How does Socialism lead to Totalitarianism?
Socialism is widely viewed as a “dirty word” in the United States today, but people aren’t opposed to the increasing socialist policies in the works all around us. Why is this? Friedrich Hayek suggests that this is because socialism is slow and sneaky. Many people do not recognize it at first. He uses Germany as an example: “The supreme tragedy is still not seen that in Germany it was largely people of good will who, by their socialist policies, prepared the way for the forces which stand for everything they detest” (Hayek, pg.39). Not all sociologist policies are inherently bad. In fact, many of them stand for things that ordinary, good people would agree with. The problem is that socialism inevitably leads to totalitarianism. The more people try to direct the economy (whether in a positive or negative direction), the quicker our government will have full control. One misconception of socialism that Hayek points out is that “many socialists have the tragic illusion that by depriving private individuals of the power they possess in an individualistic system, and transferring this power to society, they thereby extinguish power” (pg.40). He goes on to explain that the exact opposite happens. When the government assumes all of our individual power, that power is magnified.
How does this relate to the United States?
Though I hate to dwell on it, a great example of this would be Covid-19 vaccine mandates. Society is told that mandating this vaccine would contribute to our general welfare. We are told that not only should we get this “proven” and “effective” vaccine, but that we have to in order to protect ourselves and others. The fact of the matter is that we all want the same thing - for everyone to be healthy and able to go back to their normal lives. However, what many people are not realizing is that once we begin to give our government this kind of power, where will it end? What is going to stop the government from reaching into other aspects of our lives?
How is this destroying the “American Dream?”
The United States was build on the virtues of “independence and self-reliance, individual initiative and local responsibility, the successful reliance on voluntary activity, non-interference with one’s neighbor and tolerance of the different, and a healthy suspicion of power and authority” (Hayek, pg.56). This has enabled Americans to decide their own futures, innovate, improve our quality of living. Hayek explains that we are slowly losing sight of these virtues because we have been given a new definition of freedom and public welfare without even realizing it. Before, Americans viewed freedom as the freedom from coercion and arbitrary power. Now, freedom is being promised as the freedom from inequality - for one example. One major goal of socialists is to redistribute wealth. People are told that they need to give and take from each other in order for everyone to have equal power. However, the sad truth is that people will consequently have far less power and even less freedom.
In Conclusion…
There are so many examples of how our modern government is quietly following in the footsteps of totalitarian regimes. One of the biggest problem is ignorant people blindly giving their rights away one at a time. If we do not begin to educate ourselves and stop passing socialist policies, then one day we will no longer have the power to do anything.
Work Cited:
Hayek, Friedrich a. The Road to Serfdom. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.