Ah, yes. The "warmth of collectivism," as demonstrated by more than a century of collectivist experiments? Or as pledged by those who insist that all of the previous collectivist regimes had never practiced true collectivism?
I know which way I'm betting.
Yesterday, Zohran Mamdani took the oath of office as the new mayor of New York City. Mamdani doubled down on Marxism as he took the reins of the most significant capital market in the world, insisting that he would bring a new perspective to governance by, er ... trying the most-failed political-economic system of the past 100 years and painting it as "warmth":
MAYOR MAMDANI: "We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism." pic.twitter.com/3LIOVHdKSy
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 1, 2026
To be fair, burning it all down in New York City would generate quite a bit of warmth. That is essentially what "collectivism" has done in every setting in which it's been tried.
It didn't take long for the reminders of the destruction of collectivism to appear on social media. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis tried the direct approach with a pertinent question:
The “warmth” of collectivism that always requires coercion and force.
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) January 1, 2026
How many dead over the past 100 years due to collectivist ideologies? https://t.co/hWPzrO0GxG
And not surprisingly, we do have some answers to that question. Although modern educators avoid these topics like the plague, preferring to whine about "late stage capitalism" and "privilege," some historians still work hard to expose the truth of collectivist ideologies inspired by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Four years ago, the Foundation for Economic Education continued its Sisyphean mission in a profile of a Washington DC museum dedicated to the victims consumed by collectivist "warmth":
In the heart of Washington, D.C., behind the doors of a building not unlike the others with which it shares a block, lies a most visceral testament to the horrors of communism—a political ideology still all too dominant in the world today.
The new museum, from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, has been in the works for many years. It opened to the public on Monday. ...
From 1934 to 1947, an estimated 10 million were sent to the camps. Another estimate puts fatalities between 1.2 million and 1.7 million from 1918 to 1956.
An informational panel explains how Josef Stalin, the longest reigning leader of the Soviet Union, intentionally used a famine to starve more than 3 million Ukrainians in 1932 and 1933. Some estimate the death toll reached 7 million.
In total, the museum estimates, more than 100 million have been killed under communist regimes in the past 100 years.
This doesn't mention Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward. His attempt to "modernize" collectivist agriculture in Red China killed an estimated 45 million people in that short period of time. Most of the carnage came from famine, but up to three million of those were killed through executions and torture, according to Encyclopedia Britannica and other sources. The "warmth of collectivism" in that case relied entirely on the decomposing bodies of what would exceed the population of the entire state of New York today.
But wait – there's more! Mao also engineered the Cultural Revolution a few years afterward, which lasted from 1966-76. Estimates of the death toll from that collectivist project range around the two-million victims mark, with millions more persecuted in internal purges and punishments.
None of this is a secret. The numbers and the inevitable trajectory of collectivism has been well known for decades. F.A. Hayek wrote the definitive explanation of collectivism in The Road to Serfdom, which should become a must-read for New Yorkers in 2026, eighty-two years after its initial publication. Collectivism, whether expressed as communism, national socialism, or any other central-planning economic and political system, are destined to create either collapse or dictatorship, and usually both.
The reason for this, Hayek explains, is that any system designed for collectivist central planning cannot possibly account for the myriad interests and transactions of the individuals within such systems at any scale. When contradictions build up and transform into failures, collectivist regimes do not usually transition back to free-market systems and leverage the power of sovereign individuals for rational transactions, but instead use increasing force to dictate outcomes. That increases the contradictions and failures, and this cycle produces ever more ruthless leadership willing to impose central-planning policies to cover up the regime's failures. Hayek explained the failures of the Soviet system as they happened, and at the same time predicted the failures and carnage of every collectivist regime that would follow – especially China, but hardly limited to it.
The "warmth of collectivism," as explained by Hayek, is basically the white-hot rage of those in power seeking to maintain their privileged positions in these "people's republics."
Amusingly, Mamdani has already offered an example of the incompetence of his own collectivism. New Yorkers who came to the streets to celebrate his inauguration got a very good preview of the "warmth" to come over the next four years:
Scores of Zohran Mamdani fans who braved freezing temperatures to celebrate the new mayor as he was publicly sworn into office Thursday were left disappointed by the bash the socialist pol had promised.
Around 10,000 supporters stood outside City Hall during the event — billed as an “Inauguration for a New Era Block Party” by Mamdani’s staff — crammed into several barricaded pens without access to bathrooms or any food concession stands.
“It’s definitely not a block party,” said Danny Mahabir, 30, an Astoria resident who told The Post he’d been expecting a mix of food and music at the New Year’s Day festivities. ...
While Mamdani fans were still excited for the new administration to get underway, they weren’t impressed by the supposed “block party” on a frigid day when temperatures dropped to the mid-20s.
“It’s not exactly what I was expecting,” said Brooklyn resident Shane Turner, 30. “I was expecting food and music.”
Fans of collectivism are always expecting a party. They always end up in the pens watching the Party party instead. Maybe this will teach New Yorkers a lesson, but in the meantime, watch to see when and to where the capital goes. Y'All Street beckons, without the lessons of Mao, Stalin, the Khmer Rouge, and all of the other collectivist regimes that created warmth by burning everything down.
