and
other human conditions. For Dr. Cspedes, historical analysis does not imply revisionism with
preconceived ideas of what should have been, nor assumptions made from a modern-day
perspective. His extensive and detailed work not only endows us with a historical documentation
of human triumph and accomplishment, but also makes us aware of our failures, cruelty, and
sometimes our inhumanity toward each other. Dr. Cspedes believes that A true understanding
of history is the basis for appreciating the human condition and grappling with the moral issues
facing a democratic society today.

37
38
Available at Amazon
and other fine book
emporiums! IB History Exam
Study Guide:
International
Contemporary
History 1848-2008 by
Dr. Juan R. Cspedes, Ph.D. A
comprehensive study guide for
students preparing for the IB
examination, extensively covering
material on papers 1, 2, & 3. Also
an excellent review source for any
student of contemporary history
(years 1848-2008). Examines the
root causes of events leading to
the history of the 20th century, as
well as thought provoking material
necessary for the critical thinking
aspects found in IB examinations.
Dr. Juan R. Cspedes scholarly
perspective is concise and covers
the following topics: "Communism
in Crisis: 1976-1991", "Causes,
Practices and Effects of Wars",
"Origins and Development of
Authoritarian and Single Party
States", "The Cold War", and
"History of the Americas".

39
 IB Paper 1-2: Collapse of
the Soviet Empire - A
Preparation for the
International
Baccalaureate History
Examination!
An in-depth examination of the causes of
the collapse of communism in the Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe. An excellent
review source for the IB history
examination or for the historical
researcher. Comprehensive and packed
with IB-related thought provoking
questions and material. Dr. Juan R.
Cspedes scholarly perspective engages
the reader with details of the cultural,
economic, social, and political life under
communism. A sampling of the subject
matter covered is "The Decline and
Disintegration of the Soviet Union",
"Achievements at Home and Abroad",
"Outlook for Brezhnev", "Incursion into
Afghanistan", "Enter Gorbachev",
"Glasnost", "Perestroika", "Attempts at
Democratization", "A Chronology of Key
Events", "Possible Exam-Related
Questions and Outline of Answers" and
much more. Each chapter ends with a
synopsis of the material covered for easy
review!

40
 The IB Extended Essay:
An "A+" in 6 Easy Steps!
The Extended Essay is one of the core
requirements of the IB Diploma
Programme. Written on a topic chosen by
the student, it culminates in a 4,000 word
essay. This seems to be a daunting task
for many students, but Dr. Cspedes
breaks this seemingly difficult task into 6
simple steps. Dr. Cspedes has helped
thousands of students with their writing,
including doctoral candidates! Inside are
tips for selecting a top-scoring topic,
researching quickly and effectively,
structuring your essay for maximum
impact, and concluding impressively.
Follow the step-by-step instructions in
this guide and you will maximize your
final score!

41
 101 IB History Exam-
related Questions:
...and their answers!
101 IB History Exam-related Questions!
This book is a terrific resource for helping
both students and teachers prepare for
the demanding IB history examinations
SL and HL. With this book you will learn
from an experienced IB instructor and
college professor, with 30 years in the
educational field. You will improve your
understanding of how questions should
be answered in order to receive the
highest possible scores. This book will
help you build confidence by answering
the questions provided, then checking
your answers with those in the book. The
book is great at covering the historical
material for each question. Finally, it will
help you understand the IB history
syllabus and learn the proper way to
approach your exams!

42
 The APUSH Cruncher: A
Guide for Passing the AP
American History Exam
with Ease!
As its name implies, The APUSH
CRUNCHER is specifically designed for
crunching the information you need to
master the AP US History exam. From
Pre-Columbian societies to 20th Century
politics, this AP US History prep is
designed for either short-term intense
review or lengthier study. You have a
choice! Develop your AP history skills in
every test area. The CRUNCHER
coaches you on the most important parts
of the test, the weight given to each
section, and proven strategies on how to
effectively answer the questions for top
scores. The authors goal is for you
become a star-spangled winner in AP US
history. This book is written by Dr. Juan
R. Cspedes, a Ph.D. in education with
over 30 years of experience!

43
 The IB History Internal
Assessment: An "A+" in 6
Easy Steps!
The Internal Assessment is one of the
core requirements of the IB Diploma
Programme. Written on a topic chosen by
the student, it culminates in a 2,000 word
essay with specific requirements. These
requirements often makes the Internal
Assessment a difficult task for many
students, but Dr. Cspedes breaks this
into 6 simple steps. Dr. Cspedes has
helped thousands of students with their
writing, including doctoral candidates at
the university level! Inside are tips for
selecting a top-scoring topic, researching
quickly and effectively, structuring your
essay for maximum impact, and
concluding impressively. Follow the step-
by-step instructions in this guide and you
will maximize your final score.

44
 IIB
Paper 1: Communism -
The Myopic Vision: The
Causes of
Totalitarianism,
Authoritarianism, and
Statism!
In this benchmark of political and
historical analysis, Dr. Juan R. Cspedes
provides a fascinating and
comprehensive look at the Myopic
Vision which has resulted in
totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and
statism. The Myopic Vision has inspired
many governments and is responsible for
the deaths of approximately 250 million
human beings in the 20th century. What
are the reasons behind this slaughter?
The advocates of the Myopic Vision
believe they are the holders of
scientifically demonstrable truths
concerning man, history, and social
evolution. Thus, Dr. Cspedes coins a
new phrase, as well as issues a warning
for the future. Can the Myopic Vision be
corrected or reversed? What does the
future hold? This is a must read for all
those which cherish and wish to preserve
democracy and human dignity.

45
 IB Paper 2: War
Interminable: The
Origins, Causes,
Practices and Effects of
International Conflict!
The Extended Essay is one of the A
definitive and comprehensive
examination on the origins, causes,
practices and effects of warfare. An
excellent review source for the IB history
examination or for those interested in
historical research. A sampling of the
subject matter covered is The Origins of
War; the Anthropological Roots of War;
The Nation-State and War; the School
of Realism in International Relations;
Zero-sum gamesmanship; National
Interest and the Rule of Law; Waging
War; Military Strategy & Planning; war
from the perspective of Clausewitz, Sun
Tzu, Napoleon, Machiavelli, and other
great thinkers; The Causes of War; The
Nature of War; the role of women; The
Practice of War; Different types of 20th
century warfare; The Effects and
Results of War; Post-war economic
problems...Possible IB Exam-Related
Questions and much more. Each chapter
ends with a synopsis of the material
covered for easy review.

46
 Cambridge History Exam
Prep: Maximize your
score in 5 days!
Scientifically, the very best way to
prepare for the Cambridge History exam!
Studying for the Cambridge history exam
can be a stressful time for all students
there is so much information to cover! So,
knowing HOW to properly prepare for the
exam is the key to avoiding stress and
maximizing your score. This guide
provides a clear and uniform way to focus
and make the best use of your study
time, while assessing your performance.
Say no to cramming blindly. Focus
specifically on questions that are likely to
come up in the exam! Maximize your
retention; this guide makes clear the
sometimes missed associations between
the curriculum covered in Cambridge and
the areas of examination. Avoid the all-
nighter which wastes time, impairs
reasoning and memory. The summations
provided in this guide are the most
effective way to study.

47
 Footsteps to World War III
A riveting, enlightening and often
frightening look at the next major war
involving the United States and the world.
In his thought-provoking book, Dr.
Cspedes draws from a multitude of
sources to carefully analyze the
likelihood, and the outcomes, of a major
military encounter between the United
States and its major potential
adversaries. Asserting that we are at the
doorstep of a new epoch, he constructs a
lucid and highly comprehensible forecast
of the challenges that the United States
can expect from around the world. As a
Europe continues to weaken militarily and
chose neutralist policies, or policies
contrary to those of the United States,
what new alliances can the United States
formulate? With this panorama, will the
United States remain the dominant global
superpower, as other nations challenge
American preeminence? Will such a war
ultimately end with a victory by the United
States and its allies? Captivating and
compelling from the first to the last page,
Footsteps to World War III is a
fascinating exploration of what the future
may hold for the world at large.

48
 The New Global Threat:
Transnational Crime
Transnational organized crime is a
growing cancer, and a threat to the
security of North America . . . as well as
to the entire world! What was once the
dominion of countries and regions
separated by geography is increasingly a
concern to the Department of State and
for the U.S. military. Transgressing the
laws of multiple nations, these criminal
activities have a negative impact on
society, the global economy, and greatly
impede the progress of developing
nations and governments. Unfortunately,
many of the nations affected lack the
resources or the political will to provide
an adequate level of security and
countermeasures that matches the threat
to its security and its borders. The
criminal activities, such as drug, human,
and gun trafficking, are often
overshadowed by terrorism, even though
all are crucial national security threats.
This work reveals the dangers and
horrors of modern transnational crime; a
menace which challenges the modern
hierarchies and methods of response,
and helps to piece together the
construction of pragmatic and workable
policies to counter such a menace. This
is a must read for anyone interested in
national security issues!

49
 Victory Over Terrorism:
The Unthinkable
Solution!
Extremists have made, and will continue
into the future, varied attempts to attack
the US and its allies with varying levels of
organization and skill. We shake our
heads with a certain degree of disbelief
and say, When will it end? After the
destruction of the World Trade Center
and the accompanying damages to the
Pentagon and the national psyche,
government has enacted laws and
strategies to prevent terrorist activities.
However, as democratic societies which
value individual rights, we are challenged
to not provoke a response which
undermines our Constitutional system of
government. In a thorough investigative
fashion, "Victory Over Terrorism" takes
readers through the strange and often
sordid methods that are routinely utilized
by terrorists organizations, the prevailing
thoughts and beliefs of Muslim
communities throughout the world, and
the anti-terrorist practices that intensified
in recent years.

50
 The TOK Essential
Compendium!
An indispensable guide that provides an
inside understanding of the TOK program
from John R. Garden, an instructor with
over 30 years of teaching experience!
Centered around the How We Know
and Ways of Knowing of 33 essential
philosophers from Laozi to Albert Camus.
Provides 350 TOK-oriented thinking
questions, a blueprint for a top scoring
essay, and blueprint for a top scoring
presentation. A practical, easy to
understand, and thorough examination of
the Theory of Knowledge program.

51
 IB MATH EXAM PREP for
SL and HL
How you prepare for the IB math exam is
more important than how many hours you
spend preparing! This study guide
provides everything you need to master
the challenging concepts from basic
Algebra to Calculus, and will help you
focus your studies on the most important
math topics to maximize your score!

This comprehensive study guide contains

many essential and unique features to
help improve exam scores, including:

* Detailed explanations for solving each

formula presented
* Methods and strategies to improve your
math score
* Review of important Math Concepts

This study guide provides you with

everything you need to improve your
Math scoreunquestionably. These test-
taking techniques, methods, and
strategies work. This study guide is the
must-have preparation tool for every
student looking to score higher on the IB
Math Exams and get into their top-choice
college!

52
 Cuban Communism and
its Impact on World
Affairs: 1959 - 2015 (for IB
the Americas - Paper 3)
Cuba is a relatively small country, but
with the foreign policy of a major league
international player. It has carried out
such a policy since the start of Castros
1959 revolution. Because of its close
alliance with the Soviet Union, by the
early to mid 1960s it had the external
resources, internal conditions, and lack of
significant US opposition to begin to
visibly impact conditions throughout the
world; from Latin America, to Africa and
Asia. In this book, Dr. Cspedes sees a
Cuban foreign policy that has been both
aggressive ideologically, militaristic, yet
highly pragmatic. The Castro brothers
saturated the media with altruistic images
of themselves in a campaign to justify
and encourage, or directly spread, radical
change. Using previously unexplored
sources, Dr. Cspedes constructs a
compelling and detailed expos which
focuses on Cuban political subversion
throughout the world, either through
direct military intervention, or disguised
as development aid for health, economic,
and civic programs. This is a must read
for history students written by a
prominent historian.

53
 Cancer Free!
Your physician tells you the bad news:
"You have cancer." The shock leaves you
speechless, but you must go on. This
book will give you hope. It is "must"
reading for those that have cancer, or
those with family members who have the
disease. Motivated by a family history of
cancer that caused the deaths of his
grandfather, father, uncle, and eventually
his wife, Dr. John Hunter engages in a
personal quest to fully research and
provide answers to dealing with this
dreaded disease. Dr. Hunter explains
which are the most advantageous options
from the thousands of case-control
studies, comprehensive reviews, and
biologic parameters published on the
topic, while informing the reader of the
reasons for those selections. Dr. John
Hunter sorts through the morass of
disinformation that often accompanies the
topic and sheds light on a complex
disease, providing the public with
interconnected facts and whole truths. Dr.
Hunter accurately describes the current
status of scientific and holistic thinking on
many topics included in his book. He
describes a multitude of strategies from
quitting smoking to learning the warning
signs of cancer.

54
 in Judea, where he met Jesus. Most
people in our time, devout Christians and
Jews included, understand little about the
world of first-century Palestine, and think
that the Jews were an undifferentiated
and united people in their disgruntlement
and opposition to the rule of Rome. This
is a gross oversimplification of the
historical, political, and cultural reality of
the time. The Centurion helps the reader
understand the life of Romans, Jews,
their leaders, and others; as well as the
geographical, cultural, and political
divisions which existed at the time. The
book examines many aspects of Jesus
world that are unknown to many. Dr.
Cspedes also delves into mathematical
and scientific explanations for the
existence of God, near death
experiences, the crucifixion, the
resurrection of Jesus, the early Christian
church, and the great personal sacrifices
made by the apostles. This fascinating
Conversations with a and carefully researched book concludes
Centurion: about Life, with suggestions for living a more
meaningful life, and how to battle
Death, and God sadness and loneliness.

We struggle with work and overcoming

the challenges of daily life, only to
experience the same end...death. Rich or
poor, educated or not, death is the great
equalizer for all of humanity. One
measure of adulthood is the realization
that bad things happen to good
people. Why am I here? Is there a God,
what is the meaning of life, is there an
afterlife? If there is a God...why does God
let these things happen? These questions
are answered in a meeting with a Roman
Centurion that appears magically,
mystically, inexplicably, in a museum in
modern Rome. The Centurion turns out to
be a Roman army officer who was
assigned to Capernaum, a fishing village

55