There are plenty of people that want change, but some of us aren't sure how to implement it. Some of us are contemplating, dumbfounded by the priorities of humanity and his precious ranking and filing of granfalloons like "liberal" or "black" or "pro-life" or "Californian" or "ivy league". We don't get these things. We don't understand people who see another person as the arbitrary groups to which they belong instead of another person. We don't understand your gods or your revenge. We don't understand these wars, and we'd really like to step in and help.
We want nothing more than to help. We don't like seeing people on the street. We don't like seeing people bought and sold. We don't like starvation or poverty. We don't like watching children clutching Kalashnikov rifles like we clutched baseball bats.
But until the number of people that want real change exceed the number of people that are destroying themselves over matters of nation, ethnicity, and holy book, we can only be brought down with them.
Until their moment of realization, our attempted rescue would be a heroic and noble effort; it would be the definition of sacrifice--but today our forces would be overwhelmed with divisiveness; today our forces, though aiming for the same justice, would disagree on every means of attaining it.
When we create a means of distributing wealth over a nation of 300 million people, who benefits the most? Historically, the ones who live best are the ones forcing this grand redistribution and keeping its bank books. If the people themselves are not the purveyors of this action, they will be trampled by their former liberators who now hold the sword and purse. Even if the liberator is equal to the best caliber of human being that recorded history can tell, who holds the guarantee that the successor of this hero will not be a tyrant? Moreover, if the people are led into this utopia without themselves being awake, isn't it more likely that they mistakenly hand the scepter to an unscrupulous charlatan?
If I tried to fight for communism, I would be no different than Lenin, seizing the reins of power for noble reasons, no doubt, but all the while inadvertently preparing those same reigns for the self-serving tyrant that succeeded him.
What I mean to say is--in order to implement communism, in order to truly achieve it, you must have the body of the people behind you--the true and real body of people--the farmers and the machinists, white and blue collars. Communism will arise from the genesis of a new enlightenment, just as capitalism did.
Even capitalism created possibility--the ability, regardless of birthright, to make a gain in wealth. It allowed Carnegie (in the 19th century) and Onassis (in the 20th), who in youth were commoners in their home countries, to come to America and amass the wealth of Kings. It allowed unprecedented social mobility and technological expansion.
However, it also signaled the end of royalty-by-blood and the start of royalty-by-greed.
Where once it was necessary to be born correctly in order to exploit others, now one needs only cunning, greed, and the scent of a fool with money.
Communism is incorrectly implemented until the capitalists have had their turn at exploitation so heinous that all the world cries for a change. They must take more from us. They must take so much more that what little comforts we had left would be worth no more than sacrificing our own lives in the name of change. This greed must surge through every city, and the sting of poverty--not this plaintive poverty that we "working-class" Americans perceive ourselves to be in, but the kind of poverty that forces a man to break the law to keep himself alive--must be felt like an earthquake trembles the earth.
If enough of us are spared this feeling, too many of us will still hold faith in Adam Smith. If enough of us live our days without the consequences of greed, too many of us will still believe that mine is more important than yours, that our true goal is just one more acre, one more bedroom, one more vehicle, one more television, one more dollar per hour.
Until that day, we're only ideologues. Until that day, I can only hope that writing this will rouse one more person from their deceptively comfortable sleep.
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