Collectivistic Government

"Equality of condition". - In this system of government stress is laid upon the proposition that "all men are created equal," meaning that no man has a right to that which is denied to another; that any system of government failing to recognize and conform to this "ideal" is wrong, and therefore an enemy of society and a foe of mankind . The ignorant, illiterate, physically and mentally deficient, the lazy, improvident, and reckless have equal right with the alert, aggressive, busy, educated, high-minded, orderly citizen who aspires to the best and is willing to pay the price of attainment through self-discipline, hard work, and careful management. It is not in human nature to recognize "equality of condition" except to acquire a personal advantage. One may be willing to divide another's property with the third and fourth individual providing the share remaining to him is something more than he formerly possessed. Denial of personal rights. - "Collectivism" is the denial of personal rights. The State (community) becomes the chief concern of all. It claims that the "law of equality," once applied, would destroy every human desire for individual dominance, making society safe, content, comfortable, and happy. This "ideal" is to be accomplished by the application of force under the direction of leaders, in the selection of whom the people will have little or no choice. It is necessary, at first, to enforce the will of community interests until the people become educated and submissive to the new order. Denied all personal rights "collectivism" gives its "instructions'' where to live, where to work, what to do, what to think, and what to say. for the State is the law. Confiscation of private property. - "Collectivism" declares that the possession of property has developed protection of property through governments, courts, police power, and public opinion, making it difficult for one to acquire private property except by work. Private property must be abolished so that all will live on a plane of "equal condition." As a matter of fact, however, "human nature" will see to it that the "equal condition" will very quickly become an equal condition of misery, want, and discontent. Religion outlawed. - The collectivistic government proceeds against "imperialism" by outlawing the church. The church at the behest of capital "fed the people the opium of religion," making them willing slaves to do the will of their capitalistic masters. In the interest of the new order there must be left no place for religion, lest the people gain courage to throw off the yoke of their new-found freedom. Abolition of the family. - With personal rights, private property, and tho church abolished, to make subjection complete "the state" declares that in pure "collectivism" there can be no family ties, for children, like all other property, are an asset of the community and must be robbed of family love and obligation as a necessary step to loyalty to the state. Marriage may be practiced if conscience insists, but is not demanded in the interest of the new society, for with the abolishment of personal rights, private property, church, and home, society no longer possesses a moral, ethical, or spiritual code. "Socialism" kills. - The doctrine of "socialism" is "collectivism." It tears down the social structure, weakens individual responsibility by subjection to or reliance upon the state in all material, social, and political matters. It compels the thought that at his best man is no better than the worst; he loses his self-respect and his keener sense of moral and ethical values. Ambition is nullified by restriction of choice in occupation and reward of attainment. Initiative, the very backbone of all progress, is smothered in the morass of impersonal service, mass servility, and mob inertia. "Socialism" aims to save individuals from the difficulties or hardships of the struggle for existence and the competition of life through calling upon the state to carry the burden for them. "Equality of condition," the ruling law of "collectivism," is the death knell alike to individual liberty, justice, and progress through the destruction of individual and national character. When the citizens of a nation, seeking comforts and pleasures, find no joy or satisfaction in hard work, the years of that nation are numbered. Free bread and the circus marked the declining days of Rome. A surfeit of food, clothes, comfortable homes, and much time for idleness can easily become the first step to the overthrow of civilization.