Five Myths About Marxism

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OPINION, By: Dan Ellsworth

With election season in the U.S, lots of Americans are using the term “Marxism” to describe left-wing politics. Church members are using the term as well, pointing out that church leaders like Ezra Taft Benson used to severely denounce socialism and communism. That means it’s a good time to explore some common myths about Marxism for Latter-day Saints:

1. Myth: discussions about Marxism are political. Marxism is a worldview that goes way beyond politics. Marx had a vision for the destiny of humanity, and it was essentially religious. Marxist psychologist Erich Fromm wrote:

   Does not all this mean that Marx’s socialism is the realization of the deepest religious impulses common to the great humanistic religions of the past? Indeed it does, provided we understand that Marx, like Hegel and like many others, expresses his concern for man’s soul, not in theistic, but in philosophical language.

   
   

   Writer John Michael Greer explained:

   Every element of Marxist theory has an exact equivalent in Christian eschatology. Primitive communism is Eden, the invention of private property is the Fall, the stages of slavery, feudalism and capitalism are the various dispensations of sacred history, and so on, right up to the Second Coming of the proletariat, the millennial state of socialism and the final arrival of communism as the New Jerusalem descending from the heavens. Point for point, it’s a rephrasing of Christian myth that replaces the transcendent dimension with forces immanent in ordinary history.

   
   

   In other words, Marxism is a belief system that is designed to replace Christianity with a new story of the world, one that answers people’s “deepest religious impulses.” Marxism definitely shapes many people’s politics, but ultimately it is a replacement religious belief system. Marxism replaces the Christian covenant path with a new Marxist covenant path of criticism and activism, which gives people a sense of meaning and purpose. This is why the Marxist worldview is so common among people who have stepped away from their religious commitments and are looking to fill the hole in their heart that was formerly filled with their faith.

2. Myth: Marxism is communism. Communism was definitely a part of Marx’s thinking, but Marx’s views went far beyond communism. And many people with a Marxist worldview have not promoted communism; they have branched out the Marxist worldview to develop other areas like critical race theory, queer theory, postcolonialism, and more.

3. Myth: the opposite of Marxism is fascism. Marxism and fascism are just two manifestations of the same thing. Benito Mussolini said:

   I recognize that between us and the communists there are no political affinities but there are intellectual affinities. We, like you, believe that a centralizing and unitary State is necessary that imposes an iron discipline on all individuals; with this difference that you reach this conclusion through the concept of class and we reach it through the concept of nation.

4. Myth: Marxism makes people more moral. In reality, Marxism leaves people with angst and hatred, and they end up justifying horrible things in their activism. In the 20th century, the Marxist worldview created the greatest mass murders in human history. Many people who participated in those horrors were convinced they were creating a fairer and more just world.

5. Myth: Marxism is about liberating humanity from oppression. When people embrace Marxism and actually put it into practice, they end up with what psychologists call an “external locus of control,” which is a perception that our well-being is totally dependent on things outside of us. Marxists become obsessed with other people, and they become delusional about the way the world should be, versus the way it is. These factors make Marxists extremely prone to being deceived and ruled by sadistic tyrants who are among the worst of humanity.

Latter-day Saints should understand that a lot of people are pulled into Marxism through its false promises of creating an ideal world. And many people adopt the Marxist worldview without even knowing what they are getting into, as it is represented to them in other terms like “social justice” and “equity.” But the more we understand Marxism the less we will fear it, and the more effective we will be in helping people to see it for what it is.

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