[Reader-list] Why are the worst mass murderers from the left?

[Pawan Durani]

Source : http://eca.sh/JffE

Why are the worst mass murderers from the left?

The worst mass murderers from the twentieth century and possibly for
all time were Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Hitler - all left wing
dictators.

Did I say Hitler? I think that most people would not object to my
calling Mao, Stalin and Pol Pot left wing dictators. But Hitler? Many
people think of him as a right wing dictator but that is not correct.
Why is Hitler a creature of the left?

To begin with, the Nazi party stands for the German Workers' National
Socialist Party. Hitler claimed in a speech on May 1, 1927:



"We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic
system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair
salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to
wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we
are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions."

The Nazi Party campaigned on a recognisably leftist platform. Here is
an excerpt from the 1920 Nazi party manifesto:

"10. The first duty of every citizen must be to work mentally or
physically. The activities of the individual may not clash with the
interests of the whole, but must proceed within the frame of the
community and be for the general good.

Therefore we demand:

11. That all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from
work, be abolished.

12. Since every war imposes on the people fearful sacrifices in life
and property, all personal profit arising from the war must be
regarded as a crime against the people. We therefore demand the total
confiscation of all war profits whether in assets or material.

13. We demand the nationalization of businesses which have been
organized into cartels.

14. We demand that all the profits from wholesale trade shall be shared out.

15. We demand extensive development of provision for old age.

16. We demand the creation and maintenance of a healthy middle-class,
the immediate communalization of department stores which will be
rented cheaply to small businessmen, and that preference shall be
given to small businessmen for provision of supplies needed by the
State, the provinces and municipalities.

17. We demand a land reform in accordance with our national
requirements, and the enactment of a law to confiscate from the owners
without compensation any land needed for the common purpose. The
abolition of ground rents, and the prohibition of all speculation in
land."

The party manifesto does not call for free market capitalism. Calling
for nationalization, confiscation of land are things that Socialists
or Communists call for. Of course, you can say that Hitler or any
votrepreneur (politician) will say anything to gain power. His
rhetoric gained him the support of mostly lower income and middle
income Germans. Ultimately, its what he did that counts. Action speaks
louder than words. So what did Hitler do when he came to power?

Hitler took over control of nearly all means of production like a good
Socialist or Communist would. He did not nationalize all assets of
production like what Lenin or Mao did. The nominal ownership was left
in private hands. But the substance of ownership passed to the state.

This is explained in an article by George Reisman writing for the
Ludwig von Mises Institute. Drawing on the writings of the great
economist, Ludwig Von Mises, Reisman explained why Nazism is Socialism
and why Socialism leads to totalitarianism.

When Hitler took power in Germany, the "owners" of assets of
production (eg factories, farms etc) had every major economic decision
decided for him by the state. The state (or some central planning
bureaucrat) told you how many workers you must employ, how much to pay
them, how much to charge for your products and services and how much
dividends the owners get. The government also practiced wage and price
controls in 1936.

(The government had to impose wage and price controls because of the
runaway inflation as a result of increasing of its money supply to
fund its huge programs of public works, subsidies and rearmament. To
keep the people happy, he gave them cheap subsidised holidays to the
Alps and the Canary Islands. )

When your rights to your "property" such as a factory or farm or
rental apartments etc are so eroded, the state effectively owns them.
You are "owner" in name only. Thus I would put the Nazi party left of
say the British Labor Party but right of the Communist Party of Soviet
Union.

Since Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot and Stalin were people who claim to be
Socialist or Communist, is there something in Socialism that leads to
totalitarian government?

The answer is a yes.

I will sum up the arguments. Firstly, Socialism calls for state
control of all means of production. This means that all workshops,
farms, factories etc are to be controlled by the state. What to
produce and how much will be centrally planned.

The state will decide what to produce, how much to produce and sell at
what price. It has no way of telling what consumers want. In a
capitalist economy, all these questions will be settled by the market
as each individual pursues his own self interest. If a product is in
demand, then its price will go up.

Other independent producers will see a profit opportunity and increase
production for the product. As production increases, the price will
drop. In a command economy the bureaucrat decides all this.

Since prices are controlled, shortages or gluts will be the result
since it is hard for the bureaucrat to get it exactly right. That is
why in the former Soviet Union, you end up with long queues - which is
an unproductive way of spending your day. The Soviets also sold
staples like bread very cheaply. The result was wastage as people fed
the bread to their pigs.

Of course, there will be people who want to sell at a higher price
than the officially sanctioned prices so as to gain a larger profit.
So to enforce the system, the state will have to make it a crime. This
means that they will employ an army of spies to detect black market
activities. People will fear one another for anybody could be a spy.
Even your girl-friend might be a spy.

Punishment for profiteering is severe since a fine would merely be
regarded as a business expense. Since a jury is unlikely to send a man
to the firing squad for selling a bar of soap at a higher price, you
need state appointed judges to do the dirty work.

The result is a complete loss of freedom. To enforce Socialism then
you need a totalitarian system where everybody is suspicious of
everybody else and power is concentrated at the top. This was what
happened in Nazi Germany and the United Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR).

Once the state has so much control over the lives of its people, all
sorts of nasty things can happen - including mass murder. That is why
the worst mass murderers of the 20th century were all creatures of the
left. The more concentrated the power, the more abuses are likely and
Socialism has a tendency to concentrate power.

This has not fortunately not happened in any western democracy even
those which are run by parties that call themselves Socialists. But
the tendency for greater state control over your lives are always
there. Its just embedded in Socialism.

For example, in the year 2000, France's leftist government of Lionel
Jospin created the Department of Work Police. The Work Police will
catch people who work too hard! (2)

At a time when countries try to compete to by working harder, the
French Socialists wanted to do the opposite!