Why Class Warfare Won’t Work Here (Yet?)
Why Class Warfare Won’t Work Here (Yet?)
By Jack Kinsella
In his seminal work, The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx postulated that a social “class” is formed when its members achieve class consciousness and solidarity.
“Class consciousness” Marx argued, comes into being when a members of a class recognize they are been exploited by another class.
Once one class feels exploited by another, the exploited class will recognize their shared common interest and will begin to take action against the exploiters. According to Marx, capitalism causes social stratification, which ultimately results in class conflict.
America divides itself by class into three main groups; the rich, the middle class, and the poor. The problem with having three main social classes is that there is one too many — Marxism only needs two.
Marx divides capitalist society into the working class (proletariat) and the rich (bourgeoisie). American Marxism divides society into the “one percent” vs. the “99 percent” but the definitions are the same.
The thing about Marxism is that it is pretty resilient; it can be molded and shaped to fit almost any social situation or worldview.
In the Barack Hussein Obama form of Marxism, the bourgeoisie are “the rich” (one percenters) which is defined as anyone whose gross income exceeds $250,000 annually, conservatives, especially conservative Christians, non-union members, etc.
Obama Marxism defines the proletariat (99 percenters) as liberals, atheists, all union members, aspiring union members, people making less than $100,000 per year, and in particular, the working poor, blacks, Hispanics and any other group that could typically be lumped together as ‘have-nots.’
Class conflict, or class warfare, is primarily a tool used by socialists, communists and anarchists, who define a class by its relationship to the means of production, like factories, land and equipment.
From this point of view, the social control of production and labour becomes a contest between classes, and the division of these resources necessarily involves conflict between the two. Notes Wikipedia;
“The typical example of class conflict described is class conflict within capitalism. This class conflict is seen to occur primarily between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and takes the form of conflict over hours of work, value of wages, cost of consumer goods, the culture at work, control over parliament or bureaucracy, and economic inequality. The particular implementation of government programs which may seem purely humanitarian, such as disaster relief, can actually be a form of class conflict.”
Karl Marx was an astute observer of human nature, and class warfare exploits a character defect inherent to humanity that we all share to some degree. The medieval poet Dante Alighieri is generally credited with listing the “Seven Deadly Sins” ie; lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride.
Conservative columnist George Will noted that, of Dante’s Seven Deadly Sins, the only one that is never any fun is Deadly Sin Number Six on the list, envy.
“Envy” is slightly different than “greed” in that greed is simply an insatiable desire for more whereas “envy” is more focused. Envy doesn’t simply want more, it wants more of yours.
The Greek philosopher Aesop illustrated the principle, using a dog, a bone and a reflection.
A dog carrying a bone saw his reflection in a stream. The bone in the reflection’s mouth looked bigger and more succulent to the dog, so he opened his mouth to try and take the “other” dog’s bone, dropping his in the stream in the process.
It wasn’t greed — the dog didn’t want both bones — he wanted the “other” dog’s bone — he threw his own away without hesitation in order to get it.
That is how class warfare works. Ultimately, it appeals to greed, but the way that it gets there is through envy. There is no Commandment saying “Thou shalt not be greedy” because greed, in its purest form, is simply the desire to acquire.
Without the desire to acquire, there would be no motivation for anyone to work. This is what the Bible says on that score:
“For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12)
Without the desire to acquire, there could be no wealth. Without wealth, there could be no government, since government exists to protect wealth and private property.
What is prohibited by the Commandments is not greed, but covetousness, or envy. One can be “greedy” for the acquisition of wealth or power without necessarily coveting someone else’s.
And nowhere does the Bible equate the acquisition of wealth with sin. Greed becomes a sin when the desire to acquire replaces the desire to please God.
It isn’t money that the Bible says is the “root of all evil.” It is the love of money that is the root of all evil.
American capitalism would not work were it not for the existence of greed. But Marxism, communism, socialism and pretty much all the other ‘isms’ operate by pitting one deadly sin against another.
In Marxist thinking, “greed” is an evil, but “envy” is a virtue.
Assessment
Conservative blogger and Townhall.com editor Katie Pavlich published a commentary in 2011 profiling the findings of a Yale social study that divided liberals and conservatives according to their measure of happiness.
Actually, she profiled a PBS report that not only discussed the Yale study’s conclusions, but challenged them by replicating the study on a tiny scale. PBS News Hour correspondent Paul Solman asked the question, “On a scale of one to four, with four being the happiest, how happy are you?”
Solman took his question first to members of the conservative think-tank, The American Enterprise Institute. All of the conservatives with whom he spoke rated their happiness level at three and a half or four.
Then he took the same question to an Occupy DC encampment, where he found a guy drinking a five dollar cup of Starbuck’s coffee and asked him to rate his happiness level.
The protestor with the five-dollar cup of coffee rated his happiness level at one, since it was the lowest choice he was offered.
Why? Solman prompted him; “Are you unhappy, do you think, because of the inequality, economic inequality in this country?” Says man drinking five-dollar cup of coffee, “Yes.”
Solman sought out other protestors, including a woman who was “angry” at “the system” because the system is “not fair.”
“Everybody here at this Occupy movement is here because they have had enough. So, they’re angry. And chances are, you know, people here are very unhappy with the way that our society works. I believe that things should be equal, or people should have more of an opportunity to become closer to the 1 percent, because, right now, it’s like the 1 percent is the 1 percent, the 99 is the 99, and we kind of don’t stand a chance.”
Conservatives, according to the Yale study, believe exactly the opposite. They believe in America as a “meritocracy” — which the study’s author defined as “a belief that anybody who works hard can make it.”
Moreover, found the study, the belief in meritocracy was the biggest predictor of happiness, whereas believers in “social justice” were reliably the most unhappy.
Conservatives were happier for a number of reasons, according to the Yale study. Conservatives are more likely to be married, which boosts happiness. Conservatives are more likely to be Christians, which the study also says boosts happiness.
“Conservatives think that fairness is one in which outcomes are based on merit and people start with more or less equal opportunities, or at least we’re working for equal opportunities. If you believe those things, and you see that some person makes more than others or the top 1 percent is breaking away than the bottom 99 percent, that’s not going to affect your happiness very much at all,” noted conservative Arthur Brooks at the AEI.
But if you are a liberal, then you are more likely to be envious, the study finds, and that DOES throw a big damper on happiness. It didn’t always, according to the study’s author, Jaime Napier. She told Solman in the interview that her study found ideology was now a reliable predictor of happiness.
Napier: “in 1974, the difference between liberals and conservatives on happiness wasn’t statistically significant. It was, basically, ideology didn’t predict happiness in 1974.”
Solman: “And today, it does?”
Napier: “And today, it definitely does.”
The PBS report was surprisingly balanced, given the topic. Solman asked another Occupy protestor why he thought conservatives were happier.
“It’s pretty obvious that conservatives represent the interests of the rich, I mean, for the most part. So, people with money generally are happier and generally like to say, well, I got to where I am because I worked hard or parents, whatever, and anybody else, well, they must not have worked hard enough.”
Except that it isn’t true. In the main, liberals are generally wealthier than conservatives. What makes conservatives seem richer is their level of contentment with their lot in life. When a conservative sees someone else becoming successful, they are energized and motivated to work harder towards their own success.
When a liberal sees someone else becoming more successful than they, they become resentful and angry and are more inclined to demand a share of someone else’s success than they are seek their own. That’s what the study found.
The Obama administration has openly and unashamedly adopted Marxist class warfare as their battle strategy for the upcoming election. But this Yale study shows why it will not work — at least for now.
According to most polls, conservatives outnumber liberals in America by a factor of almost two to one. Conservatives outnumber moderates as well, although not by quite as high a margin.
The majority of conservatives are conservative Christians, whereas the majority of liberals place little or no importance on religion. So that is why Obama and the American Marxists are finding their class warfare tactics less effective than they had expected.
It also serves to illustrate a point of doctrine. In his Second Letter to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul is debunking a heresy that had crept into the Church at Thessolonika that the Lord had returned for His Church and that they had been left behind.
“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2)
The Apostle goes on to list some of reasons by which they could know that they had not been left behind, not the least of which is that the Holy Spirit was still at work within the Church, restraining evil.
“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only He who now letteth will let, until He be taken out of the way.” (2 Thessalonians 2:7)
“Iniquity” or lawlessness is one of the trademarks of this administration, so it is clearly already at work, but it can only go so far before, like its effort to promote Marxism, it runs into the brick wall that is the Church.
Class warfare cannot work without class consciousness, which only works when one class is so envious of another that envy replaces logic.
That is the phenomenon in which employees run their own employers out of business or out of the country and then blame the “system” when they lose their jobs.
Since there are more conservatives than there are liberals, class warfare is of only limited use. But when the Holy Spirit is taken out of the way, so too, are the vessels that He indwells.
What will be left behind will be a majority of unhappy liberal class warriors.
Until then, however, there are just too many Christians and they are just too darned contented with what they have to buy into the Lie. And so Karl Marx and Barack Obama — and their spiritual mentor — are all kept at bay.
Until we be taken out of the way, together with our Spiritual Mentor.
“And THEN shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming…” (2nd Thessalonians 2:8)
Maranatha! (“The Lord is coming.“)