And what, according to every semi-rational conception of mankind the world has ever known, is a man who has no claim on the product of his labor, on his effort, his time, or, as naturally follows, on his own life? The answer would have been self-evident to every man, woman, and child, until Marxist progressivism overwhelmed modern education: that man is a slave.
Progressivism espouses the basic principle of slavery. Unlike past slavery, however, the progressive version does not try to force the square peg of “owned men” into the round hole of property rights. The progressive simply denies property rights completely, and hence rejects the tortured reasoning of private slave ownership in favor of universal enslavement to the state.
The progressive, in short, seeks to nationalize the slave industry. This is the literal (though unspoken) meaning and source of his (Obama’s) demands for confiscatory tax rates, redistribution of wealth, hyperregulation of industry, and government control of health care and education. It is the meaning and source of the progressive’s mockery of private success in favor of the charms of public dependency, his efforts to redefine and legislate the private family out of existence, and his disdain for religions which teach the dignity of the individual soul, and appeal to men’s hearts beyond the reach of their allegiance to the government.
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