Thoughts on Communism

I just spent the last two weeks visiting former communist countries in central and southeast Europe, from Hungary to Romania, and I’ve learned one universal lesson: Communism produces nothing but misery.

Few would disagree outside the hardcore left. There will always be people who insist that utopia can be built here on earth despite all evidence to the contrary. Broadly speaking, though, communism has rightly earned its reputation as a purely destructive ideology, the product of bitter and vengeful pseudo-intellectuals, starting with Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, who used workers to bludgeon factory managers, landowners, and farmers—those who actually produced wealth. No leftist has ever actually represented the group he purports to fight for. He simply uses the minority to attack his enemies to grow his own wealth and power.