Today in History: In Jonestown, Guyana, the Reverend Jim Jones led his Peoples Temple to a mass murder–suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, including over 270 children. Congressman Leo Ryan was murdered by members of the Peoples Temple hours earlier.
This made me wonder what kind of "Reverend" Jim Jones was. In a 1976 phone conversation with John Maher, Jones alternately said he was an agnostic and an atheist. Marceline Jones admitted in a 1977 New York Times interview that Jones was trying to promote Marxism in the U.S. by mobilizing people through religion, citing Mao as his inspiration: "Jim used religion to try to get some people out of the opiate of religion." He had slammed the Bible on the table yelling "I've got to destroy this paper idol!" In one sermon, Jones said:
"You're gonna help yourself, or you'll get no help! There's only one hope of glory; that's within you! Nobody's gonna come out of the sky! There's no heaven up there! We'll have to make heaven down here!"*
A Former Temple member quoted him as saying:
"What you need to believe in is what you can see.… If you see me as your friend, I'll be your friend. As you see me as your father, I'll be your father, for those of you that don't have a father.… If you see me as your savior, I'll be your savior. If you see me as your God, I'll be your God."
One woman exclaimed, “It’s been a pleasure walking with all of you in this revolutionary struggle. No other way I would rather go than to give my life for Socialism, Communism, and I thank Dad very, very much.”
Jones also began preached that he was the reincarnation of Gandhi, Father Divine, Jesus, Gautama Buddha, and Vladimir Lenin, and stated, "If you're born in capitalist America, racist America, fascist America, then you're born in sin. But if you're born in socialism, you're not born in sin."
Over 40 years ago this could be dismissed as the ravings of a lunatic. I can actually see many repeat that last statement today and fervently believe it.
Jonestown is another example of the myriads of failed Socialist experiments over the centuries. Socialism, whatever form it has taken, has never worked.
*[The Serpent in the Garden of Eden said, in effect, "You don’t have to wait; you can have it now! Be your own god, and write your own rules."]
Quotes on Socialism:
"Socialism not only fails to work in reality, it is also malicious in its ethics and morality—even if most of its current adherents believe themselves humane and well-intentioned. At its core, socialism is a difficult and costly system of political economy that the specific conceptions of its moral values do not justify.” - James Otterson in "How Socialism Fails", University Press
“The problem with capitalism is capitalists.
The problem with socialism is socialism.”—Willi Schlamm, Austrian ex-socialist
“A government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And [America’s Founding Fathers] knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose.” -Ronald Reagan
"Someone once said that if an acquaintance says they believe in Astrology that their respect of that person is severely reduced. I feel the same way of someone who says they believe in Socialism." Heinz Schmitz
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." -Winston Churchill
"Socialism states that you owe me something simply because I exist. Capitalism, by contrast, results in a sort of reality-forced altruism: I may not want to help you, I may dislike you, but if I don't give you a product or service you want, I will starve. Voluntary exchange is more moral than forced redistribution." -Ben Shapiro
"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it." -Thomas Sowell
"As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents." George Orwell
"I was guilty of judging capitalism by its operations and socialism by its hopes and aspirations; capitalism by its works and socialism by its literature." – Sidney Hook
"The difference between libertarianism and socialism is that libertarians will tolerate the existence of a socialist community, but socialists can’t tolerate a libertarian community." – David D. Boaz
"War has all the characteristics of socialism most conservatives hate: Centralized power, state planning, false rationalism, restricted liberties, foolish optimism about intended results, and blindness to unintended secondary results." – Joseph Sobran
"Socialists make the mistake of confusing individual worth with success. They believe you cannot allow people to succeed in case those who fail feel worthless." – Kenneth Baker
"It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider the real vice is making losses." – Winston Churchill
"All socialism involves slavery." – Herbert Spencer
"Political leaders in capitalist countries who cheer the collapse of socialism in other countries continue to favor socialist solutions in their own. They know the words, but they have not learned the tune." – Milton Friedman
"There seems to be an attitude that government ownership of land is good as long as you call it 'open space'" … All it is is socialism. – Douglas Bruce
"Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by production." – Ayn Rand
"The essential notion of a capitalist society … is voluntary cooperation, voluntary exchange. The essential notion of a socialist society is force." – Milton Friedman
“The problem with capitalism is capitalists.
The problem with socialism is socialism.”—Willi Schlamm, Austrian ex-socialist
“A government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And [America’s Founding Fathers] knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose.” -Ronald Reagan
"Someone once said that if an acquaintance says they believe in Astrology that their respect of that person is severely reduced. I feel the same way of someone who says they believe in Socialism." Heinz Schmitz
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." -Winston Churchill
"Socialism states that you owe me something simply because I exist. Capitalism, by contrast, results in a sort of reality-forced altruism: I may not want to help you, I may dislike you, but if I don't give you a product or service you want, I will starve. Voluntary exchange is more moral than forced redistribution." -Ben Shapiro
"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it." -Thomas Sowell
"As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents." George Orwell
"I was guilty of judging capitalism by its operations and socialism by its hopes and aspirations; capitalism by its works and socialism by its literature." – Sidney Hook
"The difference between libertarianism and socialism is that libertarians will tolerate the existence of a socialist community, but socialists can’t tolerate a libertarian community." – David D. Boaz
"War has all the characteristics of socialism most conservatives hate: Centralized power, state planning, false rationalism, restricted liberties, foolish optimism about intended results, and blindness to unintended secondary results." – Joseph Sobran
"Socialists make the mistake of confusing individual worth with success. They believe you cannot allow people to succeed in case those who fail feel worthless." – Kenneth Baker
"It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider the real vice is making losses." – Winston Churchill
"All socialism involves slavery." – Herbert Spencer
"Political leaders in capitalist countries who cheer the collapse of socialism in other countries continue to favor socialist solutions in their own. They know the words, but they have not learned the tune." – Milton Friedman
"There seems to be an attitude that government ownership of land is good as long as you call it 'open space'" … All it is is socialism. – Douglas Bruce
"Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by production." – Ayn Rand
"The essential notion of a capitalist society … is voluntary cooperation, voluntary exchange. The essential notion of a socialist society is force." – Milton Friedman
"Government-to-government foreign aid promotes statism, centralized planning, socialism, dependence, pauperization, inefficiency, and waste. It prolongs the poverty it is designed to cure. Voluntary private investment in private enterprise, on the other hand, promotes capitalism, production, independence, and self-reliance." – Henry Hazlit
"A traffic jam is a collision between free enterprise and socialism. Free enterprise produces automobiles faster than socialism can build roads and road capacity." – Andrew Galambos
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened." – Norman Thomas
"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all." – Frederic Bastiat
"There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism — by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide." – Ayn Rand
"Democracy is indispensable to Socialism." – V.I. Lenin
"Since we are socialists, we must necessarily also be antisemites because we want to fight against the very opposite: materialism and mammonism… How can you not be an antisemite, being a socialist!". Hitler
"The Nazis, who touted their socialism proudly and implemented socialist policies with great consistency, were now being referred to as capitalists for no reason other than they did not fit cleanly into the Soviet-Marxist worldview, and this false narrative survives today." -Chris Calton
"The line between fascism and Fabian socialism is very thin. Fabian socialism is the dream. Fascism is Fabian socialism plus the inevitable dictator." -John T. Flynn
"Democracy is the road to Socialism." – Karl Marx
“Socialism is workable only in heaven where it isn't needed, and in hell where they've got it” -Cecil Palmer quotes
"An inevitable consequence of socialism is the division of society into two groups: those who are consuming government “services” and those who are paying for them." – Lee Robinson
"Socialists like to tout their confiscation and redistribution schemes as noble and caring, but we should ask if theft is ever noble or caring." – Robert Hawes
"Under capitalism man exploits man; under socialism the reverse is true." – Anonymous
"The fatal flaw in socialism is twofold: first, the conceit inherent in the desire to plan the lives of others; second, the force necessary to impose that plan on unwilling subjects. This is not a formula for freedom but for tyranny." – Jim Peron
"We cannot restore traditional American freedom unless we limit the government’s power to tax. No tinkering with this, that, or the other law will stop the trend toward socialism. We must repeal the Sixteenth Amendment." – Frank Chodorov
"Public schools are government-established, politician- and bureaucrat-controlled, fully politicized, taxpayer-supported, authoritarian socialist institutions. In fact, the public-school system is one of the purest examples of socialism existing in America." – Thomas L. Johnson
“Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion” -Richard John Neuhaus
"Socialism itself can hope to exist only for brief periods here and there, and then only through the exercise of the extremest terrorism. For this reason it is secretly preparing itself for rule through fear and is driving the word “justice” into the heads of the half-educated masses like a nail so as to rob them of their reason… and to create in them a good conscience for the evil game they are to play." -Nietzsche
"But, as an universal condition of Society, as a panacea for present evils, as the hope of the proletariat, Socialism, in its complete conception, is an absolute and a hideous impossibility."
http://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2018/05/socialism-absolute-and-hideous.html
“Socialism is simply Communism for people without the testosterone to man the barricades” -Gary North
“Socialism is the same as Communism, only better English” -George Bernard Shaw
“For socialists, not just the wealth, but the guilt, must be redistributed” -Andrew Sandlin
“A young man who isn't a socialist hasn't got a heart; an old man who is a socialist hasn't got a head.” -David Lloyd George
“There can be no socialism without a state, and as long as there is a state there is socialism. The state, then, is the very institution that puts socialism into action; and as socialism rests on aggressive violence directed against innocent victims, aggressive violence is the nature of any state.” -Hans-Hermann Hoppe
"We are Socialists, enemies, mortal enemies of the present capitalist economic system with its exploitation of the economically weak, with its injustice in wages, with its immoral evaluation of individuals according to wealth and money instead of responsibility and achievement, and we are determined under all circumstances to abolish this system! And with my inclination to practical action it seems obvious to me that we have to put a better, more just, more moral system in its place, one which, as it were, has arms and legs and better arms and legs than the present one!" by Nazi Gregor Strasser
Six Miracles of Socialism:
There is no unemployment, but no one works.
No one works, but everyone gets paid.
Everyone gets paid, but there is nothing to buy with the money.
No one can buy anything, but everyone owns everything.
Everyone owns everything, but no one is satisfied.
No one is satisfied, but 99 percent of the people vote for the system. – Anonymous
"A traffic jam is a collision between free enterprise and socialism. Free enterprise produces automobiles faster than socialism can build roads and road capacity." – Andrew Galambos
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened." – Norman Thomas
"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all." – Frederic Bastiat
"There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism — by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide." – Ayn Rand
"Democracy is indispensable to Socialism." – V.I. Lenin
"Since we are socialists, we must necessarily also be antisemites because we want to fight against the very opposite: materialism and mammonism… How can you not be an antisemite, being a socialist!". Hitler
"The Nazis, who touted their socialism proudly and implemented socialist policies with great consistency, were now being referred to as capitalists for no reason other than they did not fit cleanly into the Soviet-Marxist worldview, and this false narrative survives today." -Chris Calton
"The line between fascism and Fabian socialism is very thin. Fabian socialism is the dream. Fascism is Fabian socialism plus the inevitable dictator." -John T. Flynn
"Democracy is the road to Socialism." – Karl Marx
“Socialism is workable only in heaven where it isn't needed, and in hell where they've got it” -Cecil Palmer quotes
"An inevitable consequence of socialism is the division of society into two groups: those who are consuming government “services” and those who are paying for them." – Lee Robinson
"Socialists like to tout their confiscation and redistribution schemes as noble and caring, but we should ask if theft is ever noble or caring." – Robert Hawes
"Under capitalism man exploits man; under socialism the reverse is true." – Anonymous
"The fatal flaw in socialism is twofold: first, the conceit inherent in the desire to plan the lives of others; second, the force necessary to impose that plan on unwilling subjects. This is not a formula for freedom but for tyranny." – Jim Peron
"We cannot restore traditional American freedom unless we limit the government’s power to tax. No tinkering with this, that, or the other law will stop the trend toward socialism. We must repeal the Sixteenth Amendment." – Frank Chodorov
"Public schools are government-established, politician- and bureaucrat-controlled, fully politicized, taxpayer-supported, authoritarian socialist institutions. In fact, the public-school system is one of the purest examples of socialism existing in America." – Thomas L. Johnson
“Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion” -Richard John Neuhaus
"Socialism itself can hope to exist only for brief periods here and there, and then only through the exercise of the extremest terrorism. For this reason it is secretly preparing itself for rule through fear and is driving the word “justice” into the heads of the half-educated masses like a nail so as to rob them of their reason… and to create in them a good conscience for the evil game they are to play." -Nietzsche
"But, as an universal condition of Society, as a panacea for present evils, as the hope of the proletariat, Socialism, in its complete conception, is an absolute and a hideous impossibility."
http://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2018/05/socialism-absolute-and-hideous.html
“Socialism is simply Communism for people without the testosterone to man the barricades” -Gary North
“Socialism is the same as Communism, only better English” -George Bernard Shaw
“For socialists, not just the wealth, but the guilt, must be redistributed” -Andrew Sandlin
“A young man who isn't a socialist hasn't got a heart; an old man who is a socialist hasn't got a head.” -David Lloyd George
“There can be no socialism without a state, and as long as there is a state there is socialism. The state, then, is the very institution that puts socialism into action; and as socialism rests on aggressive violence directed against innocent victims, aggressive violence is the nature of any state.” -Hans-Hermann Hoppe
"We are Socialists, enemies, mortal enemies of the present capitalist economic system with its exploitation of the economically weak, with its injustice in wages, with its immoral evaluation of individuals according to wealth and money instead of responsibility and achievement, and we are determined under all circumstances to abolish this system! And with my inclination to practical action it seems obvious to me that we have to put a better, more just, more moral system in its place, one which, as it were, has arms and legs and better arms and legs than the present one!" by Nazi Gregor Strasser
Six Miracles of Socialism:
There is no unemployment, but no one works.
No one works, but everyone gets paid.
Everyone gets paid, but there is nothing to buy with the money.
No one can buy anything, but everyone owns everything.
Everyone owns everything, but no one is satisfied.
No one is satisfied, but 99 percent of the people vote for the system. – Anonymous
See also Over 300 PDF/Acrobat Books on
Historic Failures of Applied Socialism in Ohio by Daniel J Ryan 1920
Early American Communism, 1910 Article
The Early Failures of Socialism
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