One day a farmer from the Soviet Union was informed that he was to be visited by the leader of his country. Dictator Joseph Stalin arrived at the farm the very next day with several members of his staff in tow.

The farmer rushed out to greet them and excitedly blurted out, “Comrade Stalin, I have grown a pile of potatoes so large that they reach up to God.”

“That is wonderful,” bellowed Stalin, “But God does not exist.”

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The farmer replied, “Yes, I know, Comrade Stalin, and the potatoes don’t exist either.”

Soviet farmers were forced into “farm collectives,” where they lost their property to confiscation and their incentive to work hard also ended. The drug of choice became Russian vodka, made from potatoes.

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It appears a similar social experiment is at work in America. Whereas, the Soviet theory was “a man will work according to his abilities and be rewarded according to his needs.” The American version has been scaled back to a single word.

The word is “equity.” Who can argue with that?

In practice, it appears some schools are holding back duly earned merit scholarship from hard working students in order not to damage the self-esteem of those who choose not to. Surely, that is a recipe for disaster. Equity encompasses all sorts of sexual behaviors and extends to every area of our culture. Children are closer to being fair game than ever before.

The end result of Stalinism was tens of millions of Soviet citizens died of starvation, assassination and other forms of deviancy Stalin could conjure up. Members of Stalin’s own family were executed, along with members of his own Community Party. The slightest murmur against the “party line” could result in the loss of your job or worse. Sound familiar?

C.S. Lewis must have been thinking of communism when he postulated that government bureaucracies often do evolve into a short of hell. He described this condition as the “bloated spider parody.” Instead of serving its citizens, the spider begins to ingest and digest each soul until the only way a person can say “I” is through the spider. Are we there yet? Don’t smile.

Gene Adamek

Craig