Much is being written about how leftism is really a religion since its adherents cling to their dogma in spite of the obvious contradictions constantly being presented by the real world.  This was really brought to mind in the chapter about the Communist Second International (1889) in Sean McMeekin’s To Overthrow the World.  At that time, Eduard Bernstein, who had been Karl Marx’s protégé while they both lived in exile in London, had by the mid-1890s broken from the pack.

Bernstein eventually saw through the web of deception that was Marxism.  Rather than resulting from the proposed seizure and authoritarian micromanagement of the means of production, prosperity was already being expanded all across the population by nothing more complicated than improved productivity due to advances in technology.

Years ago, I personally experienced this phenomenon when we invested in new printing presses that vastly improved our shop’s productivity.  Although much more expensive than the presses we had been using, the increased efficiency vastly added to the company’s profitability.  This also increased the value of the time being spent by the trained staff — making personnel turnover even less desirable.  In addition to increased pay, we helped retain our workers by providing them with health insurance, paid vacations, and holidays, and the increased profitability remained substantial.

Two other experiences that showed me how committed leftists strive to tune out reality when it challenges their faith in collectivist dogma happened while chatting with friends.  The first happened when visiting my best friend’s parents.  All along, I knew they were “fellow travelers,” though we were still very good friends.  At some point in the conversation, they insisted that I broaden my perspective and familiarize myself with the people struggling in the lower strata of society.  My response went sort of like this: “I live in blue-collar Oakland.  I live with and work with people from marginal backgrounds.  Meanwhile, you live in this solidly upper-upper-middle-class neighborhood [where I also just happened to grow up] that has zero people on the margins.”  Their next-door neighbor was a CBS on-air legal expert and still is.

The other occurred while visiting an old college chum and his wife.  Both just happened to have MBAs, and the wife grew up with both parents being upper-echelon members of the U.S. State Department under Roosevelt and Truman.  There was a bit of a recession going on back then, and they suggested to me that adopting a four-day work week would do a lot to knock down the rate of unemployment.  “Hmmm,” I said — “would you both be willing to take a 20% cut in your pay for this to happen?”  They looked at each other and blurted out, “Of course not!”  I guess arithmetic is forbidden knowledge.

The term “magical thinking” comes to mind.  It’s kind of an assumed faith that allows us to wait optimistically for the impossible to happen.  Throwing zillions of dollars at providing subsidized housing for drug-addicted vagrants is an obvious example.  As a result, the taxpayers have less money for themselves, and even more vagrants are squatting wherever they want.  Addiction therapists use the term “enabling” to describe what the magical thinkers are doing: making it even easier to survive as a drug-addicted vagrant.

It is certainly possible for former “true believers” to drop out of the program — just like how Eduard Bernstein abandoned Marxism when he witnessed significant improvements in the standard of living of ordinary workers, as advances in technology made their time more valuable and also lowered the cost of the goods they needed to purchase — without any authoritarian seizure of the means of production.

Another canard of the left that still clings to the minds of the faithful is that crime is mostly caused by poverty rather than by the reasonable expectation of not getting punished for committing a criminal act — hence, the broad espousal of “defund the police” as a valid public policy.  Though hunger may compel someone to steal food, and some murky statistics kind of show that, during the profound poverty of the Great Depression, Prohibition was the main driver of criminal activity — that is, until its repeal at the end of 1933.

And, relying on the loyal faithfulness of true believers, the complicit lapdog media continue to describe federal workers as being compelled to work without pay during the political stunt we call the government shutdown.  Reality: Federal workers, who have not been struck from the rolls are continuing to earn their pay.  Only the issuance of their paychecks is being delayed.  Credit cards, savings, and sympathetic retailers and landlords are helping to smooth over the interim.

The intent of this deception has been to generate more animus against President Trump.  But, since the Democrats have blood all over their hands from this manufactured pause, they have to continue staring into the abyss.

Image: david__jones via Flickr, CC BY 2.0.