Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us
Hope I can use that expression from Pogo Possum in a post title because it is apropos and has been around for most of the period that Americans have been fighting Communists. Americans have always fought against Communists because communism represents the very antithesis of the American Ideal that was the crux of the colonial patriot cause in the American War for Independence as expressed in the Declaration, individual liberty. Now, one of our two major political parties has gone full-fledged in support of communist principles led by an avowed communist, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
How did we get to this point? A major step was taken in the 1970s when some members of the legal profession began to jump at every opportunity to promote victimization. Go to critical legal studies for a discussion of how this happened. (anonymous brought that to my attention.)
Another place for some detailed analysis of how this developed is offered by Allan Bloom in the “Introduction: Our Virtue,” of his 1987 book, The Closing of the American Mind.
Looks as if we have arrived.
Published in Politics
I was surprised to read about how Reagan got interested in politics, when as an actor he saw the infiltration of the communist ideals into Hollywood and made it his mission to fight against it. Becoming governor, then president and telling Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” was a lifelong mission accomplished. Also his influence along with Pope John Paul II and Margaret Thatcher also taught me (I was very young and not interested in politics back then) that it was and is a lifelong battle. Can you imagine if they hadn’t chosen to push back?
Now they don’t teach American history that includes those battles and why, to kids today. Kids growing up without a solid understanding of why socialism, fascism, communism etc. is not compatible with free societies may pay the price one day – hope its later and not sooner!
I blame the judges. They got activist and made it all happen.
Recalled from law school days, in the late 70s–
Q: “What do you call the A students?”
A: “Professor.”
Q: “What do you call the B students?”
A: “Counselor.”
Q: What do you call the C students?”
A: “Your Honor.”
I was thinking about that question they asked in the date, “What is the greatest threat to The United States?” My answer is “Marxism”. That is the root of the twin evils of socialism and identity politics.
Yes. I reference it as “Communism” but that is a product of my time on Earth. Same thing. But it’s not just a threat, it is an active enemy.
Solzhenitsyn, in his memorable Templeton Prize Lecture in 1983, explained the cataclysmic disasters of the 20th century thus:
“Men have forgotten God.”
Furthermore:
“It was Dostoevsky who drew from the French Revolution and its seeming hatred of the Church the lesson that ‘revolution must necessarily begin with atheism.’ That is absolutely true. But the world had never before known a godlessness as organized, militarized, and tenaciously malevolent as that practiced by Marxism. Within the philosophical system of Marx and Lenin, and at the heart of their psychology, hatred of God is the principal driving force, more fundamental than all their political and economic pretensions. Militant atheism is not merely incidental or marginal to Communist policy; it is not a side effect, but the central pivot.”
It is worth mentioning, I think, that many conservatives, if they have not “forgotten God” are blase regarding religious observance. They are naive if they think their children will not be tempted by the blandishments of leftism, which is a religion in its own right. As Bob Dylan famously sang, “Gotta Serve Somebody.” The religious impulse is basic to the human psyche and will not abide a vacuum. By extension, Breitbart’s “politics is downstream from culture” could be amended to “religious affiliation (which would include leftism) is downstream from culture.” Indeed, contemporary pop culture, created almost entirely by leftists, walks in lockstep with leftism, too.