Keeping on point, while it is certainly true that Marxism as such was a product of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the fundamental premise underlying Marxism – the altruist/collectivist ideal – has been the dominant notion of nearly every civil authority throughout history. In essence, Marxism amounts to is a prescription for sacrifice. In the case of Marx, the beneficiary of sacrifice was the state, otherwise termed “the people.” But for millennia before him, in virtually every nation and tribe, the same essential prescription was given. Sacrifice for the people. Sacrifice to the gods. Sacrifice to make the crops grow, to bring the rain, to ensure fertility. The arguments have become more sophisticated. But their root notion remains the same. In this way, “revert” is the proper verb.
In short, the answer to why we have reverted is because we have not shed that primitive proto-Marxist notion. We still think sacrifice is a good thing. We still accept the fundamental notion that our life belongs to someone or something else. This is why conservatives perpetually fail at affecting public policy consistent with their values, because deep down inside we don’t really believe that we are free. We buy into the idea that we owe someone else, that we are duty-bound to the have-nots, that selfishness is a vice. Worse, we attribute these notions to God, who never conveyed them. In context, the biblical narrative is a prescription for obtaining our own individual eternal life, an essentially Randian ideal if she had been willing and able to see it.
