THE COMMUNIST REVOLUTION in Russia is forty years behind us. In these four decades communism has had a chance to show what it does with power in its hands; how it treats the people who live under it; what its attitudes are toward law, education, science, and religion; how it handles its relations with the noncommunist world. It stands condemned on its own record. It has revealed basic errors in theory and practice which will eventually bring about its downfall. To turn around Karl Marx’s famous comment on capitalism, communism is digging its own grave. It cannot survive because it is anti-God and anti-man.
For all too long, communism’s true character has been concealed by its own propaganda, abetted by public ignorance and apathy. Soviet Russia was hailed as an “advanced democracy” and communism as “twentieth-century Americanism.” Such phrases deceived free people and gave the Party a protective cloak.
Marxism-Leninism stands revealed not as a “new world” of hope and justice but as an evil conspiracy in pursuit of power. Its cost in human misery and waste of human life is almost beyond description. Every home in America today is deprived of an even higher standard of living as a result of the tax burden brought on by the utter necessity of keeping our defenses strong against the world-wide advance of communism.
Time has also erased the label of “scientific” from Marxist-Leninist ideology. The communist claim of “infallible” has proved to be all too fallible time and again. The revolution began not in a highly industrialized state but in a backward, tyranny-ridden land where communism meant the substitution of an even more vicious brand of tyranny. It was conducted not as a “dictatorship of the proletariat” but as a dictatorship by dictators who rode roughshod over the workingman. Stalin, in the middle 1930’s, contended that socialism was at last fully established in Russia and that the movement from then on would be toward the second stage which Marx had foretold: true communism and the withering away of the state. Even as Stalin spoke, in terms designed to attract idealists, he was making the state ever more powerful. After his death, with the “New Look” and the Khrushchev “thaw,” the trend has not been reversed.
Khrushchev gives the answer to those who still repeat the shabby, deceitful phrases of communist dogma, when he desanctifies Stalin one day and on the next day rehabilitates him as a good communist. After all, Stalin during his life was the Chief Executioner, and Khrushchev did his bidding, along with many of his associates who rule Russia today. Khrushchev’s answer should never be forgotten, because by his own words the alleged “paradise of human joy” was, in fact, a world of slave labor camps, betrayed human rights, and calculated fear.
The answer also comes from Mao Tse-tung, the Chinese communist dictator who, without apparent shame, admitted that 800,000 of his fellow countrymen had been liquidated between 1949 and the beginning of 1954. The answer further comes from the Hungarian Freedom Fighters of 1956, who with bare hands attacked the steel of Soviet tanks.
The answer finally comes from those Americans who were victimized by the communist deception of claiming credit for reforms and advances which the Party did not deserve. Most informed Americans now know that the communists adopt a cause only to exploit it for their own ends. Communism does not mean better housing, improved social conditions, or a more strict observance of civil rights. The vast majority of Negro leaders have rebuffed the communists’ attempts to exploit them. By forcing Party members out of positions of authority and even from union membership, true trade unionists have shown their awareness that communists seek to disrupt the legitimate mission of labor unions.
Communism, in brief, has bitterly indicted communism; communist practice has indicted communist theory; communist actions have indicted the perverted use of such lofty words as “peace,” “justice,” and “liberty.”
But we cannot afford the luxury of waiting for communism to run its course like other oppressive dictatorships. The weapons of communism are still formidable. They become even more effective when we lower our guard and when we become lax in strengthening our democratic institutions in perfecting the American dream.
The call of the future must be a rekindled American faith, based on our priceless heritage of freedom, justice, and the religious spirit.
In our reawakening, we Americans can learn a great deal from the fight against communism. Here are five special areas:
1. The communists emphasize ideological study, meaning, of course, Marxism-Leninism. Such study has been the very foundation of their “monolithic unity”: their power to keep people in line no matter how the “line” changes. Their study allows no deviation for free thought and independent action. Also, it provides them with a “common language” since all communists give the same meaning to words and acts. This emphasis upon study has been the means whereby they have captured the minds of some of our young people who read and think and who are lacking in proper companionship.
It is sad but true that many young people have been drawn into communist clubs or study groups. Often they are highly intellectual but lonely students and fall under a sinister influence. We know this from the experiences of hundreds of former communists and from acts of near-treason we have been called upon to investigate.
American education, of course, does not make communists; communist education does. Communism, to survive, must depend upon a constant program of education, because communism needs educated people, even though it distorts the use to which their education is put. Thus, we need to show our young people, particularly those endowed with high intellects, that we in our democracy need what they have to offer.
We, as a people, have not been sufficiently articulate and forceful in expressing pride in our traditions and ideals. In our homes and schools we need to learn how to “let freedom ring.” In all the civilized world there is no story which compares with America’s effort to become free and to incorporate freedom in our institutions. This story, told factually and dramatically, needs to become the basis for our American unity and for our unity with all free peoples. I am sure most Americans believe that our light of freedom is a shining light. As Americans we should stand up, speak of it, and let the world see this light, rather than conceal it. For too long we have had a tendency to keep silent while the communists, their sympathizers, and their fellow travelers have been telling the world what is wrong with democracy. Suppose every American spent a little time each day, less than the time demanded by the communists, in studying the Bible and the basic documents of American history, government, and culture? The result would be a new America, vigilant, strong, but ever humble in the service of God.
2. Then there is the training of youth, on whom the communists place so much emphasis. To the Party, youth is not something auxiliary but an important training ground. We must meet this challenge. America must devote the best of her efforts to make youth responsible, conscious of its obligations, and eager to be good citizens. Experience and observation point to certain facts which we need to consider in providing for youth.
First, youth gravitates toward youth. The young person who feels left out may remain a “solitary.” Or he may, according to his background and make-up, join a delinquent gang. He may join a Party front or club. Or he may find some other short cut to a sense of belonging. But every American youth has a right to find some place within a group that expresses rather than contradicts the real values of society.
Second, given half a chance, youth gravitates toward companionship with competent, generous, and experienced adults. Practically all my life I have been face to face with young people becoming involved in difficulties or coming under the communist spell. Invariably I have discovered that they all had one thing in common. In their early years and in the periods of their lives when their transgressions began to take form, they could not talk things over with their parents. Their parents were either too busy, or not interested, or resented any difference of opinion. Or parents simply doled out “final” answers when the young people wanted to try to think things through.
Our youth want not only to talk to adults, they want to work with adults. It is a fine thing for them to have their own groups, but it is better if, in addition, they can participate in shared projects with adults. If the adults can show, in action, that it is possible to combine high idealism with solid practicality and patience, the results will enhance character and citizenship development manifold.
3. The communists stress action. This means carrying out our responsibilities now—not tomorrow, the next day, or never. To communists the Party means continual action, not just talk, waiting for annual elections, meetings, or affairs. With us action must supplement good intentions in building the America of the future. We need to provide our youth with activity groups. To give them only a high standard of material advantages or a constant diet of recreation is not enough. Recreation must be made part of a life of responsibility, otherwise it becomes merely a preface to boredom. Our young people, as well as adults, need to be working members of our republic and citizens on duty at all times.
4. Communists accent the positive. In their deceptive and perverted way they are always purporting to stand for something positive. “Better,” “higher,” etc., are trade-marks in their language. We, too, in the true sense of the word, should strive for goals that are genuinely better, higher, and more noble, trying to improve self, community, and nation. A strictly negative attitude or the philosophy of just staying afloat—all too common today—will never meet the impact of the communist challenge.
5. Most important of all is faith. Let us not blind ourselves to the fact that communists do have a “faith.” True, it is falsely placed, but still it inspires them to sacrifice, devotion, and a perverted idealism.
The late Mother Bloor, the Party’s woman “hero,” often praised Walt Whitman’s “The Mystic Trumpeter” as the poem she loved best. It seemed, she said, to prophesy the coming of a “new world”:
“War, sorrow, suffering gone—the rank
earth purged—nothing but joy left!
The ocean fill’d with joy—the atmosphere
all joy!
Joy! joy! in freedom, worship, love! joy in
the ecstasy of life!
Enough to merely be! enough to breathe!
Joy! joy! all over joy!”
She is trying to identify communism with the dream of a world of joy. She is exploiting Walt Whitman. Yet her feeling shows the lure of communist “faith.” If communists can be so inspired from error, falsehood, and hate, just think what we could do with truth, justice, and love! I thrill to think of the even greater wonders America could fashion from its rich, glorious, and deep tradition. All we need is faith, real faith.
The communist prides himself on being a revolutionary—and revolutionary he is in the sense of destruction, terror, and violence. Free man can learn here too: the truly revolutionary force of history is not material power but the spirit of religion. The world today needs a true revolution of the fruitful spirit, not the futile sword. Hypocrisy, dishonesty, hatred, all these must be destroyed and man must rule by love, charity, and mercy.
The Party’s effort to create “communist man,” to mold a revolutionary fighter completely subservient to the Party’s desires, is destined to fail. The power of bullets, tanks, and repression will bulwark tyranny just so long. Then, as the Hungarian Freedom Fighters proved, man’s innate desire for freedom will flare up stronger than ever. In communism we see what happens when freedom is extinguished. This must give us renewed zeal to work untiringly to uphold the ideals of justice and liberty which have made this nation great.
With God’s help, America will remain a land where people still know how to be free and brave.