1 An exerpt: "Karl Marx dreamt of a world without hard labor; Brigham Young made a religious duty of it, and, indeed, an honor and a privilege." This one sentence perfectly isolates and defines the reasons for the success of Western civilization, and the failure of Marxism. Marx had no understanding whatsoever of the basic economic principle that the more effort that is put into production, the more productive one will be. He believed that meetings, committees, rallys, marches, trials, and exececutions could bring about a utopian society, when all that was really needed was to give everyone something productive to do, starting with producing food. Young's followers made the deserts bloom, and Marx's bastards starved millions of people in one of the most fertile agricultural regions on the planet. Of course it should be no surprise that Marx was an economic idiot, since he himself was born to a life of ease and never had to turn a hand at an honest day's labor. It should also be no surprise that those who espouse his ideas should mainly come from the economic class whose children are spoiled and lazy. The guilt-ridden wealthy white liberal is a species known to us all. It's an odd thing that people born to wealth are willing to take the credit for the creation of that wealth, and thus feel superior by it, though they had no part in its making, while they simulataneously hate those who earn their own wealth, whether by power of mind or strength of back. Liberals are spoiled brats who don't even understand the very system that allows them their wealth and leisure, and for that, they should be punished.

2 IM: Amen to that great post. I read somewhere that Marx dabbled in the occult. Anyone else read that?

3 IM, everything in your post I mostly agree with...except I also think Brigham Young was a bit loony up in those Utah caves. My question to you is this...I agree with you about the nature of rich people, but my inclination is that the majority of rich people aren't liberal. Maybe we could both find some data to back this up, but I'd bet my hard earned money that most are Republicans even if they only vote Republican as a way to save money.

4 The irony here cannot be measured. The Mormon vision of the millenium is a collectivist one. See, for example, http://historytogo.utah.gov/united.html Excerpt: The Utah economy had grown up in the 1840s, to the 1860s along essentially individualistic, capitalist lines: but tempered by strong elements of central control and communal idealism. Young and other church leaders, most notably his counselor in the First Presidency of the church, George A. Smith, and Apostle Orson Pratt, were concerned that changes attending completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 were pushing the Latter-day Saints away from their communal ideals and towards a more individualistic and capitalistic economic model.

5 Yes, but Young was what Marx would call a 'Utopian Socialist' the is, Young believed in VOLUNTARY communalism, while Marx believed in FORCED communalism.

6 Oh. come on guys...I know y'all just want a nice collection of wives.

7 UUTAH is cOMMUNISt