We Have Been Here Before

 Have you ever wondered how so many successful people, "Captains of Industry," "Masters of the Universe," seem to be Leftists?  Haven't all of these people made their vast wealth through our Capitalist system?  Doesn't their power and influence come from the wealth they wield?  If so, then aren't they cutting their own throats?  It has been a puzzle.  Obviously, I was missing something.

Yesterday, at The Epoch Times Jean Chen has an article entitled

A Mom's Research (Part 4): Why Are Many Elites Leftists? I dug into the article, trying to figure these very intelligent, and nominally very educated, people to none the less see the World through a Leftist lens?

After reading quite a few insightful books, I learned that what is happening now is nothing new. Since the late 19th century, Western elites have been fascinated with communism and have supported its cause. In the pursuit of utopian ideals, traditional values have been trashed, America has been brought to the brink of socialism, and hundreds of millions of people around the world have been thrown to the bloodthirsty communist beast.

...snip...

With the rapid development of science and technology since the 18th century, people started to drift away from belief in God, and believe that humans can take care of everything. With certain arrangements or planning, some people thought, humankind could get rid of all their sufferings and build a paradise on earth. Different socialist and communist thoughts mushroomed.

According to the 1966 book “Tragedy and Hope” by Professor Carroll Quigley of Georgetown University, an Oxford professor named John Ruskin started to instill socialist thoughts into his students in 1870. After graduation, these students entered high societies in the U.K. and its colonies, spreading Ruskin’s thoughts far and wide.

Meanwhile, in the United States, a man named Richard Ely was hired as a professor and director of the Department of Political Economy of John Hopkins University in 1881. He was trained in Germany and was enthusiastic about the welfare state idea. According to financial researcher Stephen Soukup’s book “The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business,” Ely’s thoughts would change the American politics dramatically, especially through his disciple Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. President.

By the early 20th century, socialist ideas had conquered the mind of those at the top of the financial, industrial, academic, and political realms. The elites never see communism as an enemy due to similar utopian obsessions. Instead, communist radicals were considered a force they could harness, like a wrecking ball, on their way to tear down old structures and build a new world.

The bolded part is in fact the center of the whole article. We decided we didn't need God, that we could do everything ourselves. Rudyard Kipling captured the same thing in his poem The Gods of the Copybook Headings. This is the very definition of sin, to believe that we are gods.

I urge gentle readers to read the entire article when you have time. It is long, but well worth it. And I know I have referenced Kiplings poem before, but you should read it again too. Chen is right that we have been here before.