Equality and liberty?

Taking the power and money out of rich people's hands

and giving it back to the people?

A revolution to make everything and everyone equal?

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But have we considered who would be in charge

if such revolutions were made?

Socialism never stays socialism.

There is an agenda.

But who are the key figures in this agenda?

Episode III: Communism and Socialism.

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- [Whispering Woman] Edge of Wonder.

- Welcome to The Edge of Wonder.

- Hey Rob? - Yeah?

- What's socialism?

- That's a good question.

Everyone seems to be confused right now

about what that means.

Some people think it means equality or liberty of some sort,

which is a conundrum we'll get into later.

- To some people, they think it means taking the power

and money out of the rich people's hands

and giving it back to the people.

But really, does that really ever happen?

- Some people think it means being progressive

and fostering some kind of positive change,

so it's become a hot term among specific groups of people.

- Still some say it's revolution,

specifically that of destroying civilization

to make everything and everyone equal.

- But have people given thought to who would be in charge

if such revolutions were made?

- In this episode, we're gonna explore one

of the most elusive terms in our political atmosphere

and let history do the talking.

- We'll help everyone define socialism

and show you facts that can help you make up your minds

about whether it's good or bad.

- Let's start at the beginning.

Socialism had to come from somewhere, right?

One of the arguments often given in favor

of socialism is that, quote, "We need to give it a chance."

- Or when people well-learned in the history

of socialism and communism say that it never worked,

the argument is given

that it's never been implemented correctly,

or we need to try again.

After our research,

we realized this couldn't be further from the truth.

- The entirety of the 1800s was filled

with numerous experiments to establish socialist communes,

even before the word socialism was a term.

- Each of these experiments failed miserably.

And when we say miserable, we mean it.

Now bear with us, this story deserves to be told.

- It's important to bring up someone considered

to be the first pioneer of the movement

later known as socialism,

an English cotton mill owner named Robert Owen.

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- Owen established an industrial system

along new lines in a village called New Lanark in Scotland.

Owen played the part of a benevolent ruler.

He created a system where people were given wages

and punished for poor work.

Any proceeds from the work at the mill were collected

by Owen, and he spent it how he saw fit.

- Owen actually used this money

for charity donations and philanthropy.

Now here's where it gets important.

The system we just described is 100% capitalist.

So then how is it that Owen is conflated

with communism and socialism?

Well, we haven't finished the story yet.

- After his somewhat successful

and unconventional experiment at New Lanark,

it seems his reputation made him well known.

To make a very long story short,

Owen was compromised by illuminism,

which became plainly obvious

through his writings at the time.

- Owen would consistently express himself

in ways only Adam Weishaupt would,

exposing his true intentions.

And by the way, if you haven't seen our first two episodes

on communism, we explain everything about Weishaupt in those

so we would recommend watching those.

- [Narrator] "For example, in the latter it was stated

"that the aim of the Illuminati was

"to make of the human race,

"without any distinction of nation, condition,

"or profession, one good and happy family."

- [Ben] And Owen announced.

- [Narrator] "That new state of existence upon earth,

"which when understood and applied rationally to practice,

"will cordially unite

all as one good an enlightened family."

- Because time is tight, trust us when we say,

there are multiple examples of how Owen's writings lined

up exactly with Weishaupt.

But his words aren't the only examples

that will help us understand the failures of communism.

Because shortly after, Owen's mind started to change

toward these illuminized philosophies.

He attempted to experiment with communities based entirely

off of socialist strategies.

- [Rob] In 1824, Owen arrived in America, the new world,

and bought a village in Indiana he called New Harmony.

He instituted a completely socialist system

but encountered a great difficulty.

He found that people had no, quote, noble

desire to work for the common good

when there was no way to personally profit,

meaning they were literally not getting anything

for their hard work but were expected to slave away.

- He also found it extremely difficult

when people had no personal property of their own.

And even when there would be a short time

of everyone getting on the same page,

human desires for gaining more

would always find their way in.

- In the end, Owen stated, quote.

- [Narrator] "No societies with common property

"and equality could prosper if composed of persons unfit

"for their peculiar duties.

"In order to succeed, it was needful

"to exclude the intemperate, the idle, the careless,

"the quarrelsome, the avaricious, the selfish."

- What this quote is basically saying is that

in order to have communism work,

a society would have to be comprised of only perfect people.

- Socialist-leaning historians, to this day,

still proclaim victory and Owen

as the greatest historical figure

in creating a socialist experiment that worked.

But these historians conveniently overlook the facts.

Any economist will tell you the mill experiment

in New Lanark is anything but socialism.

- Many other experiments like this happened

through the early 1800s, and every single one failed.

You can look into this for yourself.

Marx and Engels went from criticizing Owen

to then championing him as the greatest example

of advancement of communism from the early 1800s,

which actually makes no sense.

- The example of Robert Owen can't be overemphasized.

Why, because there is still to this day,

a huge misunderstanding of socialism.

Many misinformed people constantly use an argument

that socialism works, and they know it works

because it works in Nordic countries, right?

- I mean, if you do research on this, as we did,

you'll find numerous sources that show

that what the Nordic countries implement

is absolutely not socialism.

In July, 2018, an article on Forbes,

titled, Sorry Bernie Bros

But Nordic Countries Are Not Socialist published.

The author called what Nordic countries implement,

quote, compassionate capitalism.

- [Ben] In an article on fee.org,

we're going to cite a quote here.

"In response to Americans frequently referring

"to his country as socialist, the Prime Minister

"of Denmark recently remarked in a lecture

"at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, quote,

- [Rob] "I know that some people

"in the US associate the Nordic Model

"with some sort of socialism.

"Therefore, I would like to make one thing clear.

"Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy.

"Denmark is a market economy."

- Why did the president of Denmark say this?

It's because those countries thrive

off of large financial gains from their market economies.

The reason the author called it compassionate capitalism

is because these countries often have high taxes

that offer some benefits from the government.

- But the only reason they're able to have high taxes

is because the wages are very high.

We've largely covered socialism

in terms of economics, right?

But now we're going to get more

into the heart of the actual matter.

(tense instrumental music)

- We mentioned Marx and Engels earlier.

We should probably look at how those

who penned the most influential book on communism,

The Communist Manifesto, looked at socialism.

If you read The Epoch Times' Specter of Communism series,

it says.

- [Narrator] "In 1875, in Critique of the Gotha Programme,

"Marx put forward the idea that there is an initial phase

"of communism, followed by an advanced phase.

"Compelled by changes in the international situation

"at the time, Friedrich Engels in his later years

"also proposed democratic socialism,

"in which votes were used to obtain political power.

"Democratic socialism was adopted

"by social democratic party leaders

"and theorists of the second international

"and led to the left-wing parties

"in many capitalist countries around the world today.

"Lenin set down clear definitions

"of socialism and communism.

"He considered socialism to be the preliminary phase

"of communism and communism to be developed

"on the basis of socialism."

- In fact, there is a famous quote from Lenin, who said.

- [Narrator] "The goal of socialism is communism."

- This means that since the very beginning of communism,

socialism has always been considered

to be its preliminary phase.

If that's the case, then it would change our perception

of how to look at socialism fundamentally, right?

Because it never just stays socialism.

There is an actual agenda.

- Furthermore, there are many organizations

that identify themselves to be democratic socialists,

a critical part in the above strategy

to make a non-communist state communist.

- Democratic socialist societies have existed

for a very long time in the US.

They've also been present in other countries as well.

One of the largest democratic socialist societies

is the London Headquartered Fabian Society.

So who are the Fabian Socialists?

- Well, their philosophy was to not get as crazy

as the revolutionaries.

Their goal was to use alternative tactics

to create fundamental change and social justice.

Notice the terms here?

They believed they could do this through the Bourgeoisie

or cultural elites, completely overseeing

and strategically influencing the working class.

In Epoch Times' Specter of Communism, it states.

- [Narrator] "Unlike totalitarian regimes,

"socialism in democratic states slowly eats away

"at people's freedoms through legislation,

"like the metaphor of the boiling frog.

"The process of establishing a socialist system

"takes decades or generations,

"leaving people gradually numb, oblivious,

"and accustomed to socialism,

"all of which enhance the deceit.

"The essence and objective of this type

"of gradual socialism are no different in substance

"from the violent form."

- How did they do this? Well, they tweaked the culture.

An example of this is playwright, Bernard Shaw,

one of the most prominent members of the Fabian Society.