Socialism’s Ancient Roots and Modern Misunderstandings

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Recently, I came across what might be the most astonishingly ignorant statement I’ve ever heard. Here is the source: https://x.com/SaintGreenPact/status/1899253750289564159?t=LYmv4zUNX11ePhTsjniLsg&s=09

https://x.com/TaninRotzach/status/1899267703413551361?t=ToaYbYLo4dH3cnr0B_bm2w&s=09

The notion that socialism originated with Jewish traditions or biblical Israel. Let’s set the record straight—socialism was practiced by the Greeks long before the Jews even grasped the concept of collective control and ownership of the means of production. This isn’t just a historical quibble; it’s a fundamental correction to how we understand the ideology’s origins and evolution.

Biblical Israel: Private Ownership, Not Socialism
According to the Bible, the Jews had kings, yes—but that’s where the comparison to centralized control ends. Biblical Israel operated with private ownership and free markets, not a system where the state collectively owned and controlled the means of production. Socialism, as we understand it, simply didn’t exist in that context. To suggest otherwise is to misread both history and scripture.

The True Birthplace of Socialism: Greece and Rome
It was the Greeks who first embraced and practiced socialism in its fullest form, later followed by the Romans, who adopted and adapted Greek ideas. The Greeks, alongside the Gnostics, laid the philosophical groundwork for what we now recognize as socialist ideology. This wasn’t a fleeting experiment—it was a perfected system, rooted in idealism and hermeticism, that influenced some of the most significant thinkers in Western history.

Take Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Hegel, for instance. These German idealists, deeply inspired by Greek philosophy, shaped the intellectual framework that later socialists like Giovanni Gentile, Benito Mussolini, and Karl Marx built upon. Kant and Hegel weren’t just abstract thinkers; they were the bridge between ancient Greek socialism and modern political movements. Marx, though ethnically Jewish, rejected Judaism entirely—he was an idealist through and through, not a product of Jewish tradition.

Socialism as a Fractured Religion
Socialism isn’t just an economic system; it’s a religion with splintered sects, each clinging to its own dogma. You’ve got Fascist Socialists, where fascism—defined by Giovanni Gentile as syndicalism fused with actual idealism—offers one flavor of the ideology. Gentile, the philosophical architect of fascism, drew heavily from Greek-inspired idealism.

Then there’s Marxism, National Socialism, and countless Gnostic-inspired socialist movements, all in conflict with one another. Judaism, in its original form, stood apart from this—it wasn’t socialist at its core.

But today? That’s a different story. Modern Judaism has been infiltrated by socialist idealists, diluting its traditional roots. The lines have blurred, and it’s no surprise that confusion reigns when people try to trace socialism’s history.

The Fatal Flaw of Socialism
Here’s where it gets practical: socialism, by its nature, rejects trade as a sustainable mechanism. Look at the National Socialist economy or any pure socialist system—without trade, they can only survive by conquering other economies and exporting their debts. History bears this out. The Greek Empire crumbled under this weight. The Romans, following in their footsteps, met the same fate. And if the United States keeps flirting with socialism, it’s staring down the barrel of a similar collapse.

A Call for Clarity
If you’re still skeptical, I urge you to dig deeper. Read Kant and Hegel. Study Gentile’s actual idealism and Marx’s rejection of his own heritage. Socialism’s roots aren’t in biblical Israel—they’re in the Greek polis, refined through centuries of philosophical and political evolution. The evidence is there, but it takes effort to see it clearly.

So, my friends, you’ve got some research ahead of you. History doesn’t bend to fit modern narratives—it demands we confront it as it was.