Mamdanis warmth of collectivism will leave us in a cold commune

“Replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism!” says my new socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani.Sounds so nice.No more greedy capitalists hoarding wealth.People share.

It’s the socialist dream.What will replace capitalism and individualism? One model is the commune — that socialist system where people share, rather than greedily chasing money. TikTokers claim capitalism is “ending.” They sing about the beauty of communes.One asks, desperately, “Where is my commune?!”Good question.They’re hard to find because they keep failing.One of the most famous was founded in 1825 In New Harmony, Indiana.Private property was banned and residents shared everything.The result?After just two years, most residents left. Today, New Harmony is a tourist attraction, meant to “inspire progressive thought,” says the assistant director of the expensively renovated site.

“It just has some magic here.”But New Harmony’s magic only exists today because a nepo baby poured her rich father’s money into it.Robert Blaffer started Humble Oil, which became ExxonMobil.After his death, his daughter spent millions of her father’s dollars turning the failed commune into an expensive museum.The “magic” tourists experience in New Harmony comes from capitalism, the only system that creates lasting wealth.The “warmth of collectivism” fails again and again.It’s failing now in Cuba, North Korea, Nicaragua and Venezuela.It was tried and abandoned in the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Angola, Mozambique, Benin, the Congo, Somalia, Grenada and Cambodia.Even China and Vietnam’s leaders, to allow their countries to prosper, felt they had to give up pure socialism and allow private property and capitalism.But my new mayor still wants to give “the warmth of collectivism” a shot.If he were my age, he would have been a hippie.

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