Terry Applegate | On March 2, 2020

The current crop of Democratic Presidential candidates still includes many self-proclaimed socialists. Listening to their harangues, my inner voice that is always talking to me is saying things like, “That is so unrealistic, there is no way that would work, how stupid!” or, some other nice un-offending politically correct pronouncement.

But the other day I boldly told the voice to hush for a minute – I wanted to hear what they had to say, their professed goals actually sounded pretty good!

For instance, they want everyone to have good health care. Well, I’m for that! They don’t want anyone to go hungry, check, I think that is a good thing.

Hmmm… the more they talked the more I was thinking that I am socialist! Could it be?

I think so. But, here is the rub. They want the state to engineer the means to their goals while I can’t countenance the idea.

So, while there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with most of the elucidated goals of socialism, there is something horribly amiss with their chosen vehicle to accomplish those goals.

Historically, it was the Church who envisioned and implemented the means to granting more wide-spread health care (inventing hospitals), who cared for the deserving poor, who established schools to educate, who created churches to serve men’s souls.

And, she elevated and lifted people up without having the power of the sword that the state wields.

State (coerced) socialism, nah; Church (voluntary) socialism, sure!

State socialism believes the more that the government controls the better. Its proponents seem to strategize a total control of the health care system, with a pivot to then control ever more aspects of our lives, food, housing, education, etc.

This seems to be the historic paradigm for socialists whenever and wherever they consolidate their power. The amazing thing now is that the pampered and uneducated younger generation, taught no history, fails to see that each and every time socialism has been tried, the result has been mass murder perpetuated by the state followed by an incredibly destructive failure and consequent collapse of the controlled economy.

But, why do some people prefer equality and security over freedom? Of course, you can’t have both at once for the only way to secure equality is to enslave those a little more equal than the others.

If freedom prevails, some will use it to create, to work hard and advance themselves and, their compatriots. Others, not managed as they would be in a socialized environment, take the opportunity to loaf and then cry the “wolf of inequality” as they see others achieving and prospering.

Yes, the socialists yammer for the perfect social environment, one without threats, everyone bathed in safety and security but, consequently, without the liberty to grow, to try, to fail, to succeed and find deserved prosperity.

They yearn for a perfect well-being in a static condition (numbness by my reckoning). This accounts for the climate hysteria – stop all man-made climate change now – as if the massive climate changes such as the ice ages, were man-made!

A people so coddled and soft so as to clamor for a safe utopia for all will, and deserves to, lose their precious and hard fought for freedoms.

In a pre-med course we were taught that an organism in a perfect environment was doomed to expire as it lost its ability to fight off the bad guys, who in the guise of a virus, a bacterium, etc., would eventually arrive. The idea is at the root of vaccinations and the practice of exposing children to non-lethal yet, anti-body producing levels of infection to promote future immunity.

Immune response atrophies in a threat-free milieu.

“Complete freedom from disease and from struggle is almost incompatible with the process of living,” according to Rene Dubos. “All the accomplishments of science and technology, he argued, will not bring the utopian dream of universal well-being, because they ignore the dynamic process of adaptation to a constantly changing environment that every living organism must face.”

In other words, the socialist’s efforts to create a utopia on earth isn’t even desirable in the end. We don’t want to eliminate all threats, all inconveniences, all nuisances even if it were possible – we would end up a milquetoast and doomed race.

While they think there must be a total leveling, we know that is unsustainable, yet we vigorously work to help our fellow man, as individuals, one-on-one and through non-state institutions, in a wider way.

The effeminate State Socialists need the government to tell them what to do. They insist on their own enslavement.

The virile Christian Socialist need their God-given liberty to find full expression for their talents in acts of value and virtue creation in the economic and charitable spaces that actually end up helping others.

So, when you hear the young bucks yammering for free education for all, free healthcare for all, etc., it is okay to sympathize, it is an admirable thought. Problem is, there is just no known virtuous way to accomplish these goals.

That is why they must end up using the energy of envy to compel social equality with its inevitable disastrous end-game.

Our quarrel with the socialists is that they want to use the police power of the government to compel people to their idea of utopia. We can sympathize with the idea of helping people achieve a little bit better life tomorrow than they had today. That is why we will fight them every step of the way to preserve our freedoms so that we can continue to have the means to truly benefit our fellow brothers and sisters.

Terry Applegate

Terry Applegate writes from Utah in the winter and Michigan in the summer. He is CEO of Applegate Insulation, serves on the board for Citizens for Traditional Values, Cellulose Insulation Manufacturers Association and the European Theological Seminary and is married to Val with three children and four grand-children.