Trivialised Ideology
Few things irritate me as much as the unqualified trivialisation of communism. A Che Guevara T-shirt makes my stomach turn, as I see no reason to glorify a murderous communist gynaecologist. A commentary by Karl von Habsburg.
The assertion that Marx and Engels were well-meaning philosophers, later misused by their epigones and evil politicians, drives me to aggression. This is nothing short of a mockery of the many millions of victims of this inhumane ideology.
In their observations, Marx and Engels repeatedly referred to the French Revolution. Through it, the murderous Jacobin terror is presented as ‘exemplary’. After the inevitable victory in the class struggle, the proletariat must secure it forever with violent and unconditional suppression of class enemies. There is no flattering diction here; violence is called for, and the dictatorship of an ideology is demanded. Marx and Engels clearly share responsibility for the atrocities their epigones carried out and continue to carry out. The number of victims of Marxist-influenced communism can only be estimated. In any case, it is many times greater than that of other, equally abhorrent, totalitarian ideologies. However, one can assume a magnitude of over 100 million: 20 million in the Soviet Union, 70 million in China, 2 million in North Korea, 2 million in Cambodia, as well as several million in Eastern Europe and Africa. Communism is thus the most destructive ideology the world has ever seen.
Furthermore, Marxism is an insult to the intellect of thinking people. To present history as a linear development that allows for corresponding predictions for the future is not ‘objective knowledge’ (Marx), but objective nonsense. Sir Karl Popper described ‘scientific socialism’ as pseudoscience, as this theory is unfalsifiable due to its lack of applicability.
Among the many qualified critics of communism are, on the one hand, representatives of the Austrian School of Economics, such as Friedrich August von Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, who contrast the proven concept of the free market economy with communism’s economic vision reduced to the lowest common denominator. But this also includes anarchists like Bakunin or, in our time, Noam Chomsky, who is repeatedly and falsely referred to as a ‘neo-communist’ but sees himself as a representative of ‘anarcho-syndicalism’.
Until now, for reasons of ‘political correctness’, it has been almost impossible to draw a comparison between communism and National Socialism. I do not wish to do so either, as it would almost trivialise the countless millions of victims of both totalitarian systems. However, the contempt for humanity is certainly the same in both; here, national and international socialists, as is often the case, join hands.
The article also appeared on Karl von Habsburg‘s website.
