After 30 years, 5 things I learned from my students why they like socialism
Americans have been shocked to see the election of "socialists" to high public office in New York and elsewhere. How did this happen? A recent survey explains the context: 62% of America’s young adults have favorable views toward some form of pop Marxism.
What is going on?
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After 30 years as an educator at the high school and college level, here are five things that I am hearing from students.
First, they know nothing about the crimes of communism.
When it comes to the period from 1945 to 1990, many have almost no historical knowledge. It appears that many history classes jump from victory over the Nazis (1945) to current events, perhaps due to teachers’ exhaustion in the waning weeks of the academic year.
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The result? Few know about the crimes of communism that resulted in the murder of 100 million men, women and children. Moreover, they do not know about heroic dissidents who stood up to tyranny nor the costly efforts of their forbears in containing communism and saving democracy.
Second, pop Marxism is attractive due to its seductive promise to take care of everyone.
In the past, America’s youth grew up working, responsible for paying their own way through part-time and summer jobs. They understood how their own ideas, labor and efforts were financially rewarded, and then they chose how to spend the fruits of their labor: movie tickets for a weekend show, saving for a car or college, etc. Over time, they took on greater responsibilities as they matured into adulthood.
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Most of the young adults I meet today have never done any of these things. Their summers and weekends have been filled with camps and "enrichment" activities. They’ve never really worked for money. They never provided outstanding customer service, at McDonald’s, Subway or Men’s Wearhouse, to flesh-and-blood customers.
Thus, how are they to learn about the relationship between personal responsibility and the many opportunities to contribute through family, the PTA, service clubs, church, private business and charities? To today’s students, most of this is, and should be, handled by faceless government bureaucrats.
Moreover, it is no wonder that they have sticker shock at the real-world cost of rent, food and transportation when, for the first time, they are required to pay their own way after college or graduate school!
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A third thing that I've learned from students is that they value privacy and efficiency differently from previous generations.
Older Americans have long demanded restraint on government and corporate intrusion into their personal affairs. Immigrants from foreign countries, in particular, fear the ubiquitous, pervasive surveillance they experienced under communist and socialist regimes.
None of this matters to most of today’s young adults and teens, whose entire lives have been posted online. They have no concept that they are being watched, 24/7, by adversaries such as the Chinese Communist Party.
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Furthermore, they demand Amazon.com levels of immediacy and efficiency. Arguments about privacy, security, processes and procedure make no sense.
Consequently, democratic institutions seem inefficient, ineffective and unwilling to cater to their every need. Enter candidates like New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani with his simple platform: "New York is too expensive. Zohran will lower costs and make life easier."
A fourth thing I've learned is skepticism regarding the American experiment in ordered liberty.
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The Founders asserted individual and public morality, as well as the need to protect fundamental individual rights from all forms of tyranny.
In contrast, young adults think that democracy means that we get to vote on everything.
"Majority wins," therefore, means deciding what is right and wrong.
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Imagine a society where the omnipotent majority has no tie to transcendent moral truths, but always gets to vote on what is right and wrong. The Founders called this "tyranny of the majority."
Economics: Somehow, we have taught students that capitalism is, at best, a lesser evil, rather than an economic expression of moral responsibility. They do not believe that freedom (free markets and limited republican government) is the engine that expands human flourishing and checks the possibilities of totalitarianism. Pop Marxism teaches that the "invisible hand" is the work of career bureaucrats.
Fifth, many of today’s young adults know little of international affairs, especially the despicable regimes that are America’s foremost adversaries.
Younger Americans see themselves as social justice champions, but when was the last time you heard about students organizing a 5K race or other charitable endeavor for the victims of communism in Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela, Laos, Eritrea or elsewhere? Similarly, the atrocities of the Chinese Communist regime, such as organ harvesting, forced sterilization, torture, murder and its over 300 concentration camps for Muslim Uyghurs are well known … except to those who grew up on [Chinese-owned] TikTok.
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Is it their fault that they are quasi-Marxists? No. They learned what we, as a society, have taught (or not taught) them. We taught them to expect that authority figures would provide everything to make their life profitable, joyous, and easy.
Here is the good news: it is not too late. We can do better. Look at the success of our anti-Nazi and Holocaust education. We have succeeded in making the images and ideas of Nazism anathema.
We should make the portraits of Marx, Stalin and Che just as odious as the image of Hitler. We should make the hammer and sickle and other symbols of communism just as odious as the swastika.
At the same time, we can resurrect the true American story – with its scars and its grandeur – and teach that to our rising generation of citizens. It is not too late. We can do so!