Introduction
After more than a century, one thing is clear: socialism in all its forms and presentations has always failed and could not be otherwise, as this model carries collapse in its design.
The Persistence of Socialism
Despite this, a contemporary socialist—a neocommunist—will attempt to convince us that “this time it will be different,” claiming that what humanity has experienced so far is not “the true socialism.”
In his book “Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies,” Kristian Niemietz provides concrete examples to answer the question: why does socialism, a clearly failed idea, persist?
The shortest answer is: because neocommunists always manage to distance themselves, in the public eye, from each failed attempt to build a socialist state.
Examples abound. Throughout the 20th century, there were numerous attempts to establish socialist governments worldwide: the Soviet Union, Cambodia, Cuba, and North Korea, to name a few. The genocidal regime that the USSR experienced and the totalitarianism imposed on its satellites were among the greatest threats to freedom, human dignity, and life in modern history.
The Cyclical Nature of Socialist Experiments
However, we have not learned the lesson: attacks on individual freedoms continue around the globe. In recent decades, we have witnessed how authoritarian governments resurge in various regions, threatening our freedoms under the guise of a “friendly socialism,” which is essentially neocommunism, perverting democracy.
The results have always been disastrous. So, what do neocommunists do to distance themselves from these examples? It’s a process in stages. Let’s examine them:
- Honeymoon phase: This is when the socialist experiment appears successful internally and is praised by Western intellectuals who view the new government as a promise of change and proof that socialism finally works.
- Excuses and charlatanry: This phase marks the end of the honeymoon period, as cracks and failures in the socialist government begin to reveal themselves—shortages, censorship, threats, repression, etc. The international image of the regimen gradually deteriorates. However, Western intellectuals who still support the experiment adopt a defensive stance, blaming saboteurs, “the blockade,” and using increasingly creative excuses to justify the system’s failures.
- “It’s not true socialism”: This stage occurs when the experiment is completely discredited, and even the most enthusiastic followers abandon it. In this phase, sympathetic intellectuals justify that the experience “does not represent true socialism, because true socialism is humanitarian.”
Despite these stages, socialism consistently leads to the same outcomes: censorship, authoritarianism, repression, widespread discontent, shortages, misery, and mass migration.
The neocommunist attempts to distance themselves from the previous model’s failures.
A clear example is the International Socialist declaration, which asserts that “China and Cuba, as well as the former Soviet Union and its satellites, have nothing to do with socialism.” The neocommunist believes that disregarding previous attempts will give them a new chance to prove how true socialism should be.
The bad news is that a democratized economy under this concept has never existed and will never exist because socialism is the antithesis of democratic values. Clearly, a market system is more democratic as it represents the convergence of millions of people’s will, freely and spontaneously seeking to exchange the fruits of their labor.
Planned economies, by definition, are governed by an elitist bureaucracy and require extreme concentration of power in the hands of the government, which must decide what, how much, and how to produce at any given moment, as well as who is obligated to work on what they are ordered.
What Drives Neocomunism?
Primarily, a distorted ideal of “caring brotherhood,” that is, the sad exaltation of poverty as an ideal—as if poverty were the only valid link between human beings, and wealth represented some form of perversion.
Under this misguided vision, humanity is like a very large family, and we all must take care of one another. To avoid friction and jealousy, the most convenient thing is that everyone becomes poor, as this would eliminate reasons to fight or argue.
The inconvenience of this idea is that it has never been viable and will never be, for the simple reason that humans are not like this. What works in a small, patriarchal family with intense solidarity among its members due to shared experiences in a community never will in a large, diverse, and constantly evolving society.
Moreover, despite the promise of abundance offered by a market economy, many people harbor an anticapitalist mentality and even fall prey to what I call the “manichaeism of wealth.”
However, the results of the “liberal and market” system speak for themselves. For centuries, development was stagnant, and almost the entire population lived in poverty. Today, on a planet with more than seven billion people, the number of those living below the poverty line is less than 10% of the population.
Today, it’s undeniable that we need action freedom to be able to undertake, innovate, and generate wealth. To achieve true inclusive prosperity, each individual must be able to generate wealth through their own effort, knowledge, and dedication. Socialists, in seeking to “share wealth,” have only managed to create a class struggle for misery distribution.
Wealth is the product of innovation, and innovation is the daughter of freedom. Therefore, without freedom, there is no wealth to redistribute.
*The author is the President and Founder of Grupo Salinas.
Key Questions and Answers
- Why does socialism keep failing? Socialism inevitably leads to censorship, authoritarianism, repression, widespread discontent, shortages, misery, and mass migration.
- How do neocommunists distance themselves from socialism’s failures? Neocommunists claim that previous attempts were not “true socialism,” ignoring historical examples and attempting to redefine it.
- What are the stages of socialist experiments?
- Honeymoon phase: Initial success and praise from Western intellectuals.
- Excuses and charlatanry: Revealing cracks and failures, with intellectuals blaming external factors.
- “It’s not true socialism”: Complete discreditation, with supporters claiming the experience doesn’t represent true socialism.
- Why is a democratized economy under socialism impossible? Socialism contradicts democratic values, as it requires extreme concentration of power and restricts individual freedoms.
- What drives neocomunism? A distorted ideal of “caring brotherhood,” which exalts poverty as an ideal and seeks to eliminate social class distinctions through uniformity.
