New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has unapologetically laid out a socialist vision for the government which he will lead. This prospect should be chilling for the majority of Americans. However, the idea of socialism has become widely appealing to the populace, especially among younger generations—which points to significant shortcomings in our education system.
How should we process this political development from a theological and historical perspective? On the Colson Center’s excellent podcast, Breakpoint, John Stonestreet and Timothy Padgett provide a concise, insightful analysis. (I quote it here extensively because their message is worth heeding and spreading. Check out the full episode and transcript on the Breakpoint web site, and consider subscribing to their work. Their content on Christian cultural engagement and worldview issues is excellent.)
In reference to Mamdani’s social vision, Stonestreet and Padgett declare:
“Either Mamdani doesn’t understand the history of his ideas, or he believes this time will be different. After winning the [mayoral] race on November 4, Mamdani declared, ‘We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.’ The comment reminded many what President Reagan once called '(t)he nine most terrifying words in the English language: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.’
“In fact, Mamdani sounds very much like another politician, who said, ‘All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.’ That was Benito Mussolini. At one time, it would have been problematic for an American politician to essentially sub-quote a Fascist dictator, but many younger Americans are ready to reconsider failed ideas of the past. According to a recent YouGov and Economist poll, nearly half of Americans aged 18 to 29 have a favorable view of socialism. Unsurprisingly, that demographic overwhelmingly turned out for Mamdani.
“A key factor is that many in the younger generation simply don’t know better. Their education has failed them. They’ve heard all about the evils of capitalism but not about the many killed attempting to escape socialist regimes or why the escapes only went one direction. They’ve been taught to fear the impending catastrophes of climate change, which is the fault of evil corporations, but not about the mass starvations, which resulted from the state controlling industry and agriculture. They’ve learned that socialism is about sharing; not that the sharing is often forced at gunpoint. They’ve learned that when socialism fails, it was done ‘wrong,’ and that true socialism has never been tried.
“The truth about socialism is that it is inherently immoral. As Ben Shapiro put it a few years ago, ‘Socialism is bad, because socialism is tyranny. Not it’s an aspect of tyranny. Socialism itself is tyranny.…The notion of socialism is that you don’t own your own freedom.’
“The reason that oppression results every time socialism is tried is because it’s built into the system. Tyranny is not a bug of socialism. It’s a feature.
“This is because, according to a socialist vision, every element of society must either submit to the state, be stripped away or, ‘better’ yet, made another arm of the state. The mediating institutions that Alexis de Tocqueville rightly observed as drivers of American liberty and prosperity—such as churches, schools, volunteer organizations, and families—must devolve under socialism into departments of government power. The state cannot fail.
“But the state does fail, and not just because of inefficiency. Ultimately, socialism is built on flawed anthropology. Socialists claim to be for “the People,” but it’s always for Humanity and never for humans. According to a socialist vision, the individual receives dignity from society, not the other way around. The individual with his or her unique insight, perspective, and preference becomes an existential threat to the grand socialist project.
“Within a Christian worldview, dignity was given to individuals by God, who made them in His image. They bring dignity to the families, communities, and societies around them. They are not cogs in a government-sponsored wheel, nor are they problems for the state to solve. They are, to borrow from J.R.R. Tolkien, sub-creators who, given the freedom and chance to do so, will outperform any mass system that seeks to control them.”
Photo by Angelo Caputo on Unsplash
