“How are we going to create equity and justice for all if we’re providing the same resources to middle income people as we’re providing to billionaires?”
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
—The Pledge of Allegiance
When Oscar Wilde said, “Socialism would relieve us from that sordid necessity of living for others,” he may have unintentionally intuited the mindset of future socialists. Socialism has and always will lead to an attenuated “us” – a small clique of ruling elites – not “living for others,'' but rather dedicated to carrying out their fantasies of forced equity through the systemic exploitation of others.
Do not be fooled. The socialist march toward equity is not only fundamentally at odds with the presumption of man’s God-given individual liberty – we cannot have “equity and justice for all” at the same time as “liberty and justice for all” – it also fails on its own merits.
Many a socialist will claim that a free society full of rivalrous competition and unequal outcomes is at odds with social cooperation and human flourishing; that, for instance, private property owners (especially successful ones) do not create wealth, but instead “steal” wealth from the masses, and that it is the job of the people’s government to steal the wealth back and alleviate the people’s suffering and hardship through a “fair and equitable” distribution of the spoils.
Yet, so often when the bill comes due for these supposedly free lunches, the hype of socialist leaders often turns away from “fairness and equity” to a lowdown and dishonest callousness. To quote George Orwell, “some animals are more equal than others.”
Take, for example, Ibram X. Kendi’s astounding formula for supposedly combating racism in the 21st century. “[R]acial discrimination is not inherently racist,” he wrote. “The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”
Kendi might as well have said, “Discrimination now, discrimination tomorrow, discrimination forever!”
In tearing down old hierarchies and distinctions, the socialist can’t seem to help building up new hierarchies and new distinctions, deformed and dilapidated as they may be by power lust. The socialist never ends racial discrimination or economic exploitation altogether, he merely rearranges and redirects such human failings in a different, often more resentful and vengeful direction, stealing the people’s wealth and liberty while discriminating against all who challenge him with the iron fist of government.
When maintaining power becomes the goal of the socialist regime, there is an almost certain risk of the “more equal” treating the people – even their supposed comrades – as a means to their ends, as disposable tools, as experimental objects, as sacrificial animals, as broken eggs for their big omelet breakfast.
Politics, especially under socialism, is a march to slaughter; some “more equal” animals just know it better than others and accordingly make it to the dinner table alive at the expense of the others who provide the meat at a very high price. Indeed, under socialism, the lion may lie down with the lamb, but the lamb never does get much sleep.
Socialists do not want to set you free. They do not wish to live for you or others. They merely wish to chain you to a dream that was never yours to freely realize or reject in the first place, only theirs to conjure, manage, and impose regardless of your consent. When equity replaces liberty, “justice for all” always becomes justice for the more equal few.
You have been warned: those who would trade essential liberty for hollow promises of equity will receive neither liberty nor equity in the end.
Joey Clark is a native Alabamian and is currently the host of the radio program News and Views on News Talk 93.1 FM WACV out of Montgomery, AL M-F 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. His column appears every Tuesday in 1819 News. To contact Joey for media or speaking appearances as well as any feedback, please email newsandviews931@gmail.com.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819news.com.
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