Premature Anti-Communist

When socialism was still an untried dream nobody paid much attention to the motives which brought people to its ranks. Those who were interested in freedom thought they could get along with the people who had a yearning for tidiness, or “planning.” The natural-born anarchists thought they could manage the power hunters; the lovers of life feared nothing from those who were attracted to Marxism as a way of canalizing their pathological hatred of life.

The moment that socialism became a power system, however, it was written in the stars that the lovers of freedom, the natural anarchists and the yea-sayers, would suffer a vast disillusionment. If they had only come to their senses in a body, they might have gone on to form a new movement to provide themselves with a basis of mutual support. But those who came to socialism in search of freedom were impelled to quit one by one, in a ragged sequence which left each backtracking rebel feeling friendless and alone. The émigrés from the world of Communism have never had much power to help each other.

JC

About the Author

John Chamberlain

John Chamberlain (1903–1995) was an American writer.

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When socialism was still an untried dream nobody paid much attention to the motives which brought people to its ranks. Those who were interested in freedom thought they could get along with the people who had a yearning for tidiness, or “planning.” The natural-born anarchists thought they could manage the power hunters; the lovers of life feared nothing from those who were attracted to Marxism as a way of canalizing their pathological hatred of life.

The moment that socialism became a power system, however, it was written in the stars that the lovers of freedom, the natural anarchists and the yea-sayers, would suffer a vast disillusionment. If they had only come to their senses in a body, they might have gone on to form a new movement to provide themselves with a basis of mutual support. But those who came to socialism in search of freedom were impelled to quit one by one, in a ragged sequence which left each backtracking rebel feeling friendless and alone. The émigrés from the world of Communism have never had much power to help each other.