Early in his article titled, Colonizing Body and Mind, Subash Kak states what is now widely accepted as fact: that Marxism is dead. I however, have my reservations.

The theory of class war is for all practical purposes, dead; rather, outdated. The world has moved far away from conditions that existed in the 19th Century-factories of England and other industrialized European nations. The consequences of the foolish insistence of hardcore Marxists on a bloody revolution as the only means to bring about drastic social change was witnessed by the entire world. In Russia, China, and Cuba.

Methinks at the heart of the Communist theory lies something very insidious, rotten, and perverse: perverse because it says, “you don’t have a right to have what I don’t have. Either we are all equally rich or we are all equally miserable.” The most recent example of this line of thought can be found here. An excerpt (thanks, Ravikiran I read it first in your blog):

So because they are poor, it’s OK to pull down their homes. Why is it that not one middle-class block of flats has been brought down that I know of…

In a bid to build a more equal–egalitarian in their lingo–society, they deliberately create conditions in an otherwise-prosperous country, which will ensure that it is impoverished, and which in turn leads to unrest. The time is ripe for the “People’s Revolution!” they then exclaim. It happened in India for close to 50 years, the process of trying to create conditions of impoverishment. (Does anybody remember a Communist insurgency sometime in the ’50s or ’60s in India because some of their blokes decided that the time was ripe?) A simple example: the Nehruvian Statist paradise made it impossible for honest businessmen to create wealth, and they were forced to resort to corruption. The more a businessman was corrupt, the more he thrived. As an example of how honesty was rewarded, we have the Tatas on whom Indira Gandhi imposed several of the notorious MRTP regulations. Repeated meetings with her yielded nothing. As an example of how corrupt businesses thrived, we have the greatest beneficiary of the licence raj: the Ambani Group, contrary to what leading Ambani-apologists like Gurcharan Das claim.

Aside: if we were to entirely believe Gurcharan Das’s account in India Unbound, we get the picture of Dhirubai Ambani’s success as driven only by his “vision” and hard work, and later, his enormous love for his shareholders. Das manages to whitewash Ambani’s (mis)adventures in Aden, and his not-so-holy relationship with several MPs.

As to their methods, the infamous Fifth Column comes foremost to my mind. While indulging in Fifth-column activities themselves, they accuse this exact crime on their “class” enemies. More on their methods in the entry here. If their Theory equips them with all the methods to create the Perfect Society, what explains the phenomenon that all Communist countries eventually turned to dictatorships whose outstanding virtue was censorship? If their centralized planning systems were role models to be followed, what explains their miserable economic track record not to mention the lies they fed to the world about the “glorious socialist prosperity?” What also explains the fact that they either remained silent or cursed critics when questioned about Stalin’s purges and concentration camps?

I should give credit for one thing to the Leftists: they know where to hit. They choose their targets wisely, and build up a sustained campagin of lies to ensure that it will become the Goebbelsian truth? And that’s why they choose universities. A Noam Chomsky pontificates about the Evil Empire and Rabid Rantress Roy, takes the cue. Universities are the fertile grounds where ideolgoical seeds are sown. Idealistic and passionate young men and women are drawn to Communism seduced by the language in which the totalitarian ideology is cloaked. “Comrade” anyday sounds loftier than the drab identification by gender, or by words like “friend,” or any other commonly-accepted denomination. Comrades working for a common cause. They have a vision, a goal, a hope to work for. If you’re in Bangalore, idle around for a couple of hours in M.G. Road typically on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. That’s when you get to see college-going (or fresh out of college) men and ladies who are members of SUCI or AIDSO (both outfits of student wing of the communists). They typically have a piggy box, which they use to accost people into donating money for this or that noble cause–it’s the Tsunami relief now. Try if you can, to overhear (yeah, eavesdrop) their conversations, and count the number of times they exchange the word “comrade.” Also the general conversational drift and topics. They’re generally about this or that injustice meted out to this or that poor vegetable vendor or how the other day he/she saw one guy at this posh hotel blow up 6K on a bloody lunch, or how the world is grossly unequal. There’s idealism, anger, self-righteousness, and an eagerness to “show the world.” A friend of mine whom I’d taken along on this exercise was pretty blatant: “man, this is called high-tech begging.”

A JNU or the St. Stephen’s College, Delhi undertakes this kind of (communist) missionary work and produces stalwarts like the Resident Idiot, Pankaj Mishra, and others. These converts are given enough money, scholarships, and prominent positions both in India and abroad to spread terror the “message.”

This is one of the reasons I find it hard to belive that Communism has died. It hasn’t. It is merely in an extended hibernation. In the most excellent essay titled, The Intellectual Origins Of America-Bashing, Lee Harris convincingy makes a point, which in my view constitutes the new avatar of Communism: America-bashing. A casual sweep of the events brings us to this conclusion: a majority of people–academicians, artists, fifth columnists, and other species of intellectuals–who bash America do it because it stands out as an eyesore: the Socialist/Communist experiment was a gigantic failure whereas the US is still thriving for all its evils of capitalism. More than mere ideological failure, America-bashing is also personal. Several of these people–mainly academicians and intellectuals–were idolized in their heydays for propounding this or that theory or model. They now stand discredited. A personal loss inflicts a deeper wound than anything else.

And so they attribute every calamity to the system/nation that caused them this wound. The Third World is now an economic colony of the US. India shouldn’t get sucked into the Iraq quagmire. Argentina and Brazil are impoverished because of the US. And I just noticed a tactical consistency: stick the convict’s badge. Blame first. Get the other guy to justify. The moment the justification begins, the Leftists have won half the battle. The editorials the Commies wrote during the freedom struggle called Subash Bose a stooge of Japanese imperialism, Nehru a running dog of American capitalism, and Gandhi’s movement was the most decadent phase of the struggle. Compare the words in italics for evidence of the said tactical consistency.

Yet, the Left today is in a pitiable state largely because it is bereft of direct political support. It therefore has sought to sleep with all kinds of partners. In the process, the Left gives respectability to heinous stuff–terrorism for example, by writing op-ed pieces that America deserved Sept 11, or that Kashmiri insurgents terrorists were originally peaceful citizens till the Indian government/army harassed them. Or that Naxals are a grieved lot: so it’s okay if they kill innocent people. Saddam was unjustly targetted by the world’s largest terrorist state. Yasser Arafat was a freedom fighter against Tyrannical Israel.

This snake-in-the-grass approach is what makes me apprehensive, and doubtful when people say that Communism is dead. The Cold War phenomenon evolved to contain the open threat posed by the USSR. It isn’t required any longer. The only open threat posed today comes from Islamic terrorism and the N-armed dictatorships like North Korea.

For this reason, nobody today takes the Commies seriously. They’re just toothless tigers incapable of inflicting serious damage.

Communism is not dead. Not yet.