Proletariat Quotes
This is a catenation of two separate quotes: (1) “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” —Perth, Scotland, 28 May 1948, in Churchill, Europe Unite: Speeches 1947 & 1948 (London: Cassell, 1950), 347. (2) ("Equal sharing of miseries"): Spoken in the House of Commons on October 22, 1945: "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries".
There are some who question the authenticity of this Steinbeck quotation on the grounds that all the references to it seem to be secondary sources. However, we lean toward its authenticity.
Ataturk was not receptive toward Communism as some other world leaders were at the time. He saw its weakness far earlier than many others.
He was a strong foe of both Communism and Capitalism. He was one of the first critics to describe the de facto inequality of Communism.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910. Ironically, during the McCarthy period and the Red Scare of the 1950s, some of the right wingers charged that Mark Twain’s writing was “Communist Propaganda”. Most of the accusers had never read most of Train’s work. At the time, the Communists had condemned the racial segregation that was then legal in America and most of the staunch Southern segregationists accused anyone who attacked segregation as a communist. Twain was one of the leading voices against American racism. As for communism, the accusers of Train had probably never read this particular quotation. Twain was an early severe critic of communism and used his favorite weapon—humor—to attack it.
Hoover’s testimony not withstanding, communism in America never did spread like an epidemic.
Vladimir Lenin. The Russian solution to the problem was to form the Cheka—secret police. See {613732}.
