Ameritopia_ The Unmaking of America - Mark R. Levin [35]
The Communist Manifesto seethes with hate for the so-called bourgeoisie. Their freedom, families, and of course, property, must all be abolished. “This person must, indeed, be swept out of the way and made impossible” (38). “Abolition of the family! Even the most radical flare up at this infamous proposal of the Communists” (39). “In this sense the theory of Communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property” (36). “The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie.…” (42) “[I]n the beginning this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property and on the conditions of bourgeois production.…” (42) However, the whole of society suffers at the masterminds’ hands, for in its purest form, communism demands a radical egalitarianism best described as an absolute equality of social conditions and an exactness of burdens and benefits. The entire society must be brought down to its lowest level. Individual sovereignty must be wrung from the human character; everyone becomes a slave to the state and there is no escape for anyone, including the vaunted and fabled proletarian. In every instance, communism requires the establishment of a police state, some more violent than others, because this utopia, like the others described earlier, is not only undesirable but impossible—and its pursuit is merciless and relentless.
Despite this record, communism’s utopian underpinnings and characteristics attract sympathetic attention, including in America and especially among the intelligentsia and malcontented, as it is romanticized as “social justice” and a “liberation” movement. Writing of these sympathizers, Aron observed, “Not only are they sacrificing the best part of the legacy of the Enlightenment—respect for reason, liberalism—but they are sacrificing it in an age when there is no reason for the sacrifice, at least in the West…”6
PART II
ON AMERICANISM
CHAPTER SIX
JOHN LOCKE AND THE NATURE OF MAN
JOHN LOCKE, WHO LIVED from 1632 to 1704, had an enormous influence on the American founding and, consequently, American society. As will become clear, he did not seek ways to destroy the sovereignty of the individual; he sought to understand and cultivate it. Unlike the utopians, who build insensate societies based on their own prejudices and fantasies, Locke explored the true nature of man, including his acquisition of knowledge and use of intuition, reason, and sensation. It is not necessary to agree with all of Locke’s conclusions to celebrate his extraordinary insight.
In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding1 (published in 1690), which is an extensive examination of the capacity of the human mind, including its limits—Locke dramatically distinguished his philosophical approach from the utopians. He explained: “Since it is the Understanding that sets Man above the rest of sensible Beings, and gives him all the Advantage and Dominion, which he has over them; it is certainly a Subject, even for its Nobleness, worth our Labour to enquire into. The Understanding, like the Eye, whilst it makes us see, and perceive all other Things, takes not notice of it self: And it requires Art and Pains to set it at a distance, and make it its own Object. But whatever be the Difficulties, that lie in the way of this Enquiry; whatever it be, that keeps us so much in the Dark to our selves; sure I am, that all the Light we can let in upon our own Minds; all the Acquaintance we can make with our own Understandings, will not only be very pleasant; but bring us great Advantage, in directing our Thoughts in search of other Things” (I, 1, 1).
For Locke, the individual has value, dignity, and significance. Rather than advance a dogma in search of a fantasy,