Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies.
Interpretation
The quote compares communism to religion, suggesting that both rely on prophetic ideals.
H. L. Mencken's quote points out the similarities between communism and religion, emphasizing that both systems operate on prophetic beliefs and predictions about the future. By referring to communism as a 'revealed religion,' Mencken suggests that it has a faith-like quality, requiring adherence to ideologies that cannot always be empirically proven, much like religious doctrines. This highlights the interpretative nature of political philosophies and the human tendency to seek faith-based structures in varied domains of life.
In practice
In a debate on political systems, one might quote Mencken to illustrate the ideological nature of communism.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
An armed society is a polite society.
Realise this: one day your soul_x000D_ will depart from your body and you will_x000D_ be drawn behind the curtain that floats between us_x000D_ and the unknown. While you wait for that moment, be happy,_x000D_ because you don't know where you came from and_x000D_ you don't know where you will be going.
And if these incidents now seem full of significance and all of a piece, it's probably because I'm looking at them in the light of what came later.
Among human beings there is no greater banality than death. Second in order, because it is possible to die without being born, comes birth, and next comes marriage.
My job is not to save 'The Wheel of Time', to fix 'The Wheel of Time', or anything like that. My job is not to screw it up.
The Devil has the broadest perspectives for God; therefore, he keeps so far away from God -- the Devil being the most ancient friend of wisdom
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