https://youtu.be/5MDFX-dNtsM?t=718
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is a tragedy of humanity and a travesty of history that over the course of these thirty years, the ideology which exhausted itself in reality and showed itself to be a practical plan for grinding poverty, murderous barbarism and the hollowing out of human integrity has somehow, once again, gained popularity among the world's wealthiest and freest nations.
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The spectre of Communism (the flattering delusion that a society can become more prosperous if government masterminds are given enough money and power to direct our economic energies toward a predesignated goal rather than enabling the free action of individuals with the motive for profit to combine and compete to supply goods and services in a free market to consumers who are free to spend their discerning dollars as they see fit) seems to be a ghost that simply will not go away because, at base, it appeals to one of the worst components of man's permanent nature; covetousness.
There is something inside of us that wishes to get something for nothing, or at least something for less. The concept of collectivism is appealing to our covetous natures because it inflames the greedy conceit in our souls which makes us believe that we are entitled to use the government as a tool to somehow force our neighbours to altruistically work harder to benefit our own personal interests. But permanent human nature points us to the truth that people only work, or at least they only work harder, if it benefits their own personal interest. Communism and socialism systems ultimately fail because they are built upon a foundational belief that is fatally flawed; that people will work for the benefit, not of themselves, but for their neighbours.
The sad irony of this fallacious belief in Communism and socialism is that human history has already developed a system that channels the greedy elements of our enduring human nature into virtuous and productive activity which benefit all of society; capitalism. As Adam Smith so poignantly pointed out, the butcher, the baker, and the brewer are trying to provide the best products at the cheapest price because they know that if they do, they will increase their own profitability. Communism attempts to turn this simple truth on its head by eliminating liberty and the profit motive and replacing them with the perverse motives that coerce the butcher, baker and the brewer into producing what the government masterminds tell them to produce―regardless of the production cost or whether it produces a profit―or else they'll be punished by being sent to the gulag archipelago.
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Defeating Communism was not a role Reagan took upon himself just when he reached the Oval Office, it had been a passionate lifelong pursuit of his that had been stirred by firsthand experience with subversive Communists during his days as an actor. He accepted the war against Communism as his life's mission. Reagan was a student of human nature, of history and economics, and of statecraft. He clearly understood that a merely materialist society was an insult to man's spiritual nature. He piercingly perceived that a free society nourished a people's inherent dignity and potential integrity far better than a totalitarian society which dehumanised man by treating people as clogs in a vast machine made by powerful machine-makers designed to dispense goods in an egalitarian manner.
Reagan believed that the capacity of the Communist system couldn't keep up with the prosperity of an unleashed capitalist powerhouse, so he enacted economic reforms in America that enhanced liberty and enabled an economic boom in stark contrast to the top-down command-and-control economic strategy which was crippling the Soviet economy.
Back in 1964 Reagan proclaimed, *"The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets, but a test of wills and ideas--a trial of spiritual resolve,"* but he ensnared the Soviet Union in an arms race which would ultimately economically bankrupt a nation with a morally bankrupt ideology. As the arms race progressed, Reagan knew from intelligence reports that the cost of competing with America was causing the Kremlin to direct resources away from paying and feeding its people. Reagan knew that every ruble spent keeping up with American military might would sow the seeds of discontent among workers and families against the Communist Party which had promised a materialist utopia on one hand while tightening their totalitarian stranglehold with the other.
>The Kremlin was on the horns of a dilemma. They needed to either "slash the defence budget" or enact massive economic reforms. Either remedy would threaten the Communist Party's grip on power
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>Peter Schweizer writes in his book Reagan's War: The Epic Story of His Forty-Year Struggle and Final Triumph Over Communism.
Far from being a carefully contrived political stunt designed to curry favour with his would-be supporters in the West, his monumental speech at the Berlin Gate was the culmination of a long, resolute, and successful strategy to, first, stem the tide of Communism by opposing it at every turn militarily and diplomatically, then to squeeze the Soviet Union economically thereby forcing it to implode and crumble under its own weight.
The American Left bitterly opposed Reagan's Peace Through Strength strategy every step of the way and tried to characterise the former actor as a madman who would destroy the world in nuclear war. While Soviets were funding American Leftist organisations to oppose America military build-up (one of which even recruited his own rebellious daughter in decrying America's military spending), Reagan was funding the National Endowment of Democracy that aided anti-Communist underground movements in Soviet-bloc countries and published and distributed Russian-language versions of banned books like Orwell's Animal Farm.
Reagan's speech was calculated to undermine Soviet authority, increase the potency of Soviet dissidents, and strengthen his hand at the bargaining table. The speech was delivered at the precise moment to achieve maximum impact. It was a brilliant strategy and it worked perfectly. Never in the history of the world was such a world power and an existential threat defeated with so little bloodshed.
In honour of that achievement, a larger-than-life statue has been erected overlooking the Brandenburg Gate where Reagan famously hollered, "Tear down this wall!"
