Imagine yourself sailing on a boat through a serene and breathtaking sea. The waters shine around you, inviting and attractive, but they hide grave dangers ahead. This is “listening to the mermaid’s song”—being deceived by something that, while it sounds charming, leads to ruin. The expression comes from Greek mythology, where mermaids lured sailors with their mesmerizing song, leading them to destruction. Figuratively, “listening to the mermaid’s song” means being deluded by something that seems irresistible but leads to destruction.
While strolling through the launch section of a bookstore in Brasilia, I came across a work that can be seen as a true modern siren song: the Portuguese translation of the book It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism by US Senator Bernie Sanders (Cia das Letras, 2024). Such work exemplifies how appealing ideologies can seduce audiences with seemingly irresistible but misleading and destructive promises. Like the sailors of antiquity, many may be tempted by these ideas without realizing the underlying dangers they carry.
The vibrant cover leaves no doubt about its inflamed content. There he is, presenting himself as the eternal pre-candidate for the US presidency, always against Donald Trump, and dumping the buzzwords that circulate on social networks: “Billionaires should not exist!” And how to accept that three of them hold more wealth than half the population? Or allow elections to be dominated by the wealthy? Is a political system that rewards companies involved in the climate crisis fair?
Sanders paints a bleak picture of “supercapitalism” as its imaginary enemy, while positioning himself as a champion of democracy and outspoken critic of income inequality in the United States. Interestingly, it does this by being both white and rich—attributes that its followers often detest but that are subtly camouflaged in its narrative. As he stands as the champion of social justice and equality, his own privileges are carefully concealed. He passionately advocates the creation of a public health system, free higher education, and the fight against climate change. In short, it aims to transform the US into something that, ironically, would resemble Brazil, in the belief that this would be salvation.
Andrew J. Taylor—a professor at NC State University—warned: A new generation, oblivious to socialism’s astonishingly bad record, is surrendering to the tantalizing song of the “third way.” And who are the conductors of this tuneless orchestra? None other than the fanatical group of Sanders supporters—self-styled “democratic socialists.” While millennials flirt with socialist ideals, they reap the rewards of the free market.
Dr. Paul Kengor—academic director of Grove City College’s Institute for Faith and Freedom—presents alarming data in his book. Twenty-five of millennials view Lenin favorably, 32 percent believe with the utmost seriousness that George W. Bush was a greater villain than Joseph Stalin, 53 percent view socialism as benign, and a Gallup poll showed that 69 percent of millennials said they would be willing to vote for a socialist candidate for president of the United States.
And the list of follies doesn’t stop there: an unbelievable 42 percent are virtually ignorant of Mao Zedong, or barely scratch the surface of the terror he unleashed on China. The Great Leap Forward, for example, a veritable masterpiece of catastrophic policies, precipitated the greatest famine in world history, brutally wiping out between fifty and sixty million lives in a mere four years. And how can we forget the One Child Policy—a draconian exercise in population control, which, to “convince” families of the permitted number of children, resorted to extreme measures such as forced abortions and compulsory sterilizations? It’s a horror story that, incredibly, many of our uninformed young people barely know about or, worse, alarmingly romanticize. May Rothbard help us illuminate these lost minds.
I thank God that Sanders did not get elected, however, ideas he champions are gaining momentum. Stripped of euphemisms and ambiguities, he wields the banner of socialism with an almost admirable fervor, bluntly revealing his true convictions and goals.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dismantling of the Soviet empire, we witnessed an impressive rewriting of history. Professors, intellectuals, journalists, and various members of the financial elite have engaged in denying the inescapable reality that socialism has been the dominant direction imposed by the architects of political culture on Western civilization, including the United States. Despite the fact that the government, using the democratic façade, now controls all aspects of life and society, insidiously and perversely infiltrating the pockets of citizens, there is a stubborn refusal on the part of politicians, commentators, interest groups and the media to recognize and call this gigantic government growth “socialism.”
This systematic denial is not mere ignorance or error of judgment; it is a deliberate strategy to obscure the true nature of the system that imposes itself upon us. Government bureaucracy grows wildly, eroding individual freedoms and stifling private enterprise under the weight of oppressive regulations and exorbitant taxes. In the name of democracy and the common good, society is being driven toward what Friedrich Hayek wisely called the “Road to Serfdom,” where the autonomy of the individual is constantly undermined by the heavy hand of the state.
Many advocates of such government expansion—Sanders, AOC, Mamdani, and others—present themselves as benefactors of humanity, arguing that state intervention is necessary to ensure social justice and equality. However, this altruistic rhetoric hides a more sinister agenda: the centralization of power in the hands of a technocratic elite that sees itself as the legitimate guardians of collective destiny. These social and economic planners, often housed in academic institutions and the upper echelons of government, despise the individual’s ability to make decisions for himself and believe that only they possess the wisdom and vision to direct society.
As government control expands, the space for individual freedom contracts. This is not a historical accident, but the result of decades of planning and social engineering, where the autonomy of the average citizen is sacrificed on the altar of an omnipresent state. Ultimately, this denial of reality and this manipulation of language serve to perpetuate state domination. Resistance to this growing camouflaged socialism demands of us a firm commitment to the principles of individual liberty and personal responsibility.
