In an inaugural address delivered on New Year’s Day, Zohran Mamdani promised “to replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” Social media quickly filled with memes that paired the quote with images of the victims of Nazi, Stalinist, and Maoist “warm collectivism.”

For all Mamdani’s disarming smiles, his choice of words was intentional. Regurgitating language from revolutionaries and ivory tower intellectuals, he is not attempting to hide who he is and what he plans to do. As he also said in his inauguration speech:

We will govern without shame and insecurity, making no apology for what we believe. I was elected as a Democratic Socialist, and I will govern as a Democratic Socialist. I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical.

Except, his principles are radical. In fact, as Al Mohler put it at World, they “come right out of the Marxist nightmare,” and we know how this dream ends. As Mohler continued, “It’s not that (his ideas) haven’t been tried; it’s that they have produced immeasurable human misery wherever they have been adopted.”

Either Mamdani doesn’t understand the history of his ideas, or he believes this time will be different. After winning the race on November 4,?Mamdani declared, “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.” The comment reminded many what?President Reagan once called?“(t)he nine most terrifying words in the English language: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.”

In fact, Mamdani sounds very much like another politician, who said, “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” That was?Benito Mussolini.? At one time, it would have been problematic for an American politician to essentially sub-quote a Fascist dictator, but many younger Americans are ready to reconsider failed ideas of the past. According to a recent YouGov and?Economist?poll, nearly half of Americans aged 18 to 29 have a favorable view of socialism. Unsurprisingly, that?demographic overwhelmingly turned out for Mamdani.

A key factor is that many in the younger generation simply don’t know better. Their education has failed them. They’ve heard all about the evils of capitalism, but not?about the many killed?attempting to escape socialist regimes or why the escapes only went one direction. They’ve been taught to fear the impending catastrophes of climate change, which is the fault of evil corporations, but not about?the mass starvations,?which resulted from the state controlling industry and agriculture. They’ve learned that socialism is about sharing; not that the sharing is often forced at gunpoint. They’ve learned that when socialism fails, it was done “wrong,” and that?true?socialism has never been tried.?

The truth about socialism is that it is inherently immoral.?As Ben Shapiro put it?a few years ago,??

Socialism is bad, because socialism is tyranny. Not it’s an aspect of tyranny.?Socialism itself is tyranny. …The notion of socialism is that you don’t own your?own freedom.?

The reason that oppression results every time socialism is tried is because it’s built into the system. Tyranny is not a bug of socialism. It’s a feature.

This is because, according to a socialist vision, every element of society must either submit to the state, be stripped away or, “better” yet, made another arm of the state.?The mediating institutions that Alexis de Tocqueville?rightly observed as drivers of American liberty and prosperity—such as churches, schools, volunteer organizations, and families—must devolve under socialism into departments of government power. The state cannot fail.?

But the state does fail, and not just because of inefficiency. Ultimately, socialism is built on flawed anthropology. Socialists claim to be for “the People,” but it’s always for Humanity and never for humans. According to a socialist vision, the individual receives dignity from society, not the other way around. The individual with his or her unique insight, perspective, and preference becomes an existential threat to the grand socialist project.

Within a Christian worldview, dignity was given to individuals by God, who made them in His image. They?bring?dignity to the families, communities, and societies around them. They are not cogs in a government-sponsored wheel, nor are they problems for the state to solve. They are, to borrow from?J.R.R. Tolkien, sub-creators?who, given the freedom and chance to do so, will outperform any mass system that seeks to control them.

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