World in the Grip of an Idea: 24. The Cold War: The Spread of
Communism DECEMBER 01, 1978 by CLARENCE B. CARSON In this
series, Dr. Carson examines the connection between ideology and
the revolutions of our time and traces the Impact on several
major countries and the spread of the Ideas and practices around
the world. The idea that has the world in its grip is not as it
is billed or the way it is made to appear by those who favor it.
It is not fundamentally an economic idea or theory, though that
is the guise that it often assumed from the outset. It is not
basically a political theory, although it often appears to be,
and there is considerable temptation for those who oppose it to
treat it in that way. Instead, it is in essence a power theory
or idea, a mode for attaining and exercising power. All its
claims and promises are, in the final analysis, but
justifications for holding and exercising power. That is not to
say that the attainment or exercise of power is the motive of
those who subscribe to or advan