As the new decade dawns, there is a sense of optimism abroad. The recent cataclysms in Eastern Europe have led many commentators to suggest that a new era is upon us. Everything is changing—the old allegiances, the old enemies, the old arguments. They all seem to be shifting and maligning before our startled eyes.
Now Communism (not God) is dead, having failed the most crucial test: it just doesn’t work. And western analysts have been quick to seize the higher ground and say, “We told you so”. Numerous journalists and commentators have written of the triumph of western democratic capitalism in the ideological war.
And, no doubt, in churches throughout the world, preachers have been taking up a similar theme. The crumbling of the Berlin Wall is good sermon material. It speaks of the ultimate folly of trying to set up an ideal human society based on atheism.
But so far, I haven’t heard anyone describe the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe as the Triumph of Sin. This is precisely what it is.
For why has communism failed? In theory, it is a fine-sounding system—full employment, free education and health care, the distribution of goods so that the poor are not exploited by the rich, and so on. In fact, from a Christian point of view, Communism (as a theory) sounds more loving and just than the free enterprise, every-man-for-himself western system.
Communism has failed because, having dispensed with God, it has no doctrine of sin. A central plank in Marxist thought is that if the means of production can be wrested from the hands of the bourgeois exploiters and placed in the hands of the people, then a New Socialist Man will be created—one who is concerned not simply for himself, but for the welfare of the whole society.
Christians know that this is an impossible dream. Mankind is darkly and indelibly stained by the Fall. Short of some divine surgery, there is no way to change the human heart. It will always be selfish, weak and proud.
Our western democratic capitalist system is full of evils and injustices. It is no paragon—far from it. But it seems to work as a model for human society. The people aren’t demonstrating in the street, demanding the introduction of communism or military dictatorship. Despite the problems, most are glad to live in a ‘free, democratic country’.
Our system works because it is based on human sin and folly. Democracy, with all its checks and balances and accountability to the people, serves to prevent any one group or person using political power to their own ends. There are limits. We don’t trust anyone with real or absolute power, because we know what they might do if we gave it to them. Our current system of democracy is constructed so as to prevent governments from getting very much done. And this is how it should be.
Similarly, capitalism ‘works’ because it is based on the simple premise that people am motivated by self-interest. This sad fact is demonstrably true, and Christians have been saying it for 2,000 years.
Many are suggesting that the events in Europe give new hope for a better world—that they spell the victory of enlightened, liberal, democratic ideals over the evils of brutality and totalitarianism—that a new day is dawning …
They are wrong. The collapse of Communism is the sad collapse of the dream of a better world built on mankind’s basic goodness.
The West has won a hollow victory. Yes, we were right: mankind is desperately wicked. Our system is better because it is built to accommodate this fact. Hurray.
