It is that time of the year again!

It is the time of the year to mock Socialism again.  Not the socialists, many of them are good people at heart.  They are just misled by a false belief. Of course, you may say that so am I.  The proof of the pudding, however, is in the eating.

As I have said before, there are two gospels in the modern world. The gospel of Jesus Christ is “IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE”.  The gospel of Satan is “YOU DESERVE BETTER”.  I think it is pretty obvious what side socialism is on.

The New Testament says: If anyone has two shirts, he should share with him who has none.  Socialism says: If anyone has no shirt, he should take one from him who has two.  To the casual observer, this looks much the same:  They still end up with one shirt each.  But in one case they also end up as friends, in the other case as enemies.  When they die, the shirt remains on earth but their friendship or enmity follows them to the next world. Therefore, socialism only makes sense if you are also a materialist and an atheist in the strictest sense, who has no belief in anything higher than the world of animals.

Now, without Christianity – or something very similar – socialism could not have arisen in the first place. The shirtless would simply not have had the hope of getting that shirt, much less the conviction that they deserved it. Only if the practice of sharing shirts were common enough that people started to expect it, but not common enough that everyone actually got one, would there be room for the rise of a reverse Christianity based on forced charity.

We Christians can blame ourselves – collectively, I mean, it may not apply to you personally – for not having shared voluntarily.  If we did, back when most of the nation consisted of Christians, there would have been no room for socialism, since we would already have a more egalitarian society without the bureaucracy and bitterness that follows with an intrusive state taking on the role of God.

Even now that we are living in a partially socialist state (and I don’t think there is any nation in the world that does not fit that description anymore), we should not give in to bitterness. Otherwise we will become like those who strayed before us.  It may be that we could have used our money more wisely than bureaucrats – how much does that take, really? – but most of it is still used for reasonably harmless purposes, some even outright good and useful. The nation may have gone astray – and I would claim that it did so before it turned to the Left as it did – but we still need not have the spirit of envy in our heart.

It may not be obvious, but the “capitalist” consumer society is actually powering the Left. Day after day people’s minds and souls are filled with needless desires from the relentless onslaught of advertising.  Using every trick in the book, experts in psychology are making you feel that you need and deserve something you don’t have.  As long as there are rich people, this desire will make you envy them and wish to take what is theirs, unless you consciously choose to immerse yourself in love that gives and fasten your eyes on that which lasts beyond this lifetime.

Of course, we could just “eat the rich”, but history shows that this is not a good way for a nation to feed its populace.  When socialism is taken to the extreme, poverty ensues for the whole people. This should come as no surprise. Socialism is based on blaming the successful for your failures. When the successful are removed and only the failures remain, things are going downhill fast.

Conversely, if everyone was looking to make others happy already in this life, then the whole nation would rapidly become prosperous. Why is that? Because we would be looking out for what other people needed, and fulfilling needs is what creates prosperity. To use a worn old metaphor, baking the cake rather than dividing it.  We can neither be happy nor prosperous by everyone taking from each other, this is obvious.  But when people compete in giving the best service and the highest quality, the wealth of a nation rises rapidly.

Sure, we can compete based on greed, as long as we get to keep enough of the reward (as opposed to have to share it equally with others). But competing to do good from a loving heart makes you happier.  Try it and see for yourself. It actually is pretty blessed to give, especially when you can do it voluntarily.