How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World

The specter of communism did not disappear with the disintegration of the Communist Party in Eastern Europe. The collapse of the communist regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe marked the end of a half-century-long Cold War between the capitalist and communist camps in the East and West. Many were thus optimistic, holding the belief that communism had become a relic of the past.

The sad truth, however, is that a stealthily transformed communist ideology has instead taken hold and entrenched itself around the world. There are the outright communist regimes like China, North Korea, Cuba, and Vietnam; there are the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, where communist ideology and customs still exert a significant influence; there are the African and South American countries, which attempt socialism under the banner of democracy and republicanism—and then there are the nations of Europe and North America, whose body politics have become host to communist influences, without people even realizing it.