First there was the “Lost Generation” of the early 1900s. Then there were the post-World War II apologists. Then there were the 60s radicals, including the hippies. Then it was the cowering detente peaceniks of the ’70s. Finally, in the late 1980s, President Ronald Reagan brought Communism to an end. Right?

Wrong.

This probably comes as a surprise to no one. I mean, even following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, there was still China, North Korea, Cuba, Albania and few of the old Soviet republics hanging on. And while some of those nations eventually snapped out of their Marx-induced catatonic states, the truth is that most of them – China, North Korea, Cuba – remain staunchly Communist and openly hostile to the West.

The most notable evidence that Communism is enjoying a resurgence has a few indicators.

First, the heir to the Soviet system, Russia, is itself teetering back toward Communism as they centralize their industries and markets with the government (although, the West has actually begun to join them in this poorly thought out practice). The dictatorial policies of Vladimir Putin continue under the auspices of his hand-picked successors and the populace itself, having never experienced freedom in the over 1,000-year history of the nation, seems reluctant to wrap their minds and arms around the concept of political and economic liberty.

The rise of “socialism” (that’s the new marketing term for “Communism”, by the way, since they couldn’t sell it under the brand names “Communism” or “Marxism”) in the South America nation of Venezuela under Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro is a Communist-driven and aimed movement. The Russian navy participating in joint exercises with Venezuela is no accident (although the killing of 20 members of the Russian navy in a 2008 submarine probably was).

We have all recently seen the giddy, ill-informed popularity of Lenin t-shirts, Che Guevara apparel and Mao images among college-age youth and aging people who are just too stupid to learn. The disturbing element of this trend, however, lies with the influence of Marxist ideology among the youth.

It is true that Churchill is credited with saying “Any man who isn’t a communist before the age of 30 doesn’t have a heart and any man who isn’t a capitalist after the age of 40 doesn’t have a brain.”

But what makes the modern resurgence of Communist sympathy so much more dangerous is the lack of perspective in which it has become trendy to view it. So, in an effort to educate those who may yet be impressionable, let’s review where our major Communist players are today.

Chinese Communism remains the single most destructive form of government on the planet, despite the claim that the nation is moving towards an ersatz capitalism. Capitalism only exists in a free society. China is not a free society. The political freedom to dissent and to apply one’s own resources independently without government approval is the most fundamental tenet of capitalism. China is not even close to this standing. The central Communist government remains the business director for every enterprise in the nation. China is no more capitalist today than Soviet Russia was capitalist in 1957.

The illusion of capitalism in China is made possible by the West’s capitulation to greed at the expense of moral principle. Our psychotic, self-destructive drive for Wal-Mart low, low prices has caused America and the rest of the Western nations to pour capital into a cheap labor and production source. The oft-repeated mantra of China’s “burgeoning middle-class” is a myth propagated by the Communists themselves in order to lure foreign currency into their infrastructure.

Capitalism has its dangers, too. Moral bankruptcy is one of them. The difference is that capitalist amorality is arrived at voluntarily by the participants. Communist immorality is forced upon everyone who lives under its authority.

Meanwhile, China’s neighbor and pupil state North Korea continues to brutally subjugate its people in the names of Communism and megalomanical tyrant Kim Jong-Un. The Norks continue to threaten to invade South Korea, as North Korea maintains that they are the only true Korean government and seeks repatriation of the south (see Communist China’s continued claim to ownership and dominion over a free Taipei).

In South America, that aforementioned moral bankruptcy of capitalism led to an oppressive regime rising from a free nation. In the land where Latin American Communist activity has been destroying lives and nations since the 1950s, Hugo Chavez’ Venezuela is a dictatorship. Having centralized the oil industry and most manufacturing under his government’s control, Maduro has crippled the nation’s economy with Communist redistribution of wealth. Today, even the poor who helped lift him to power are more miserable than when he was first elected and are crying out against his reign of tyranny.

Venezuelan communists often cite Cuba and the influence of murderers and presidents Fidel and Raul Castro as being central to his political approach. Castro’s brother, Raul, provided a seamless transition much like the one that led North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il to power after the death of his father, Kim Il-Sung, and ultimately, our current “rocketman” Kim Jong-Un.

Of course, most Americans understand the dangers of communism. Forced or even coerced collectivism destroys personal liberty and creates a subordination to the culture and the state. Communism, unlike any other political ideology, is inherently destructive to free expression of faith, thought and enterprise. It directs all resources toward an arbitrary redistribution independent of merit and based upon need. As we have seen repeatedly over 100 years, this “need” rapidly overcomes any reward or personal gain and devolves into a depressing, totalitarian unified collective of mediocrity.

The problem with modern youth viewing Communism as a viable alternative is that the frame of historical reference is missing. In its place is built a structure of apologetics that excuses all of Communism’s abuses, failings and excesses. Lenin is not considered Communist; he was just a misguided innovator. Stalin is not considered Communist; he was just evil. Mao is not considered Communist; he was a just desperate revolutionary grasping for an ideology. Ho Chi Minh is not considered Communist; he just despised the West. Pol Pot is not considered Communist; he was just genocidal. Castro was not Communist; he just got caught up in nationalist fervor.

One is forced to raise all the destructive, catastrophic examples of Communism to people because, as Churchill implied, the natural compassion of Christianized Western civilization can overwhelm the wisdom of history.

Claiming that no one has ever been Communist or that the Marxist system has never truly been implemented is a disingenuous attempt to participate in another failure. And it is a failure that should be resisted at any and all costs, both for the benefit of those who would try it and those who would suffer under the weight of the failure itself.