Section LXXX.. Socialism and Communism. (continued.)

Socialism And Communism. (Continued.)

We thus see, that the attempts made by socialism and communism are, by no means, phenomena unheard of in the past, and peculiar to modern times, as the blind adherents and opponents of them would have us believe. They are rather diseases of the body social, which have affected every highly civilized nation at certain periods of its existence. If the body be too weak to react healthily and curatively (§ 84), the evil is very apt to lead to the decline of all true freedom and order. The communist, viewing all other things, especially the organization of the state, only as instruments to supply his material and absolute wants, considers the liberal either as a fool who is ever pursuing the phantoms of the brain, or as a knave who covers his own selfishness under the mask of the public welfare.(480) Hence the adherents of communism are satisfied with any form of government which seems to offer them most, and this a ruthless despotism can do, at least, for the moment. And, although they are ever ready for any revolution in the form of government, and easily to be won over to it, they are most readily captivated by a despotic revolution. On the other hand, when communism seriously threatens all that constitutes the wealth of a people, the owners of that wealth are compelled to fly to any refuge which holds out the promise to protect them from it, although by seeking that same refuge they may destroy their own political freedom.(481) The Achean league, which under the leadership of Aratos, the “enemy of tyrants,” had come into existence, promising so much hope, beheld itself later, and mainly through fear of the contagious effects of Spartan socialism under Cleomenes, compelled to unite with the Macedonians, that is, to give themselves up entirely. (§ 204).