The History of Socialism might not parallel most beliefs, and could provide answers to the Truth of it’s tentacles, and why…
It began in the late 1700’s in France a century before Marx wrote his Manifesto. It was the rise of the ‘peasants against the monarchy. They wanted ‘rights and privileges’, and freedom from the suppression that a tyrannical monarchy levied.
Napoleon ushered in a series of Revolutions, conquering Belgium, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Italy, with ambitions for world dominance. He was a Socialist. He was also a Dictator. But the people saw him as their answer.
As his lust for power escalated, a coalition of forces to fight against his dictatorship was created that included; Britain, Russia, Austria and The Ottoman Empire.
The Revolution proved to have some significant social improvements, but costs were also sustained. Nationalism was forefront to Napoleon. In addition, the Catholic Church collapsed and all land, power and wealth was transferred to the government. It has been declared Napoleon’s rise gave birth to the Socialiist movement that began to engulf all of Europe.
A century later, the Russian Revolution adopted this same strategy within the Bolsheviks rising up against the monarchy and ushering in communist/socialist rule under Lenin.
With China under communism, the US was the laggard.
While many propenents of Socialism defend that it is not at all like communism, a simple definition would seem to squelch that view:
Socialism; “Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.”
Communism; “A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people.”
The only difference between the two is that under Socialism, the government may determine what is a fair share for the people, and purportedly under Communism, shares are equally distributed. Within that context, a Socialist government may feel Hillary’s fair share was $10 billion, and yours and mine was $10.
Interestingly, Socialism would seem most closely aligned with a Monarchial government than any other system. So actually, ushering in Napoleonic thought replaced the Monarchy with a centralized government that ruled as a Dictatorship. While the peasants did gain rights, they simply transferred power from one King to another, albeit calling the other; President, Prime Minister, or Directorate.
Given the over-reaching powers extended by the government under Obama and perhaps for the last century, the revolution that we are experiencing is really against the stealth of the suffocating rise of Socialism to the point where it has effectively choked every aspect of our society. It created the massive inequality of wealth that gave Government employees and Congress wrenching amounts of money gained while in political office.
In essence, Congress decided they should be the benefactor of the wealth that the Socialist economy reaped on their behalf.
Their current reaction to Trump and his declaration that he will ultimately return our country to a pure Capitalist society targets Congressional wealth and entitlements like never before. And they are running a bit scared. All their carefully conceived plans and games, and boy clubs are being targeted and torn apart.
In response, the heightened animosity is rooted in paid protests, fake news, and false accusations so as to invoke a chaos and attribute it to Trump when in fact it is the witches brew unleashed.