我是一名来自哥伦比亚的移民。在过去的半个世纪里，哥伦比亚的革命武装力量（FARC）——一个共产主义革命组织——一直在破坏这个国家的稳定。FARC通过大规模屠杀、绑架和恐怖主义手段杀害了成千上万的哥伦比亚人，导致超过700万哥伦比亚人流离失所，这场战争因此成为世界上最严重的国内流离失所危机之一。如今，我已经成为美国的合法公民；然而，世界上仍有数百万人渴望来到美国。因此，当我看到关于美国资本主义的最新民意调查结果时，心中充满了忧虑。
I am an immigrant from Colombia, a country that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)—a communist revolutionary group—spent half a century tearing apart. FARC murdered thousands of Colombians through sanctioned massacres, kidnappings, and terrorism, and the war FARC drove displaced over seven million Colombians, resulting in one of the largest internal displacement crises in the world. I am now a naturalized citizen of the United States, a country that millions from around the world are still trying to reach. So, I read the latest polling on American capitalism with a particular kind of alarm.
这项民意调查是由《The Free Press》组织进行的，他们采用了一种专门用于揭示人们内心真实想法的调查方法。调查结果显示：只有三分之一的美国人对资本主义持积极态度；而在民主党人中，这一比例更低（不到三分之一）。
This polling is the result of a survey released by The Free Press using a method to surface the opinions people keep to themselves. The finding: just one in three Americans holds a positive view of capitalism. Not one in three Democrats.
在“美国民主社会主义者”（DSA）庆祝他们的胜利之前，请先考虑一下其他人的看法：同一项调查显示，大多数美国人对社会主义仍持谨慎态度。盖洛普（Gallup）的调查显示，虽然资本主义获得了54%的支持率，但自由企业获得了81%的支持率，小企业获得了95%的支持率，而大企业仅获得了37%的支持率。这说明美国人民并没有反对自由企业、私有制或创业精神。
One in three Americans. Before the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) take a victory lap, consider the rest. That same survey found that most Americans remain wary of socialism, and Gallup found that while capitalism drew 54 percent approval, free enterprise drew 81 percent and small business 95 percent, compared with 37 percent for big business.
然而，“美国民主社会主义者”的候选人却不断在选举中获胜。美国人对自由企业的支持与“美国民主社会主义者”的胜利之间的这种矛盾，其实是一个严重的漏洞——这个问题值得我们认真思考：为什么人们不选择共产主义呢？
Americans have not turned against free enterprise, ownership, or entrepreneurial risk. Yet DSA candidates keep winning elections. The gap between Americans’ faith in free enterprise and the DSA’s wins is a real vulnerability, and it deserves an honest question: Why not communism?
根据最新的民意调查，现在有比以往任何时候都更多的美国人对社会主义持积极态度。不过，我们需要一个坦诚的答案：社会主义与共产主义之间其实并没有本质上的区别；社会主义运动的创始人自己也明确指出了这一点。列宁在《国家与革命》一书中详细阐述了马克思的理论，并描述了共产主义社会的第一个发展阶段及其最终目标。事实上，社会主义从来都不是共产主义的替代方案，而只是通往共产主义的过渡阶段罢了。
MORE AMERICANS THAN EVER NOW HAVE A POSITIVE VIEW OF SOCIALISM, NEW POLL SAYS An honest answer requires an important clarification. There is no meaningful difference between socialism and communism, and the founders of the movement said so without pretense. Lenin devoted chapters of The State and Revolution to expounding on Marx and what he called the first phase of communist society and its ultimate end. Socialism was never the alternative to communism. It was the on-ramp. So why not take it?
那么，为什么不尝试一下共产主义呢？因为历史记录非常明确——共产主义革命从未实现过它所承诺的正义、平等与繁荣。
Because the record is unambiguous and is written in blood. No communist revolution has delivered the justice, equality, and prosperity it promised.
据估计，共产主义政权在俄罗斯、东欧、中国、非洲和南美洲造成的死亡人数接近1亿。还有一个显而易见的事实：历史上没有一个共产主义国家真正关心民众的流动（即民众是否能够自由进出这些国家）；所有共产主义国家都更担心民众会逃离自己的统治。为了防止民众逃离，它们在欧洲修建了长达4300英里的“铁幕”，并将这道屏障完全用于防范外部威胁。那些民众试图逃离的国家的状况并没有因此得到改善。
Estimates place the death toll of communist regimes near 100 million across Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Africa, and South America. And consider one plain fact. No communist state in history has been concerned about people sneaking in. Every one of them has had to worry about people getting out, a concern that produced a heavily guarded 4,300-mile Iron Curtain across Europe built to face inward. Nations that people flee have not solved anything.
根据这些逃离共产主义国家的移民的说法，社会主义会“控制人民”并“剥夺美国的一切”。然而，共产主义的吸引力确实存在；否认这一点是愚蠢的。共产主义首先针对的是人们现实生活中的痛苦与不满。美国的资本主义制度过于依赖大型企业，其核心理念是追求规模最大化、企业垄断以及忽视个人价值。这种制度使得家庭、小型企业以及普通民众的自主性变得脆弱且无足轻重。
SOCIALISM WILL 'CONTROL PEOPLE' AND 'TAKE EVERYTHING AWAY' FROM AMERICA, ACCORDING TO THESE EXPATS Yet the communist appeal is real, and pretending otherwise is foolish. Communism begins by naming a genuine pain. American capitalism is too much big-business economics with its ethos of the very large, the consolidated, and the impersonal. This makes the household, the small business, and the ordinary person willing to take a risk weaker and less important.
数百万美国人感到自己的未来充满不确定性，对自身的命运失去了掌控感。当共产主义者出现时，他们会认同这些民众的痛苦，并提出一个看似诱人的承诺：“你们唯一失去的，就是身上的枷锁。”马克思曾将宗教称为“鸦片”，而共产主义其实也是如此——它从未真正治愈过人们的痛苦；相反，它通过中央集权彻底摧毁了人们的自由与自主性。共产主义不仅没有扩大经济自由，反而通过计划经济彻底扼杀了个人的自主权。
Millions of Americans experience this as a shrinking future and a loss of control over their destiny. The communist arrives, agrees with them, and offers the oldest bargain on record: "You have nothing to lose but your chains. Workers of the world, unite!" Communism is the opium Marx accused religion of being, and it has never once healed the pain. It has not expanded economic freedom; it has abolished it through central planning. Communism did not restore personal agency; it destroyed agency on principle because agency is precisely what a total state cannot permit.
现代资本主义也迎来了250周年。我们需要提醒美国人它为何如此重要。所有的冒牌货都包含某种真理的成分，共产主义也不例外。共产主义者所正确认识到、随后却又背叛的真理是：经济的核心在于人本身。但共产主义者无法解释原因。如果我们仅仅是生产者和消费者，那么个人能动性就只是一种偏好，而非我们人性中不可或缺的一部分，国家便可以在其认为权宜之计的时候随意凌驾于其上。
MODERN CAPITALISM IS TURNING 250, TOO. WE NEED TO REMIND AMERICANS WHY IT’S IMPORTANT All imposters have an element of truth, and communism is no different. What the communist gets right but then betrays is the truth that the core of economics is the human person. But the communist cannot say why. If we are only producers and consumers, then personal agency is a mere preference, not a fundamental part of our humanity, and the state may override it whenever it deems it expedient to do so.
关于人的真理，是任何唯物主义——无论是资本主义还是共产主义——都无法阐述的，而基督教对人的阐释则捍卫了这一点：人类拥有上帝的形象。因此，工作是高尚的，而不仅仅是一种功能。所有权是一种管理，而非优越性的证明。人的尊严不是由国家授予或剥夺的。人的尊严是神圣赋予的，并通过经济自由和个人能动性得到保护和培育。
The truth about the human person that no materialism—capitalist or communist—can say is what the Christian account of the human person defends: human beings bear the image of God. Work is therefore noble rather than a mere function. Ownership is a stewardship, not evidence of superiority. And human dignity is not for the state to grant or revoke. The dignity of the human person is divinely endowed and is protected and nurtured through economic freedom and personal agency.
时间紧迫，我以一个目睹过这条道路终点的人的身份，写给我的美国同胞们。让我们不要接受共产主义者提供的交易。让我们走出回声室，重新认识彼此。让我们选举那些能够扩大经济自由而非管理其消亡的领导人。对于我的大学校长同僚们：我们的校园应当成为诚实、深思熟虑且公开讨论这些论点的地方，绝不容忍审查制度，绝不容忍针对异见者的暴力，也绝不容忍打着学术自由旗号的灌输。美国依然是自由与机遇的灯塔。让我们保持这一现状。
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION The time is short, and I write to my fellow Americans as someone who has seen where this road ends. Let’s not take the bargain the communists offer. Let’s get out of our echo chambers and get to know each other again. Let’s elect leaders who will expand economic freedom rather than administer its disappearance. And to my fellow college and university presidents: our campuses should be places where these arguments are discussed honestly, thoughtfully, and in public, with no quarter given to censorship, to violence against those with whom we disagree, or to indoctrination hiding behind academic freedom. America remains the beacon of freedom and opportunity. Let us keep it that way.