Opinion
By Sigrid Weidenweber
01-25-2024
It has been said that man cannot relax vigilance. For evil never sleeps—it just bides its time, waiting for opportunity.
Recently a book appeared on the market and I, who have written against the evils of communism since the 1980s, must admit that the author, Paul Kengor, understands and analyzes communism better than anyone I know. Even we, the former slaves of the communist systems, did not delve deep enough into Marxist philosophy. How could that be? Well, we did not approach Marxism with Paul Kengor’s underpinnings of a deep religious faith, and the understanding that God and Evil are forever pitted against each other. It is an understanding devoid of philosophical cleansing of the Marxist doctrine.
Most of us projected our beliefs, hopes and wishes onto a philosophical construct that promises redemption; the lifting up of people all over in the world. We tried to believe in the wordy goodness of the verbose Marxist constructions. We were not alone with those thoughts. I must remind the reader that using, the special goodness of Catholics and other Christians, and by softening the Marxist tenets until they read like Bible-stories, Marxists slithered into universities, churches and even into the Vatican.
In 2019 the leading Jesuit periodical in the U.S. published, “The Catholic Case for Communism!” However, the article did not elaborate on the difference between Christian charity and the Communist compulsion of dispossessing the middle-class by force to benefit their minions. Pope Francis, as reported by Eugenio Scalfany of the left-wing paper La Republica, professed that, “It is the Communists who thinks like Christians.”
How, after being well aware of the horrors and societal chaos wreaked by socialists and communists all over the world, could someone given the accolade of “Holy Father,” have such a belief? Unless, of course, the Pope himself belongs to the prelates sent to undermine the Catholic Church?
But let us return to Marx. Our forgiving, rather genteel approach to Marx, was entirely self-deceptive. Kengor, already in his book title, bluntly announces what Marxism is—Evil. Once one follows Kengor’s thoughts and looks at Marx from a religious point of view, one achieves clarity. I wrote about communism’s rivers of blood, fields of bones, bodies buried beneath Russian railroad trestles, about gulags, people shot in universities or in the hallways of their apartment-complexes returning from work, but I often laid blame upon the sheepish public that voted the communists into their governments. Yes, people fell for the rhetoric of dependency, but they never discerned the depth of the lies and deceit that accompanied the siren
songs. Of course, once communism was in power, it could never be voted out—the voting game was rigged.
The general public knows very little about Marx because the communists suppressed the personal facts about the man and allowed only carefully filtered data to reach the public. Furthermore, the stature of the man was so carefully constructed that critics were silenced for many years. I was raised under communism and never knew about Karl Marx’s flaws and obvious psychopathologies. In his book, The Devil and Karl Marx, Paul Kengor exposes the thoughts and deeds of the evil communist icon. Already, printed on the flyleaf the reader finds examples of the black shadows in Marx’s mind. It is not well known that, in his college years, Marx wrote poetry. Poetry exposes the thoughts and ideas held in the deep recesses of the mind. Emotions and notions the poet would not readily acknowledge, or as poetry arises from a deep well, conscientiously know.
Thus, poetry exposes the true person behind the written word. After this elaboration, I invite you to judge examples of Marx’s poetry.
“Thus Heaven I’ve forfeited,
I know it full well.
My soul, once true to God,
Is chosen for Hell.”
Karl Marx, “The pale Maiden,” 1837
These few words tell all there is to know about Marx’s deep recesses of the soul.
However, here is another even more strongly worded example.
Look now, my blood-dark sword shall stab
Unerringly within thy soul…
The hellish vapors rise and fill the brain,
Till I go mad and my heart is utterly changed.
See the sword—the Prince of Darkness sold it to me.
For he beats the time and gives the signs.
Ever more boldly I play the dance of death.”
Karl Marx, “The Player,” 1841
Who’s death one might ask. Certainly not his own. Yet, uncounted millions paid the price and were killed to fulfill the doctrines of Marx’s words.
There is so much more to learn from Paul Kengor’s book that I end this article by highly recommending this book to discerning minds.
Born in Germany in 1941, Sigrid Weidenweber remembers the horrific aftermath of Fascism. At the end of the war, she found herself living under Communism. Both of these totalitarian regimes left indelible marks on her psyche. She developed a healthy distrust of governments usurping too many powers in order to control people supposedly for their own good. MORE
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The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida
