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The First Thanksgiving in America

The enduring lesson of Thanksgiving is the triumph of freedom over socialism.

The First Thanksgiving in America

By: George Noga – November 20, 2021

This Thanksgiving, as your family gathers to celebrate, regale them with the indelible lessons of the first Thanksgiving in America and not with the usual feel-good, warm, fuzzy, multi-cultural and politically correct narrative of Pilgrims sharing their first harvest and peacefully celebrating with their Wampanoag neighbors. This fusty canard about Thanksgiving is mostly false and offers no enduring life lessons.

The Pilgrims did not invite the Indians to the first Thanksgiving 

The Wampanoags were not invited to the harvest feast but crashed the party after it had begun, not to celebrate but to remind the Pilgrims they were there at their mercy. The relationship turned violent soon thereafter. Native Americans regard Thanksgiving as a tragedy leading to genocide, loss of land and slavery. Americans have been taught a story that is historically incorrect and that ignores the true lessons of Thanksgiving.

The True and Enduring Lessons of Thanksgiving

Following is the authentic story of Thanksgiving in America and its timeless lessons about human nature that speak to us even today. It is an inspiring and uplifting story about human survival, adaptation and eventual triumph over starvation and death.

Once upon a time, good and righteous people seeking a better life came to settle in America; they had sincere and lofty ideas about how they would govern themselves in the new world. They believed that sharing all work and benefits equally was just and even noble. They strove gallantly to make such a socialist system work.

The Pilgrims starved under socialism but prospered with capitalism

But after enduring social dissonance and unfathomable hardships, they came to the realization that a system of communal property is incompatible with human nature. They quickly took decisive action and instituted private property rights. The next harvest resulted in a veritable cornucopia, and they held a feast to celebrate. Today, we celebrate this triumph of freedom over socialism as the first Thanksgiving in America.

The authentic Thanksgiving narrative is about early Americans overcoming starvation, death and collectivism. It is about understanding that socialism always results in starvation amidst plenty. It is about understanding that severing the link between work and benefit is contrary to human nature. It is about understanding that socialism is such a perversion that people choose starvation over living and working communally.

People in Plymouth (and Jamestown) literally chose death over socialism. Yet, all these same people who, one year earlier, starved under socialism suddenly became industrious, inventive and prosperous when they had property rights. And that, dear readers, is the authentic narrative of the first Thanksgiving in America!

A HAPPY AND AUTHENTIC THANKSGIVIING TO ALL OUR READERS

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Our next post about climate change reveals a climate threat that is far worse.

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A Chinese Thanksgiving: The Story of Xiaogang

Plymouth and Jamestown have much in common with the village of Xiaogang.
A Chinese Thanksgiving: The Story of Xiaogang
By: George Noga – November 24, 2019

          This year marks the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China; it was celebrated with great pomp throughout China. Something far more transcendent and ineffable took place on November 24, 1978 – exactly 41 years ago today – in the tiny Chinese village of Xiaogang; that story is suppressed even today by the Chicoms. Following is the amazing true story of the quiet revolution that saved China.

         After taking power in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (Chicoms) abolished private land ownership and forced peasants into communes. The result was predictable; by 1978, 40 million had starved to death with survivors near death. In the village of Xiaogang there was no food. Farmers dug up roots, boiled leaves with salt and ground roasted tree bark into flour. Then something truly remarkable happened.

           On November 24, 1978 a farmer, Yan Hongchang, invited heads of Xiaogang’s families to attend a clandestine meeting. The farmers signed a 79-word pledge to divide the commune’s land into individual family plots; each agreed to submit his share of the decreed quota to the state but got to keep the rest for his family. What happened next was predictable – and also inspirational. The farmers produced a grain harvest of 100 metric tons – equal to 20 years of quotas. There is no official record of the village having a thanksgiving celebration following the harvest, but I’ll bet it had one.

        The Chicoms tried to suppress news of the Xiaogang miracle, but word quickly spread throughout China. Within just two years, Deng Xiaoping decided to abandon collective farming. He allowed peasants to farm their own plot of land and to sell most of the harvest in unregulated markets. The rest is history. A tiny group of farmers, who understood human nature, stood up to the immense power of the state. Today there is a small museum in Xiaogang commemorating the farmers with a copy of their pledge. There also is a banner proclaiming: “The origin of our nation’s economic rise“.

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        Events in both Jamestown and Plymouth parallel what transpired in Xiaogang. The earliest Americans starved to death en mass under socialism but prospered when given property rights. Socialism was such an affront to their humanity that they died rather than pervert their human nature. If they would have worked as hard under socialism as they later did under capitalism, they would have prospered. Yet, they chose death over socialism. Whether it is in Xiaogang, Plymouth, Jamestown, Caracas or Pyongyang socialism always ends the same way, i.e. starvation amidst plenty.

         This Thanksgiving share with your children and grandchildren the authentic story of Thanksgiving in Jamestown, Plymouth – and Xiaogang. Without private property rights there is no abundance and there is no Thanksgiving – ever. When we sever the link between work and benefit, the inevitable result is privation and misery. If you want a veritable cornucopia to share with others, only capitalism can produce it.

        Pilgrims celebrating their harvest with Native Americans is a warm, fuzzy, feel-good, multi-cultural, politically correct myth that ignores authentic, enduring lessons, i.e. socialism fails and capitalism succeeds. Americans 400 years ago understood these lessons better than progressive politicians today who advocate a return to the principles that created mass starvation in Jamestown, Plymouth and Xiaogang.


Next on December 1st – the oxymoron of government accountability.
More Liberty Less Government  –  mllg@mllg.us  –  www.mllg.us