Diagnosis should precede prescription and intervention. This
is not only true of medical issues but also of emotional and even national
issues. Therefore, if we want to do something about our emotional torment, we
need to understand its cause. Of course, we can merely cover over the torment
with a drug or a few beers. However, the problem will still remain.
Modern secularism sees our problems originating from the
outside. Consequently, we are not fundamentally the problem but society. Hence,
we are the product of our social and familial influences. Joseph Stalin was
convinced that humanity’s problems did not originate within ourselves but
without, in the economic system. Consequently, his prescription was to change
the environment—the State and its economy:
•
Whatever is the mode of production of a society,
such in the main is the society itself, its ideas, and theories, its political
views and institutions. Or, to put it more crudely, whatever is man’s manner of
life, such is his manner of thought. https://www.allaboutworldview.org/marxist-history.htm
For Stalin, a change in the “manner of life,” namely, a
change in the economic and political institutions, would fundamentally improve
the human condition. This meant that Stalinist government would have to exert
overwhelming force to coerce change. This resulted in the extermination of many
millions, the “enemies of the State.”
This is almost inevitable. When our problems are deemed to
originate from the outside, then the outside must be controlled to eradicate
these problems and any who get in the way of the “solution.”
Outside of Krakov, Poland, Anita and I had visited what had
once been considered the ideal communist/Stalinist city, Nowa Huta. Stalin and
the other communist idealists had reasoned that once distinctions had been
removed, there would be nothing left to interfere with the realization of true
comrade-ship among the workers. Consequently, all worked in the same factory.
All were given the same income and lodgings. Did the removal of these
distinctions create a greater brotherhood? Apparently not! Instead, they lived
isolated lives divided by walls of suspicion. At least, they were guaranteed lodgings
and an income, which, in the end, could only be paid in vodka and sugar.
Every national communist experiment had been a glaring
failure at the mere cost of 100 million lives. Meanwhile, the presently
existing communist nations have adopted capitalism to dig themselves out of
their economic hole.
Why had every one of these promising experiments failed? Perhaps the communists had misdiagnosed the problem, and assumed that if they changed the society, they could also improve the man. Perhaps, instead, the inner man needs to be changed before society can be meaningfully changed.
Why had every one of these promising experiments failed? Perhaps the communists had misdiagnosed the problem, and assumed that if they changed the society, they could also improve the man. Perhaps, instead, the inner man needs to be changed before society can be meaningfully changed.
Nevertheless, secular, utopian schemes continue to abound. Many
college students believe that love will conquer all. This is based upon the
assumption that most haven’t received enough love. Therefore, we just have to learn how to love.
These students are convinced that if Hitler, Stalin, Muhammad, and Mao had
received enough love, they would never have embarked on their genocidal
rampages.
How do we love? Basically, we must change society and its
corrupting influence, right? I recently talked with a group of young communists
at Columbia University and asked them about their hopes. They answered, “Revolution.”
Light-heartedly, I probed, “Well certainly, you are not advocating violent revolution?” They were, but they
assured me that their revolt would only kill a mere 1% of the population.
Again, I probed: “In light of all the failed communist
experiments of the twentieth century, what hope do you have that your
revolution will be successful?” They explained that they now had an “enlightened”
leader who would not repeat the mistakes of former Marxist revolutions.
Meanwhile, my young, idealistic communist comrades assured
me that love for humanity required them to strike a quick, relatively painless
and antiseptic blow against the capitalist elites.
I wondered about what was motivating them, and why they
thought that they could limit the carnage to only 1% of our population. Anger, compassion,
jealousy, or self-righteous idealism? I was thinking about Paul Johnson’s book,
Intellectuals, in which he exposed
the lives of our intellectuals. On the surface, they had seemed to be very
committed, other-centered, and even compassionate. However, their personal
lives painted an entirely different picture.
I reminded myself that these students are human beings with
the same feelings and needs that I have, but yet, they are also our future
murderers—instruments of genocide. Can friendship, affirmations, and love turn
them around? Would these techniques have turned around Hitler, Stalin, and Mao,
or would they have co-opted them for their own sinister designs? Since there has never been a society that has
been able to relax sanctions against anti-social behaviors, I had my doubts
about their effectiveness.
I’m certainly not against using the carrot of love and
affirmation before the club. Some will respond favorably to the carrot, but it
seems to be undeniable that the club also has its place. This is why all legal
systems have instituted deterrents against crime.
Perhaps this should lead us to a reassessment of humanity
and our prescriptions and hopes for a better world. Perhaps we have faults at
the core of our being that all of the loving affirmations in the world cannot adequately
address. The communists and other utopian idealists are convinced that they can
create a better world by removing the evil elites. However, there seems to be
something about all of us that can give rise to evil.
Genocide knows no national or class boundaries. When the
Nazi leadership was brought to trial at Nuremburg after the war, many believed
that they would see in them the incarnation of evil itself. However, they were
surprised to find that these were ordinary men just like us. They loved their
wives and children and cared about their neighbors. What then turned them into
genocidal maniacs?
Perhaps we all have our dark side, although we’d like to
present ourselves as compassionate, and we even make a good showing of it. Our
psychological needs, like the need for approval, success, security, and to
think well of ourselves, are so powerful that they secretly infiltrate and
contaminate everything we think and do, even our most idealistic ventures.
However, if we refuse to be aware of it, we cannot even begin to control it.
But can we confront ourselves without this knowledge undermining our carefully
constructed and manicured positive image of ourselves? I couldn’t! Instead, I hid
the evil within, as I reaffirmed to myself that I am a good person.
In contrast to our escape into comforting self-delusions, the
Apostle Paul quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures to uncover our true condition:
- as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” (Romans 3:10-13)
Of course, we do not see the things that lurk behind our
masks until a holocaust emerges, and we wonder, “How can these wicked people do
such things?” However, the Scriptures shed light upon our darkness.
Naturally, we prefer the darkness to the light (John
3:19-20), which painfully exposes us. It has only been my confidence in the
love and acceptance of my Savior, which has enabled me to accept, examine myself,
and to exercise control over my dark side. Consequently, I can now see how the
evil within had contaminated everything I did, even my naïve attempts to be a
good person.
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