Virtue Communism

Talking heads and constituents of the mainstream right bristle at the phrase: “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” They cringe at the thought of free-riders, and they rave over communism’s consistent record of failure. They’re right to; communist economics don’t work because they offer no incentive to choose effort over ease, and most will not volunteer for hard work without cause to do so. The collapse of a society enforcing such policies will inevitably result when enough people stop supporting the financial burdens of others unwilling to pull their own weight. However, the lethality of incentivized laziness is not apparent at first because its consequences do not manifest immediately. Communism cushions the felt effects of the attrition it encourages by distributing extra work among the diligent until they either can no longer bear its weight or simply decide not to. All the while, authorities dissuade the people from acknowledging the cracks that form in front of their eyes. Ultimately, those cracks give way to a truth that will always surface when given enough time: discipline builds, indulgence decays. That principle applies to work ethic, but it also applies to lifestyle. Forcing the virtuous to bear the weight of the vicious will render the West a fate no different than that of the communists its self-assured capitalists so naively mock.
Historical education and modern abundance obfuscate the contributions of morality to civilizational success. We revel over the West’s economic history because it is the only praise our progressive masters still begrudgingly tolerate. All of our historical social norms are met with uncompromising derision. Some point out that modern irreverence for Western tradition unfairly shames our past, but few recognize how completely it damns our future.
Exposed to nature, moral and economic diligence separated the wheat from the chaff across the early West. A farmer may not have wanted to work or live virtuously, but his environment incentivized him to. He had children and a community rather than savings and an insurance policy. High-trust communities of hardworking, virtuous families dominated the West because they self-sustained. They self-sustained by morally and economically rejecting instant gratification in favor of greater future reward. They replicated their success across generations by raising children that maintained the order they’d been given. Social policy that stemmed from tradition staved off chaos by acting as a foundation that simultaneously preserved the freedom that it produced.
The modern right has largely abandoned public advocacy for the regulation of morality. Additionally, inquisitors serving under the aegis of big tech have made it practically impossible to promote social conservatism without facing backlash in the real world.
Consequently, young people have turned to Libertarianism hoping to safely practice virtue under a tacit détente with the Left that prohibits them from discussing morality outside of their homes. Libertarians point out that they would allow the free market to dictate the sustainability of immorality, but their theory ignores the reality of modernity to the same degree that it utterly misses the point.
Modern abundance has set a buffer between lifestyle choices and their effects, which has led many to doubt that such effects even exist. Accountants still quantify economic productivity down to the penny. Virtue is no longer measured, and those who finance degeneracy and indulgence deny that it can be. They openly profess that there is no reason to choose discipline over impulse. Unsurprisingly, people have resorted to thoughtlessly abandoning the duties that nature can no longer foist upon them. The destabilizing effects of the devaluation of work ethic did not materialize overnight. Those of the devaluation of virtue didn’t at first either. If you doubt that they are now—turn on your TV.
Discipline in both labor and life built the West, and a strong work ethic alone cannot sustain it. The lack of incentive to live virtuously in the West today is resulting in a moral capitulation that is both chipping away at its foundation and adding weight to its frame. The placating notion of “live and let live” is a maudlin homage to this paraphrase of Marx: “from each according to his virtue, to each according to his vice.”
The social fabric of the West is coming undone through a moratorium on morality that we can all see—that the “right” refuses to confront. Companies and governments across the Western world celebrate vacuity, decadence, and degeneracy while they chastise self-discipline, virtue, and decency. There is nothing but personal honor stopping the last of us from abandoning our posts—but rest assured: either we will bring this moral turpitude to its end, or it will bring us to ours.