Left in Poverty

Leftism thrives on poverty and wretchedness. It is the impoverishment of imagination, arising from deprivation and suffering, that makes people vulnerable to leftist ideas. Once these ideas permeate the imagination of a people, reclaiming their intellectual independence becomes exceedingly difficult.

In countries that have experienced prolonged tyrannical rule, sustained poverty or prolonged decline, people become particularly susceptible to such ideas. Once entrenched, they tend to persist across generations. In such countries, even the Right often turns out to be the Left, albeit wrapped in an exotic cloak.

Niraj Kumar Jha