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Thomas Piketty seems to be the darling of 21st century intellectuals as Ortega y Gasset was of the 20th century. His masterly researched and written magnum opus Capital in the Twenty-First Century has been touted by both the European and the American left, and it is essentially Marx 2.0, or one might say Marx for the 21st Century. He showcases his erudition throughout the text, and one should note that his tone is not radical or revolutionary, but rather composed, intellectual and academic. He comes to us as the scholar, the professor, not the angry radical with his fist in the air, but one should not be seduced by his cerebral and congenial manner, as his ideas and sentiments are as pestilential as Mao Zedong, Karl Marx, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and others of their ilk.

His aims are, among others, global registry of financial assets, global coordination of wealth taxation, and progressive wealth tax rates. One in The United States of America and in the West should be as concerned of this as others seem to be of Islamism and Sharia, and one might label his oeuvre Creeping Socialism. All elements of privacy would be eradicated in Pikettys dystopia (though he would term it a Utopia, I am sure), and the spirit of collectivism would triumph over the spirit of rugged individualism that we so cherish. Americans should always be on guard against the type of phrases that he uses such as the common good, the general interest and of course the oft-used the people, as all are precursors of Socialism. He notes, A tax on capital would promote the general interest over private interests while preserving economic openness and the forces of competition. (Piketty, 471) It should be stated that Frances 75% wealth tax that Piketty gushes over was a complete and abysmal failure and had to be rescinded, as the wealthy, the professional, and the accomplished French fled to Russia (Gerard Depardieu), the U.K. Belgium and Switzerland, among others. This same scenario played out here in America when California raised its taxes. The wealthy and accomplished hightailed it for Nevada, Texas and Florida.

Socialists and progressives seem to thrive in what The Great One at Yale Harold Bloom termed The School of Resentment though he meant it in a Literary sense against those who have attacked great works of Art based upon gender, race and class, but let us leave Literary matters aside and return to Piketty. One can well imagine Piketty, Cornell West, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders standing on a street corner together, having a cup of coffee, complaining about Trumps latest vulgar tweet, when a gleaming Ferrari pulls up to the light. Undoubtedly, they would resent the selfish capitalist showing off his wealth in such an ostentatious way and mention the struggle of working people and so on and so forth. Yet is not the spirit of America, the spirit of capitalism, to see that car and say Wow - how did this person attain that sense of success and how can I achieve it too? Maybe they could offer some economic-advice? The difference is that the Socialist resents whereas the Capitalist aspires, and is not economic aspiration in our blood as Americans? Did not our ancestors flee the class-based stratified societies of the Old World to seek economic opportunity - to go from being the help to having help - to go from toiling on the land as a serf to being the landowner - to go from paying rent to collecting rent? Sam Zell, the successful American capitalist, commented accurately that the 1% should be emulated, not resented, and I could not agree more.

If one studies the Cultural Revolution in China, one sees that the enemies of the Chinese communists were intellectuals, individual exceptionalism, rich farmers, rich landowners and private business interests. I remember when studying this thinking to myself that I aspired to be everything that the Chinese Communists and Piketty resent and despise. To read voraciously in my spare time so as to rival the intellectual habits of Oxford dons, to train maniacally in the gymnasia to attain physical exceptionalism that equals an ancient Greek sculpture, to one day own land as a landlord and/or farmer and to have private business interests. And I strongly believe that all Americans, and all men/women, should at least have some of these aims, be it to think for oneself not as part of a collectivist herd, to be an independent farmer like Jefferson or Thoreau, to be a rich landlord like Trump (even though you may not like him personally or approve of his political persuasions), or to be a rich investor like Warren Buffett/Charlie Munger. For to be rich is to be free. Munger himself comments, Like Warren (Buffett, not Elizabeth) I had a considerable passion to get rich. Not because I wanted Ferraris - I wanted the independence. I desperately wanted it. (Lowenstein, 75)

One should note however that the sentiments of Piketty, Warren and Sanders are not novel as this spirit of resentment is referenced by Napoleon Hill in his seminal Think and Grow Rich where he states, For more than twenty years it has been a somewhat popular and growing pastime for radicals, self-seeking politicians, racketeers, crooked labor leaders, and on occasion religious leaders, to take pot-shots at Wall Street, The Money-Changers, and Big Business. The practice became so general that we witnessed during the business depression, the unbelievable sight of high government officials lining up with the cheap politicians, and labor leaders, with the openly avowed purpose of throttling the system which has made Industrial America the richest country on Earth. (Hill, 60) Was he describing 1937 or 2017 ?

As America moves forward into the the 21st century it would seem obvious that we are going to face many threats with perhaps the top three being The Rise of China, Creeping Sharia (Islamism in general), and Creeping Socialism and while the first two will likely be more problematic, one should not discount the threat of Piketty and other academics/politicians who come not with all the Gold of Asia, with dirty nukes, but rather with a smile, a friendly mien, clutching Marx under one arm and Lenin under the other.

-Pietros Maneos, The American Capitalist,

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Against Thomas Piketty & Creeping Socialism - HuffPost