Socialism directed people to more moral behaviour
This was stated by 71% of respondents participating in the April 2018 poll carried out by the FOCUS agency.
Facts and disproval of the myth ↓
Socialism based on the institutional pressure on people was amoral by its nature. It systematically instigated people to behave amorally in a utilitarian manner. The regimen´s key consequence for people was their subordination to the political power. Freedom was replaced by forced obedience and fear that the communist power was evoking systematically in people.
The communist party took control over the economy, security and intelligence forces, educational system, and culture and forced its ideology upon citizens and punished every sign of resistance. Moreover, it required that people explicitly express their acceptance of the regime (through compulsory participation in the 1 May celebrations, for instance). Communists spread fear through repressive measures, omnipresent eyes and ears of the state secret service – ŠtB, and censoring. The socialist society was a society of fear that pushed natural civic activities to go underground (more in chapter 1.3 Civil society). Due to the living in fear, people lived also in lies and pretence (two-facedness when it came to private and public life).
Moreover, socialism awoke hatred and envy in people. Communists fuelled hatred through the policy of class conflict. The communist regime labelled entrepreneurs as class enemies and farmers and as “kulaks” and robbed them of their property. And then they wrapped that injustice up in goals called “social justice” and “equality”. Envy resulted primarily from the discrepancy between the declared egalitarianism and the actual preferential treatment of the people devoted to the regime – communist party members and reliable non-party men. Socialism was not able to direct people towards more moral behaviour, its hierarchy-based confidential personnel policy resulted in broad injustice and discrimination, social dependence on workplaces, limited career opportunities and education choices, and restricted movement, leisure-time activities, and relaxation.
The moral and economic consequences of socialism have been still manifesting themselves to a certain extent through, for instance, low personal responsibility levels and the absence of respect towards ownership, contracts and other agreements, corruption, reliance on the state, the culture of dependence on the state, and envy and distrust as concerns business, individual success, wealth of entrepreneurs, and market advantages and profit.
