Quote of the Day: David Mamet on Communism

Playwright David Mamet has just written a piece for the Daily Beast.  It's all worth a look, and it gives us the quote of the day:

Karl Marx summed up Communism as “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” This is a good, pithy saying, which, in practice, has succeeded in bringing, upon those under its sway, misery, poverty, rape, torture, slavery, and death.  

For the saying implies but does not name the effective agency of its supposed utopia. The agency is called “The State,” and the motto, fleshed out, for the benefit of the easily confused must read “The State will take from each according to his ability: the State will give to each according to his needs.” “Needs and abilities” are, of course, subjective. So the operative statement may be reduced to “the State shall take, the State shall give.”

It's depressing just how readily this historical fact has been forgotten/buried by statist educators, activists, and politicians.