I am an immigrant from Colombia, a country that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)—a communist revolutionary group—spent half a century tearing apart.
asserted
Forces → spend → century
FARC murdered thousands of Colombians through sanctioned massacres, kidnappings, and terrorism, and the war FARC drove displaced over seven million Colombians, resulting in one of the largest internal displacement crises in the world.
asserted
FARC → murder → world
I am now a naturalized citizen of the United States, a country that millions from around the world are still trying to reach.
asserted
millions → try → world
So, I read the latest polling on American capitalism with a particular kind of alarm.
asserted
I → read → alarm
This polling is the result of a survey released by The Free Press using a method to surface the opinions people keep to themselves.
asserted
people → release → themselves
The finding: just one in three Americans holds a positive view of capitalism.
asserted
Americans → hold → capitalism
Before the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) take a victory lap, consider the rest.
asserted
Socialists → take → rest
That same survey found that most Americans remain wary of socialism, and Gallup found that while capitalism drew 54 percent approval, free enterprise drew 81 percent and small business 95 percent, compared with 37 percent for big business.
asserted
business → find → business
Americans have not turned against free enterprise, ownership, or entrepreneurial risk.
asserted
Americans → turn → enterprise
Yet DSA candidates keep winning elections.
asserted
candidates → win → elections
The gap between Americans’ faith in free enterprise and the DSA’s wins is a real vulnerability, and it deserves an honest question: Why not communism?
asserted
it → deserve → question
An honest answer requires an important clarification.
asserted
answer → require → clarification
There is no meaningful difference between socialism and communism, and the founders of the movement said so without pretense.
asserted
founders → be → pretense
Lenin devoted chapters of The State and Revolution to expounding on Marx and what he called the first phase of communist society and its ultimate end.
asserted
he → devote → society
There is no meaningful difference between socialism and communism, and the founders of the movement said so without pretense.
asserted
founders → be → pretense
Because the record is unambiguous and is written in blood.
asserted
record → write → blood
No communist revolution has delivered the justice, equality, and prosperity it promised.
asserted
it → deliver → justice
Estimates place the death toll of communist regimes near 100 million across Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Africa, and South America.
asserted
Estimates → place → Russia
No communist state in history has been concerned about people sneaking in.
asserted
people → concern → history
Every one of them has had to worry about people getting out, a concern that produced a heavily guarded 4,300-mile Iron Curtain across Europe built to face inward.
asserted
that → have → Europe
Nations that people flee have not solved anything.
asserted
people → flee → anything
Yet the communist appeal is real, and pretending otherwise is foolish.
asserted
pretending → pretend → ?
Communism begins by naming a genuine pain.
asserted
Communism → begin → pain
This makes the household, the small business, and the ordinary person willing to take a risk weaker and less important.
asserted
household → make → risk
Millions of Americans experience this as a shrinking future and a loss of control over their destiny.
asserted
Millions → experience → destiny
The communist arrives, agrees with them, and offers the oldest bargain on record: "You have nothing to lose but your chains.
asserted
You → arrive → chains
Communism is the opium Marx accused religion of being, and it has never once healed the pain.
asserted
it → accuse → pain
It has not expanded economic freedom; it has abolished it through central planning.
asserted
it → expand → planning
Communism did not restore personal agency; it destroyed agency on principle because agency is precisely what a total state cannot permit.
asserted
state → restore → what
What the communist gets right but then betrays is the truth that the core of economics is the human person.
asserted
core → get → economics
But the communist cannot say why.
asserted
communist → say → ?
If we are only producers and consumers, then personal agency is a mere preference, not a fundamental part of our humanity, and the state may override it whenever it deems it expedient to do so.
uncertain
it → override → it
Communism is the opium Marx accused religion of being, and it has never once healed the pain.
asserted
it → accuse → pain
It has not expanded economic freedom.
asserted
It → expand → freedom
It has abolished it through central planning.
asserted
It → abolish → planning
The truth about the human person that no materialism—capitalist or communist—can say is what the Christian account of the human person defends: human beings bear the image of God.
asserted
beings → say → God
And human dignity is not for the state to grant or revoke.
asserted
state → grant → ?
The dignity of the human person is divinely endowed and is protected and nurtured through economic freedom and personal agency.
asserted
dignity → endow → freedom
The time is short, and I write to my fellow Americans as someone who has seen where this road ends.
asserted
road → write → someone
Let’s not take the bargain the communists offer.
asserted
communists → take → bargain
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
