Reading the Communist Manifesto

Written by Frank Li

Hello from China, again!

In my book (“Saving America, Chinese Style”), I identified six similarities between communism and democracy as follows:

1. Destruction of capitalism
2. Brainwashing
3. Ideology
4. Kleptocracy
5. ‘You didn’t build that’
6. Stupidity

In order to best appreciate these similarities, I urge you to scan through The Communist Manifesto. It has only 32 pages and its Kindle edition is free at Amazon.com!

1. My encounters with the Manifesto

I have read the Communist Manifesto four times, at least, so far:

1. In 1969: I was only 10 and it was during the Cultural Revolution! In our little study group, aside from reading Mao’s red book, we found a copy of the Manifesto (in Chinese) and read it. We did “read” it through – We took turns reading it out loudly to the entire group, without actually understanding at all!

2. In 1976: I graduated from high school, with nothing to do – no jobs and no college. I came across a copy of the Manifesto and read it, half way through this time, without understanding it, either.

3. In 2009: I read it before I wrote the first version of the 10-Point Democracy Manifesto. This time, I understood it well.

4. In 2013: I read it for the purpose of writing my book “The GOP Bible for 2016”, and I understood it very well.

2. Excerpts from the Manifesto and my interpretations

The followings are some excerpts from The Communist Manifesto, with my own interpretations.

“The discovery of America, the rounding of the Cape, opened up fresh ground for the rising bourgeoisie.”

My interpretation: America: A Nation of Self-Made Men (and Women)!

“The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property!”

My interpretation: No private property, no prosperity – Been there, done that!

“We Communists have been reproached with the desire of abolishing the right of personally acquired property as the fruit of a man’s own labor, which property is alleged to be the groundwork of all personal freedom, activity and independence.”

My interpretation: No personal property, no freedom!

“You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society, private property is already done with for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths. You reproach us, therefore, with intending to do away with a form of property, the necessary condition for whose existence is the non-existence of any property for the immense majority of society.”

My interpretation: 10% vs. 90% or 1% vs. 99%? They both are the same! It’s called “class struggle” in communist terms, or “class warfare” in the West! For more, read: Top 10 American Misconceptions about Capitalism.

“We have seen above, that the first step in the revolution by the working class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling as to win the battle of democracy.”

My interpretation: Democracy leads to socialism, which leads to communism! Who said that? Karl Marx!

“The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e. of the proletariat organized as the ruling class; and to increase the total of production forces as rapidly as possible.”

My interpretation: Rob the rich! If you can’t do it by yourself, leverage your government to do it for you! For more, read: Democratic Socialism.

“The communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things.”

My interpretation: Since the Cold War ended in 1991, America has been supporting every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things around the world, with confusing standings on democracy! Three examples:

In Egypt, America was initially for democracy (to oust President Mubarak) and then became anti-democracy (to oust a democratically elected President named Mohamed Morsi).

In Libya and Syria, America claims to support the riots in the name of democracy.

In Ukraine, America was clearly anti-democracy, from the ouster of President Victor Yanukovych to the referendum in Crimea. For more, read: Crimea, Ukraine, Russia, and the U.S.

America, on democracy, what do you really stand for? Are you for it or against it?

3. Closing

I have said, repeatedly, that democracy looks more and more like communism. Do you agree, now?