Why Is Socialism Oppressive?

Lord Acton and F.A. Hayek have inspired the two most popular explanations for the crimes of actually-existing socialism. While Acton never lived to see socialists gain power, their behavior seems to perfectly illustrate his aphorism that, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." For all their idealism, even socialists will do bad things if left unchecked. Hayek, with the benefit of hindsight, suggested a slightly different explanation: Under socialism, "the worst get on top." On this theory, the idealistic founders of socialism were gradually pushed out by brutal cynics as their movement's power increased.

Richter's novel advances a very different explanation for socialism's "moral decay": The movement was born bad. While the early socialists were indeed "idealists," their ideal was totalitarian. Their overriding goals were to engineer a new society and a New Socialist Man. If this meant treating workers like slaves - depriving them of the freedom to choose their occupation or location, forbidding them to quit, splitting up families without their consent, and imposing draconian punishments on dissenters - so be it.

Bryan Caplan, "The Writing on the Wall" [Foreword to Pictures of a Socialistic Future by Eugen Richter] (p. ix; references omitted)