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Pol Pot Was a Consistent
Altruist-Collectivist
Dear Editor,
Re: "Pol Pot: poster boy for the madness of revolutionary chic" -- by Robert
Fulford -- April 22, 1998 -- Globe and Mail
I'm glad Robert Fulford, at least, stressed the logical connection between Pol Pot's
atrocities and the ideas that were "fashionable in left-wing circles in Paris
during the 1950s" (where Pot was a conscientious student) -- a connection many
other commentators are missing or evading.
Pol Pot was a consistent practitioner of the philosophy of altruism-collectivism
-- the widespread view that the individual is sacrificial fodder for the so-called
"good of humanity" -- the same philosophy that underlies our health-care
system, welfare programs and countless other altruist-collectivist schemes.
If the rights of individuals -- the right of each to life, liberty, private property
and the pursuit of happiness -- are subordinate to the "good of humanity,"
it can only mean that whoever claims to represent the interests of humanity and seizes
political power are free to sacrifice individuals to their beliefs. Whether it involves
enslaving doctors to provide "free" health care, or confiscating private
property to "save the environment," or punitive taxation to "reduce
the gap between rich and poor," or, as Pol Pot did, murder millions to create
"social equality" -- it's the same evil principle.
Those today who still champion collectivism over individualism should ask themselves
this: How many millions of human lives would have been saved (not to mention the
misery suffered by those who survived, or the prosperity lost) if the governments
of Stalin, Hitler, Mao and Pol Pot were restricted to the job of protecting individual
rights rather than "free" to pursue their view of the "good of society"?
Sincerely,
Glenn Woiceshyn
© 1998 Glenn Woiceshyn.
All rights reserved. This article can be found on-line at at http://www.capitalism.org/glennw. |
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