“It’s only after you study history that you find out just how bad, how horribly [Marxism] actually turned out.” Conservative thinker Thomas Sowell went on Mark Levin’s new bi-weekly “Life, Liberty & Levin” show, where he discussed the dangers of Marxism and censorship.
Last week, Levin explained how Marxism gained power in America, particularly through colleges. Levin also asked Sowell about how he had come to understand the truth about Marxism as a young man. “I think there’s a very simple explanation that, as of the time I became a Marxist, I didn’t know as much as I knew,” Sowell confessed.
Studying history changed that. “After several years of study and observing things going on and facts carried a lot of weight with me, and when the facts kept going in the wrong way, I realized that this [Marxism] was not going to do what it claimed it was going to do,” Sowell said.
Of course, Marxism and social justice sound great in theory (though “nebulous,” as Levin put it). That’s why studying history is so important. As Sowell put it, “It’s only after you study history that you find out just how bad, how horribly it actually turned out.” He and Levin agreed that the Marxist “nomenclature” of social justice ultimately aims at undermining “representative government” and centralizing government power. Sowell particularly called out intellectual elitists who think they should make other people’s decisions for them.
Sowell also noted the flawed premise of Marxists and modern leftists, that two people reaching two different economic points automatically implies some sort of wrong or injustice. “And that’s an incredible assumption — that human beings have such enormous control over all of their own fates, individually or collectively.”
Sowell added, “There’s nobody out there who has all the incredible amount of knowledge required to take over making other people’s decisions for them.” That’s part of the inherent falsity of Marxism.
The conservative writer went on to the topic of graphic sex education in schools and how authorities are trying to take over parents’ roles, even gender “transitioning” kids without informing parents. Sowell also noted the danger of government institutions such as the Federal Reserve that have grown to enforce compliance on Americans. “Once they have that power, they can use it for whatever they want,” Sowell cautioned. He had a warning about censorship and propaganda, too.
Violence is too often the response to free speech. “Ignorance silencing knowledge,” Sowell said. Media and academia focus on ideology over knowledge, and censorship has only increased. ”The real danger is not in the silly ideas that are being promoted,” Sowell explained. “It’s in the fact that nobody else is allowed to reply to them without some danger to themselves.”
Censorship of free speech, of course, has always been a tool of Marxist authorities. Unfortunately, it is increasingly entrenched in America. In fact, as Levin and Sowell soberly observed, Marxism has so permeated Americans’ thoughts that we are in danger of losing our liberty altogether.
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