Communism- How did it happen?

Author: Richard R. Tryon

Chapter seven

Can God make a comeback?
Even as recently as this writer's childhood, a rather common conviction among the masses was that God was a Being of strength that could be angered by the failures of the people to maintain their promised faith. Those that ignored the laws of God would sooner or later experience the "wrath of God" and face the inevitable burning in Hell. In the last fifty years it is hard to find preachers of any faith speaking or writing of such a circumstance. Of course, the idea of a Hell still persists, but space travel has let us play down the idea that it is down below vs Heaven which is up above.

In short, we are now more interested in the idea that, if there is a God, He, She, or It, is a God of Love! Therefore, we are going to be forgiven should any of our actions be perceived as no-no or sinful. So, why not pursue a life of hedonistic pursuit of pleasure. Our major consumer purchasing,in fact almost all of it, relates to this concept. We buy housing that is usually priced beyond our means, along with cars, and all sorts of gadgets from cell phones to computers to give us increased pleasure.

Of course, we have also found that sex has finally been freed from the burden of guilt that used to be associated with such obsolete concepts as adultery and most now think of it as just another game in life to be enjoyed anyway that pleases the participants. If the president needs special sexual attention, that is his private business and not important to the public - especially if it perceives that the president is making our lives be more enjoyable and comfortable. In the age of civil liberties, it is easy to find no moral judgment regarding sexual orientation. We still seem to frown upon sexual abuse of children by adults, even among one's own. But with secular morality the only point of control, the restriction is related not to the blasphemous consideration of violence to God's laws, but to civil law that prohibits physical abuse of one's children. Not yet determined by Supreme Court test is the answer to the circumstance now possible. If schools are encouraged to teach children to explore their sexuality and find out their preference for homo, hetero or both, can the Court argue with parents that are merely demonstrating how to play the game with willing children?

This case has not yet been seen, but the cause for it is probably a lot more common than the media has yet taken to researching for the purpose of publishing results aimed at selling their product and promoting the career of those writing about such abhorrent behavior. It may take another generation before readers will take the story in stride. Without an adherence to the law of God that makes the gift of sexual activity something more than just a 'natural' means of procreation, our civil law will ultimately continue to reflect the secular morality concept of situation ethics.

Of course, the problem of a civilization without God is far bigger than just the moral code of conduct regarding sexuality. Only one of the ten commandments deals with the subject directly although the prohibition against stealing is certainly related. But, how can sexual games between consenting individuals at any age or preparation, involve an act of stealing? We have no laws on the books that connect rape with stealing. In fact, most prosecutors bring criminal charges of physical assault against those accused of rape. It is easier to prove injury even if consent is a given! This type of human problem in living is only reflective of the greater malady, not the cause of it.

If we can't find a way to reposition all churches -even if they were to merge- into a position where the masses will accept God's laws out of fear as was possible in the middle ages and into this century, then what alternative is there? Many faiths have tried to 'sell' the concept of love Jesus or God in exchange for the promise of support for your life here on Earth. As long as those that accept this bargain are healthy and prosperous, they are inclined to give God credit and regularly pay the dues to the church of their choice. When something goes wrong, many feel betrayed while some learn to stoically accept that "When Bad Things Happen To Good People", they need not lose their faith but lean more upon it to cope with their grief! This mistaken use of the idea that we can 'bargain' with God is tragic. Not only does it cause much extra human grief, it also convinces other non-believers that they are right to stay away from such bad bargains.

What then has a chance of restoring the level of faith in God to the point where it compels us to live as a society that pays attention to God's moral laws rather than a set of perceived entitlements? The footnotes contain a copy of the Ten Commandments and a facetiously composed set of alternative life rules of life called the "Ten Entitlements". The significant point is that we are not able to provide an absolute understanding of God's presence and maintain His desire that our faith be driven by a free-will choice! This dilemma will persist perhaps for as long as the Earth has beings on it capable of wondering about the question; or if we choose to study the faith of the past while applying a more modern use of a scientific study to see if we can find a reason for a free-will choice for faith. How can such be found? How does it relate to Communism? Without such a faith, there is no way to prevent the call of the communists from recapturing the people and returning them to the status as slaves to the state.

In the former Soviet Union today, especially in Russia, the world is waiting for the coming of an election to replace a physically failing president Yeltsin. As these words are written the press is full of a story aimed at showing that he too is as corrupt as all others who are stealing American aid money and laundering it for their own use. The enemies of all who do not accept state control of the economy and all else are working hard to drive Russians away from their efforts to join the free world's system of productivity that feeds, houses, and clothes so much better. This coming election will be the first opportunity for the rest of the world to discover that communism did not die in Russia in 1991. It was just forced into a 'low profile' until mistakes give it the opportunity to sing its song of mass appeal again.

The world economy is doing reasonably well at providing more goods and services than ever before, but we are still seeing an endless procession of religious or ethnic wars. All of this would change if all people could come to understand and have a reason for a faith in one God with one set of laws to follow. What teaching will provide such an opportunity?

One possible way...

The writing of my father and/or myself is not offered as a new Gospel or as a new evidence of Divine Revelation. What our book “You Can’t Escape God” can purport however is:

That we know that without a compatible philosophical and religious underpinning that is able to stand on its own without serious challenge from competing and conflicting schools of philosophical or theological thought, no real progress can be easily made to establish a renewed awareness of a globally acceptable system of ethics, morality, and human understanding that can motivate and help all mankind to work and live together in harmony. We must find a way to break down the endless competition between hundreds of so-called Christian sects, not to mention the equally divisive arrays of all of the other real or so-called world religions.

Unless we can provide a system of theological thought that is consistent with a scientific rationale- not necessarily proven, but more acceptable than simplistic adherence to the faith of ones ancestors beliefs- we have little chance of leading the world in a way that will lead to a universal love and peace. A peace based upon the acceptance of the fact that all of mankind possess individual souls that will transcend life on Earth. We can accept an endless array of practices in accordance with our spiritual needs and customs, but we must have a universal acceptance as a fact that to God, all souls are eternal. True, some will find a fuller measure of God’s Grace faster than others, and some will take a lot longer than others to enjoy the fruits of God’s endless ability to forgive and accept our souls into His Heaven when we are ready.

Yes, we will have to maintain our man made sense of a need for secular ‘law and order’ and we will have to learn to live with the fact that we are not all genetically identical and therefore not equal in every sense. We will have to accept that we must strive for the provision of evidence of success that proves that all can aspire and achieve the development of our souls and to some extent temporary superiority of body - at least to the level attainable within the gene constraint. We can’t all be tall, or fastest and best in any sport; or even equal intellectually; but, we can all enjoy an equal position in the hereafter and the same standard pedigree of acceptance into Heaven- the love of God.

Whitehead does a great service in tracing the cultural shift brought on by the onslaught of intellectual attacks upon the values of the past that many want to conserve; and he is right- only time will tell the results of God’s experiment, but each of us is able to contribute our sense of moral support for sound thinking. Some of us may even have political or business opportunity to help direct society in the right direction. But, we are mostly dependent upon the younger generations- the parents and children that will follow. All new beginnings of social development begin with them.

Therefore, no more important legacy is possible to the older generations still alive than to contribute time, energy and funds to the establishment of an improved educational system aimed at delivering to the younger generations the information needed for them to make an informed and intelligent choice- one that lets them make their own free-will decision to have faith in their meaning and existence as children preparing here for a hereafter in accordance with God’s will, and to make it their own as well.

What conclusions are possible?

A current presidential candidate, George Bush, Jr. has coined a phrase of "Compassionate Conservatism" as his goal or evidence of his planned style of leadership. It is a good line, and it does represent what is really needed in all of the world. His position is motivated by his own personal development which had some rocky bumps to overcome in earlier years- a not uncommon fact for many people. What is needed for his leadership to work?

More than anything else, we need to find the way to convince the millions of non-Christians, and many Christians too, that they can make a leap of faith and want to live a life style that is based upon the need to be responsible for self. But to do this, they need to have some kind of evidence of the reality of God. Questions of origin and miracles must be examined in ways that do not necessarily prove or explain with certainty; but that give the average person a chance to make the choice for faith.

Although my father failed to provide such a vehicle, he spent most of his adult life trying to figure out how to take most of the mystery out of our relationship with God, so that many millions could find a modern way to accept a God- a way that does not depend upon the idea that all Revelation came 2,000 years ago.

All of history shows that mankind is very slow to learn and rather quick to forget!
Already we are at a point in the U.S. where most people want to think that the age of the communist experiment is past and that the idea died with the 70 year experiment in the Soviet Union. We need to know that no written words, including these or those of the writers noted, will live into the future or help the young form their own life directing decisions, unless the facts are constantly provided in new and fresh dimensions so as to direct the arts, language, and works of man into directions that are consistent with God's plan.

In the current age of civil liberties, many groups are persistently working to get their special agendas adopted. Some of them are very destructive to the needs of man to find the way to live a life where moral values are real and represent absolute, not relevant truths. We must examine each of their positions with care to avoid accepting simplistic ideas as worthy, just because they are presented in a way that rings of fairness.

No better example is found than that brought forth by Horowitz, who now sees that his liberal left convictions helped foster the mistakes of the sexual revolution brought forth by the gay and lesbian groups. It may sound fair to suggest that persons of such convictions as these are only acting out their own special genetic code driven life style and that they deserve the right to do so. But, it is important to certainly refrain from putting them to stand on the same pedestal of God's plan, as those that are following the sacramental notion of God's reasons for sexual attraction as opposed to those possible for men or women who have time for irrelevant dalliance aimed only at the pursuit of pleasure.

We may have reason to accept that not all men or women need to be producers of progeny for God; but, we should not ever tolerate the idea that children should be taught to try either or both approaches to the sexual part of their lives, as though their is no God to consider. It is one thing to defend the right of two men to live together and enjoy legal protections similar to those of heterosexual married folks, it is quite another to give it the same sacramental validity. They should know that their individual decisions may be acceptable to God as they may be unable to procreate in a way that helps the species develop. That judgment is for God to make, not man. It may turn out to be a risky choice in terms of man's efforts to prepare for the hereafter.

Certainly the greatest risk for the homosexual is related to understand the meaning of sexual activity. Some may add the risks of sexual diseases which seem to be more commonly experienced by those that engage in same sex activity- especially when it is so inconsequential as to be desired with an endless stream of partners. Such activity has caused the premature physical deaths of many men and women. One wonders if they also lost the opportunity to better develop their souls to the purposes God has for them in the hereafter. Obviously, very few of the folks in this category ever try very hard to grapple with this question. They are far too busy looking for their next sexual fix!

It is inappropriate to complete this monologue on this note. It is given only because it provides such a clear example of how mankind can make choices that interfere with the development of the human soul and because it puts the much larger question to the test- is the meaning of life in all of the animal Kingdom, just a matter of finding out how to maximize pleasure? If so, then few pleasures are as likely as sex to produce an inexpensive moment of excited mental and physical activity. True, drugs, alcohol, tobacco (another drug) can also provide similar emotional 'highs', but they are more costly from a financial perspective and therefore less available, especially to the poor.

The real conclusion, therefore, is to stress the importance of learning to live a life that is based upon moral principles that are driven by an authority higher than that of any man or women in politics, or religion. The great question therefore is how does God get to be better accepted? He can give us Free-Will and then stand before us in a way that we can misunderstand. It is up to us to find a reasoned way to faith. We have learned a thousand different ways to seek God and the confusion bothers not only the faithful, but is totally distracting to those who have no faith.

We can only pray together that somehow, all will come to learn that "You Can't Escape God". If you want to study the book of this title, just click here!

What does all of this have to do with the title of this booklet?
Communism- How did it happen?
When will it threaten again?

If the presentation here has been useful, and if you consider the need for civilization to find both the explanation of how did it happen; but, more importantly, how to avoid its remaining vestigial roots from sprouting again, then some final thoughts are in order.

Communism didn't die in 1991 in Moscow, Russia. It still survives in different forms in Cuba, China and places like Albania and elsewhere. More importantly, millions still want to think in terms of humanism and speculate that the inequities of the free enterprise world require them to seek ways to redistribute wealth, and to let the state take over control of all major industry in the name of the idea that more people will therefore benefit with higher standards of living. Never mind that their ideal can't work! New leaders of this theology will always want to think that it has failed only because they didn't get the chance to be the dictators to manage it.

Fidel Castro fits the Stalinist mold and rules with an iron hand. His mind still is certain that he has freed Cuba from its former slavery. It suffers a lower standard of living only because, in his mind, the U.S. will not let it do better. The truth is that Cuba today suffers from the same problems of any island economy that can't tolerate free enterprise. Planners must first pay attention to the social and political agenda. They have no freedom to take risk to compete in a global economy and the future can only be marginally better without Castro as long as Cuba does no better than try to compete for tourists.

People of this persuasion will not change until they are convinced that what they want is against the will of a real God and everyone else. It will take two almost obvious facts to exist before they will surrender to the better idea...

First, until the majority of the world in all nations, from all races, religions, social and political groups comes to the knowledge that there really is one God that controls all, regardless of previous connection to any church, religion or other affiliation. Only when it seems that everyone knows of God in the same way and shows a real evidence of wanting to live in harmony with God's laws, will these zealots of communism stop wanting to argue that their Godless state under their leadership offers a better way.

Second, they must see that the first fact has provided the means to stabilize the world with a self-regulated evidence of: a universal desire to teach all to read and write and learn; a willingness to allow a United Nations to control rogue nations before they kill off populations within their own borders; and they must perceive that the population has stabilized and that diverse means of worshiping God also reflect a rational understanding of God in ways that moderate and eliminate mistakes of the past. Mistakes within numerous religions that have caused many evidences of serious consequence such as Inquisitions, Jihads or Holy wars, and the insertion of man's inventions to try to over control God's will in matters like birth control that defy reason.

More than a few errors of past religious consequence will be written off like the one that claimed that the world was not round and not the center of the Universe. Ways will be found to determine if and when abortion can be avoided and when it must be reluctantly allowed to keep the population stable and healthy.

A new sense of morality based upon absolute truths that are commonly understood will replace a dependence upon a secular morality that is driven by situation ethics and mankind's inability to know when he/she is not entitled to bend moral absolutes to his or her personal benefit without regard for others.

It is the fervent prayer of many people already that the world discover the way to bring all together. It would be nice to establish evidence of such commonality in a nation where most of the world's people of different races, nationalities,and religions are to be found. If we do not find the way to discover such an improved way of living, we can count on some future movement to bring forth a renewed effort to give our people the benefit of an ideal system of socialism that used to be called communism. It will probably masquerade with a new name, but its promoters will be assuring us that they only mean to 'save us from ourselves', redistributing wealth so that all may be poor while the government will provide security for us from the cradle to the grave. If this happens, we will probably not know that we have become slaves to the state until we discover that people who complain about it disappear and we are afraid to ask why?


Does communism require global socialism to work?

The answer is 'yes' and 'no'. It depends upon the ability of its masters to isolate the classes of its society from the rest of the world. In the case of the Soviet Union, it is clear that its leaders included some that spoke as though its philosophy had to spread everywhere for it to work; while others more pragmatically insisted that they could prove its validity by isolating the Soviet Union from the rest of the world with an 'iron wall' that let them keep everyone inside to be safe from the outside, a circumstance that served the rest of the world's policy of containment put forth by J.F. Dulles.

A reading of "Khrushchev Remembers" shows that a far greater effort was made to keep the internal party 'clean' and free from aberrations, and this required a major utilization of time, talent and resources for intrigue, purges, and control. Therefore, even though a 'fraternal' relationship existed with communist parties through-out the world, and even though significant effort was expended to foment the revolution elsewhere, the truth is that the Soviet Union was also driven by its own nationalistic concerns. It suffered a paranoia over the events of WWII and had known about wars on its land throughout its history. Therefore, it spend far too much on building armies and weapons to defend its borders than was needed. From the standpoint of promoting global revolution this did allow them to export weapons to places like Korea, Cuba, Angola, and parts of Central America like Nicaragua. It did build the 'Warsaw Pact' as an evidence of solidarity against NATO and it used this apparatus to assert its will in Eastern Europe to put down the Hungarian uprising in 1956, seen by the Soviets as a 'counter-revolution'. While they went through the motions of consulting with Polish and Yugoslavian party leaders before crushing the Hungarians, and even leaned heavily on the Chinese for advice, there is little doubt that the will of the Soviets was in control. The rest was 'window dressing'.

This leaves the future question open. Can communism perfect itself as an island of socialistic accomplishment? Can Cuba, for example, show the world that it is missing the chance to emulate the happy island's acceptance of what Fidel Castro has commanded them to love? Although much is said about the American embargo, it is a cosmetic effort of little consequence to the Cuban economy.

The perfection of the socialist ideal in Cuba should be as easier to accomplish than was the experiment in the Soviet Union for several reasons: First, unlike the Soviet Union with 27 different republics and countless languages and religions, Cuba is more homogeneous than England and only one language is spoken. Furthermore, Castro has an easy task in keeping his population alive. Freezing is not a risk, and food grows on trees so starvation is easy to avoid. As long as the people are content with a state managed system of education and health support provided by workers that are paid at whatever level the state decrees, there is little risk of life for those in the worker or peasant classes. The 'intelligencia' are paid a little more and can enjoy a few material perks, but no more freedom to think and invent or own property than any other group.

Secondly, the key problem for Cuba, Albania, or China for that matter is, can the economy be dynamically able to grow and compete in the world? The answer is no for several reasons. It is not possible for state bureaucrats to easily take risks to enter business that is not proven. Such capitalistic risk taking can't be done with the people's money; and then there is the problem of how to deal with a competitive world economy where buyers do not want to trade with those that can dictate prices in a predatory manner to secure a market monopoly and can do so because they control the cost of production by fiat.