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Among the Intellectualoids
The Left Resumes Its War on History
Did you know Che Guevara was at heart an Irish freedom fighter?
What does an Argentine-born Cuban Communist revolutionary executed in the Bolivian jungle 45 years ago have in common with a small town on Ireland’s west coast? Apart from tenuous ancestral connections, the answer is nothing. Recent attempts, however, to manufacture such an association have provided yet another illustration of the left’s on-going determination to whitewash history.
In February this year, Galway City Council announced plans to build a statute of Che Guevara to “honor one of its own” (one of Che ‘s grandmothers was born in Galway). It wasn’t long, however, before several Irish business leaders, journalists, and eventually the Chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee vented their outrage about the council’s decision. Why, they asked, would Galway erect a monument to someone who had personally killed several people without even the pretense of trials? Why would they honor a man who oversaw one of the Castro regime’s most brutal periods of oppression — including arbitrary imprisonments and summary executions?
The Irish left’s initial reaction was to deny these facts and launch ad hominem attacks. When that failed, they produced extraordinary rationalizations which bordered on the absurd. One columnist, for example, wrote: “Yes, Che was ruthless and fanatical and sometimes murderous. But was he a murderer? No, not in the sense of a serial killer or gangland assassin. He was one of those rare people who are prepared to push past ethical constraints, even their own conscience, and bring about a greater good by doing terrible things.”
Apparently murder isn’t really murder if it’s justified by “a greater good.”
We shouldn’t, however, be surprised by such responses. They reflect a pattern. Getting contemporary French left-wing intellectuals, for example, to acknowledge the ideological genocide unleashed in the Vendée by the French Revolution in the 1790s is almost impossible. In present-day America, any mention of Planned Parenthood’s early association with the eugenics movement invariably results in stone-walling and, eventually, lame explanations that its founder Margaret Sanger was a “child of her time.” The same approach shows up in most American liberals’ studied refusal to discuss slurs employed by the likes of Bill Maher to describe conservative women.
But it’s when the left is confronted with the history of Communism that the denials, ad hominem vitriol, sullen silences, and feeble excuses really get going. Back in 1997, several French intellectuals, many with left-wing backgrounds, published The Black Book of Communism. This text exhaustively detailed how Communist movements and regimes had imprisoned, tortured, starved, experimented upon, enslaved, and exterminated millions across the globe throughout the 20th century.
Though a few brave lefty souls conceded the book’s damning evidence, the left’s general response followed the usual playbook: attacks on the authors’ credibility; arcane disputation of precise numbers killed (as if a million-less here-or-there made any meaningful difference to the overall thesis); claims that Stalin represented a “distortion” of Marxism; and even bizarre suggestions that such crimes shouldn’t distract us from Communism’s “genuine achievements.”
Overall, the left has been remarkably successful in distorting people’s knowledge of Communism’s track-record. Everyone today knows about the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes. Yet does anyone doubt that far fewer know much about the atrocities ordered by the likes of Lenin, Castro, Mao, and Pol Pot? Do those Occupy Wall Street protesters waving red hammer-and-sickle flags actually understand what such symbols mean for those who endured Communism?
But while the left’s response to such awkward queries won’t likely change, the unanswered question is why so many left-inclined politicians and intellectuals play these games.
Part of the answer is the very human reluctance of anyone to acknowledge the dark side of movements with which they have some empathy. Even today, for example, there are Latin Americans inclined to make excuses for the right-wing death-squads — the infamous Escuadrón de la Muerte — that wrought havoc in Central America throughout the 1970s and '80s.
The sheer scale of denial among progressivists, however, suggests something else is going on. I think it owes much to the left’s claim to a monopoly of moral high-mindedness.
Anyone who reads progressivists’ writings soon discovers they usually assert to be working to liberate the rest of us from all sorts of oppression. Normally, the end-goal is to usher some secular utopia. Karl Marx, for instance, described his particular end of history as a world in which it would be possible for everyone “to do one thing today and another tomorrow; to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, breed cattle in the evening and criticize after dinner, just as I please.”
Claiming the moral high-ground, of course, allows the left to dismiss its critics as unethical, disingenuous, or dangerous. In many instances, the same self-righteousness has been invoked to justify the left’s use of ferocious measures against its opponents, real and imaginary.
Seeking, for example, to legitimize the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, its architect Maximilian Robespierre claimed: “The spring of… government during a revolution is virtue combined with terror.… Terror is only justice prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue.”
Unfortunately for progressivists, the lengths to which some leftists have gone to realize their objectives cast into extreme doubt their claims to moral authority. After all, who in their right mind would associate virtue with the guillotine in the Place de la Révolution? Isn’t it supposed to be reactionaries who do such appalling things? Could it really be that Saint Che himself once actually said: “To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail.… a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate.”
About the Author
Samuel Gregg is Research Director at the Acton Institute. He has authored several books including On Ordered Liberty, his prize-winning The Commercial Society, Wilhelm Röpke’s Political Economy, and, most recently, Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and America’s Future.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (99) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 3.28.12 @ 7:28AM
In a society where nobody much reads anything but Tweets, and even the protesters march waving pre-printed signs and shouting rhyming slogans (usually beginning with "Hey Hey Ho Ho -- fillintheblank has got to go!"), it's not surprising that Brave New World's practice of "Elementary Class Consciousness" -- slogans repeated 100 times a day until they coat the idling mind like wax on a rock -- have taken the place of informed discourse. 1984 predicated an army of people engaged in rearranging history; in fact it turned out that all they have to do is tell people it didn't happen, or it didn't happen like that, and presto, history is altered.
Brave New World said if you infantilize the troops, keep them perpetually 13 years old, give them plenty of free sex and drugs, and tell them what to think, running the world will be much less difficult. True, the Brave New Worlders never bothered to Occupy, but once the Soma Spray is perfected, that problem will also disappear. It's a Brave New World we live in, Master Jack.
albert constantine jr.| 3.28.12 @ 8:47AM
"It's a Brave New World we live in, Master Jack."
Appleby, once again I tip my cap to your esoteric reference to Four Jacks & a Jill, one of those obscure yet haunting hits.
Timothy L. Pennell| 3.28.12 @ 11:56AM
"A house divided, cannot stand."
How is it possible that we have 4 Supreme Court Justices who, while claiming to be Experts on the Constitution of the United States, hold the Opinion that a Massive Centralized Federal Government, is what the Founders had in mind, when they set out to free themselves from a Massive Centralized Federal Government, in the form of King George III?
How do they Rationalise the things they say, with the actual Document? How is it that they seem to believe that the 2nd, 9th, and 10th Amendments, don't really mean anything?
Their Muslim Master has even said, out of his Filthy, Lying Mouth, that the "Constitution is a Document of Negative Rights. It says what Government CAN'T DO, and not what (in his Marxist opinion) what it should do, to help (Control) people".
What kind of a person, let alone a Supreme Court Justice, believes that one should look to Other Countries' Cave Drawings, Wood Burnings, and Village Laws written in Blood on Animal Skins, as a means to Interpret OUR Constitution?
What kind of an Assh*le, tells the Savages in the Land of the Burning Tire Necklace, to ignore the Greatest Governing Document in the History of the world, because it's Old and Wrinkled, and doesn't have any of those Marxist, Social Justice, Kill the Rich, French Revolution things in it?
We have 4 People on the Court who understand the Obviousness of the Constitution. The Obviousness of the Writings of our Founding Fathers. The Obviousness that this Country is the Freest, Fairest, Strongest Nation in the History of the Planet. And we have another 4 who think that the WRONG GUYS won the Cold War.
"The powers granted to the Federal Government are Few, and well Defined. They are in the 1st 9 Amendments of the Bill of Rights." James Madison. The Father of the Constitution.
How can someone take an Oath to Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United States, when they despise it, ridicule it at every turn, and work tirelessly to undermine it, and replace it with a COMMUNIST MANIFESTO?
When did 2+2 become an existential number? How did "Enumerated Powers" become something other than Enumerated Powers? Where was I when half of the Supreme Court came from the United States of America, and the other half from Bizarro World? And why are there so many people who want to hand over Control of every aspect of their lives, to the 567 Stupidest, Most Corrupt, Despicable Men and Women on the Planet?
How long was I asleep?
A Grin without a Cat| 3.28.12 @ 12:58PM
Actually, Mr. Obama was right that the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. He was wrong only in seeing this as a bug, not a feature.
cowgirl| 3.28.12 @ 1:17PM
Repeat after me: Liberalism is a mental illness. Liberalism is a mental illness...
Dignified| 3.28.12 @ 4:18PM
Your confusing liberal with democrat. If you understood the difference and stopped listening to msm, you might feel differently.
Ground Control| 3.28.12 @ 1:36PM
How long were you asleep? A long time. This started really moving with Woodrow Wilson, accelerated greatly with Franklin Roosevelt, got a really big boost with Lyndon Johnson, and was finally ensconced in the pantheon of government with Bill Clinton. President Bozo is just the current figurehead. The real power is behind the scenes and the Justices of the Supreme Court with whom you are (quite properly) disgusted, were put on the court specifically to destroy the Supreme Law of the Land. That Law limits the powers of government, and the courts must be corrupted in order to circumvent that Law, and do so under the trappings of "law."
Until the People of these United States wake up and realize that government is the criminal who robs them, not their benefactor, this will continue.
Time for my nap.
aware| 3.29.12 @ 7:30AM
Yes, yes, yes. Finally a poster not blinded by stupid partisanship and mesmerized by a farce "election". The Shadow Masters don't "run" in elections, they have hired hands for that.
The first thing the "People" should understand is there is a world of difference between government and the State. Our government was replaced by the State a century ago. Outward appearance of the State seems the same as government, but government has only 1 legitimate job, protecting the rights of the citizen.
The State has unlimited "jobs" always "justified" by "fairness" and "security". It is also a relentless consolidator that grows regardless of all efforts to limit. The State is not concerned with old parchment written 2 centuries ago, it sees it as an impediment to the "good works" it does.
Government is the consent of the governed while the State is the coercion of the ruled. Government is responsive to the will of the people but the State considers the people so much raw material to be used for its purpose. The State is always obsessed with every detail of of its people's affairs, much as a rancher is with a field of milch cows.
The pathology of the State is lost on modern "conservatives" who continue to play a rigged game with rigged rules that always assure a continuation of collectivism no matter who is "in charge". They are utterly convinced that with the next election and a change in faces all will turn around. Even though there is absolutely no historical evidence this has happened in the last century. The pace may change but the direction never does.
tj| 3.28.12 @ 3:47PM
Timothy you got my hearts\ again with this one! Many new talking points for me to try out on all the sleepy people!! I am so tired! Come on Nov 2012
Joe Gause| 3.28.12 @ 10:19PM
Well Rip, some things were happening while you slept in that cave in the Catskills; then you awoke from your perfect dreams; returned to the world, only to discover your worst nightmares. When did we all fall asleep?
Teaghan| 3.28.12 @ 8:48AM
Useful idiots~
Surly Curmudgen| 3.28.12 @ 11:23PM
Useful idiots~
communist/socialist zombies~
An intellectually challenged resident of a small community~
Those most enamored of communism/socialism are the least productive members of society.
Bill| 3.28.12 @ 10:27AM
My favorite chant these days is the Trayvon Martin chant of "Justice! Now!" that the mobs are calling for. Do they REALLY want justice right now? Shall we move the judge's benches down to the street and do the trials immediately? How about getting rid of the prosecutororial and defense lawyers, after all they only add to the delay, right? Let's just give 'em a fair trial and then hang 'em! Get a rope...
Todd S| 3.28.12 @ 11:03AM
They want some of that French revolutionary Justice, rule of law be damned. Their version of justice is sending tweets where they believe Zimmerman lives Spike Lee style and let the frenzied mob deliver their "justice". Of course it was the wrong address and have only succeeded in terrorizing an elderly couple but they were white so they are part of the problem to these racist haters.
Bill| 3.28.12 @ 1:20PM
More and more, I find the belief of our Founding Fathers, that emancipation was necessary and at the same time was going to be harmful for our society, and therefore the freed slaves should be transported back to Africa, to have been correct.
We live in a society in which two groups of people have radically divergent views of what a society should be all about, and no way to find middle ground. Eventually there will be a disaster.
Todd S| 3.28.12 @ 2:00PM
It didn't have to be this way but big government liberals made it their mission to put blacks on the plantation of government dependence in exchange for their votes. The explosion of illegitimacy and disintegration of the black family only occurred with the twin forces of sexual revolution and the so-called war on poverty. It has infected our whole society but has been particularly destructive in the black community. This is the fruits of "compassionate" liberalism that society is paying a terrible price for.
Curtis Rasmussen| 3.28.12 @ 4:30PM
Bill, you are wrong. The government selfishly creates dependency for control and power.
There are more whites that are victims of welfare than blacks, about 60% to 30%. If there were no blacks, the government would already have a pool of welfare-ready fools to nudge over the precipice. It could be as simple as relaxing the qualifications for who can be on the dole.
Todd S| 3.28.12 @ 5:22PM
Bill went to far no doubt, it is the ideology and not the skin color at issue here. It is unfortunate that a large majority of black people subscribe to the leftist ideology or are ignorant to its awful results. Greece has very few black people and their society is being destroyed because of the something for nothing philosophy that a large segment of the population subscribed to until the house of cards collapsed. This is where Obama and liberals will take us unless a majority of people say enough is enough and vote against politicians that preach the lies of socialism.
Bill| 3.29.12 @ 10:27AM
I didn't say a word about skin color. Somebody made a connection that I never mentioned.
Vern Crisler | 3.28.12 @ 1:45PM
So I wonder if Spike Lee can be sued by he elderly couple?
Darin| 3.28.12 @ 7:50AM
In other news, Hitler was a swell guy with a strange facial hair fetish who had the good of the German people in mind. Pol Pot was interested solely in bettering his people by weeding out undesirable traits like nearsightedness.
And Jeffrey Dahmer was the nice guy next door who had unusual dietary habits, not that there's anything wrong with that.
albert constantine jr.| 3.28.12 @ 8:42AM
Mr. Dahmer's commitment to diversity has never received the full level of accolades that it merits, as (unlike many cannibalistic serial killers) his victims represented the whole rainbow of race and ethnicity.
Miles Glorious| 3.28.12 @ 9:40AM
You forgot taste.
Thunderbottom| 3.28.12 @ 12:01PM
...and let's not forget Jeffrey Dahmer's words to feminist icon, Lorena Bobbit: "You gonna eat that?"
Timothy L. Pennell| 3.28.12 @ 8:43AM
"Barack will force us to change. He will change the way we do things, our History, and our Traditions." Fat Assed, Bowlegged, "Never been proud of my Country", Wookie looking, Man looking , White Hating, Jew Hating, America Hating, wife of the Muslim.
"When I feel conflicted, I turn to my two greatest inspirations: Mother Theresa, and Mao." Judith whatever the fck her name is. The wife of that ccksckr Cass Sunstein, and Hussein's former Media Liaison. When she feels conflicted, she turns to the 20th Century's Greatest Mass Murderer of his people, for guidance.
"We get it. Mao was right. Capitalism is a Joke, and Power comes from the Barrel of a Gun." The Muslim's Economic Czar.
His FCC Chairman said that: "I admire how President Chavez stepped in and took control of the T.V. and Radio Stations, to save his Beautiful Revolution".
His Science Czar - John Holdren - wants to put Sterilants in to the Drinking Water.
His Medical Czar - Ezekiel Emanuel - thinks that Communist China's "War on Baby Girls" One Child Policy, is the Bees' Knees.
And, Obama, himself, seeks to turn back the Clock, where the Cold War is concerned. Assuring Russian Leader Medvedev that, "When I win the next Election, I will give you more than you could ever ask for. I just need time. I need space."
We used to call that TREASON.
I'm curious. Does the SECRET SERVICE still know that, although their "Job" is to Protect the President, their "OATH" is to the Constitution. To Protect and Defend it, from All Enemies, both Foreign, and DOMESTIC?
Praetorians. Obey your OATH!
albert constantine jr.| 3.28.12 @ 8:50AM
I thought the Mao reference was Anita Dunn (though I am responding to each post here this morning as if I'm Alan Brooks).
Teaghan| 3.28.12 @ 8:53AM
It was Anita I-dumb Dunn. We will give Tim some leeway though :-)
Timothy L. Pennell| 3.28.12 @ 10:43AM
You're right. It was Anita Dunn. and, thank you Teaghan, for the slack.
Indy| 3.28.12 @ 9:50AM
Timothy has it right
"We get it. Mao was right. Capitalism is a Joke, and Power comes from the Barrel of a Gun."
Ron Bloom, manufacturing czar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXeX6vsfq_M
Anita Dunn's favorite philosophers include Mao and then there was the Mao Christmas ornament at the White House, it's difficult to keep it all straight, there's so much material - remember Van Jones, admitted marxist who quit in the middle of the night and now a leader in OWS? He's been quietly flying under the radar but definitely at work driving the progressive agenda
albert constantine jr.| 3.28.12 @ 10:11AM
"When I feel conflicted, I turn to my two greatest inspirations: Mother Theresa, and Mao." Judith whatever the fck her name is.
This was the particular Mao reference that I thought she be credited to Anita Dunn, which I thought she made while speaking to a girl's Catholic high school.
Indy| 3.28.12 @ 10:21AM
Ah yes, now the caffeine has kicked in, you sir are correct, sorry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi1zg2NOCn8
I zeroed in on the other Mao reference, how sad there are so many. Have a great day!
W| 3.28.12 @ 12:43PM
The Mao quote was also used frequently by Bernadine Dohrn, wife of Bill Ayers.
Didn't they have something to do with Our Leader?Maybe a neighborhood house warming or swapping recipes?
The Bruce| 3.28.12 @ 6:53PM
And the occasional fireplace chat about bombing Federal buildings.
W| 3.28.12 @ 8:38PM
Kathy Boudin, one of the Weatherman terrorist accomplices of Ayers, Dohrn and her husband, David Gilbert, along with members of the Black Liberation Army, killed two policemen, Brown and O'Grady, in Nyak, NY in 1981. Ayers and Dohrn raised the son of Boudin/Gilbert. These are Obama's friends.
Gilbert just wrote a book "Love and Struggle" reviewed this week in Naitnal Review. Ayers wrote a blurb that Gilbert has suffered in America's brutal dungeons.
Surly Curmudgen| 3.28.12 @ 11:30PM
Don't forget the intense desire on Bill Ayers part to put a bullet in the heads of 35 million plus Americans
Teaghan| 3.28.12 @ 8:52AM
Good post Tim. Got my blood moving.
Thanks!
SUBVET| 3.28.12 @ 1:10PM
TLP........again running "hot straight and normal"....bless you SIR.
Alan| 3.28.12 @ 9:06AM
Funny thing about history. You can learn it the easy way by studying it or you can learn it the hard way by reliving it all over again, but EVERYBODY IS going to learn it whether they want to or not. Its just a matter of choice. I chose the former, the increasing mass of historically retarded idiots in this country seems bent on the latter choice, pity them.
HALOMan| 3.28.12 @ 11:21AM
Alan,
As a former Non-Commissioned Officer in the ARMY (30 years) and responsible for training young NCOs and troops, I always told my soldiers, "There are only two ways to learn things; the hard way (experience), or from someone else that learned it the hard way (wisdom). Either way, the hard way is involved".
Still, some just don't get it.
Alan| 3.28.12 @ 11:39AM
Yep, the cannon fodder and ignorant just keep charging up stupidity hill don't they? Massed human stupidity assaults into massed historical precedent and fact hoping somehow this is going to be different. Always, it seems egged on by those who in the end are on power trips for their own gain and nobody elses. This race never learns does it?
Thunderbottom| 3.28.12 @ 12:05PM
In the words of the immortal Sergeant Stryker (John Wayne) in "The Sands of Iwo Jima": "Life is tough; it's tougher when you're stupid."
Alan| 3.28.12 @ 12:32PM
Never truer words have been spoken. Unknowing Ignorance is often not somebodies fault, stupidity is a willful choice of accepting that ignorance and making it into a self-governing virtue.
Bill| 3.28.12 @ 3:35PM
It's no picnic when you're smart, either.
tj| 3.28.12 @ 3:51PM
Thank you for reminding me of all the evil these so called people try to get a
way with....looking forward to the blood bath election?? Vote em all out 2012, 2016, 2020....
John McG| 3.28.12 @ 8:55AM
For more on St. Che, see Humberto Fontova's "Exposing the Real Che Guevara."
Mike Hawk| 3.28.12 @ 11:07AM
Conclusion: Her was a bloodthirsty, hateful, cruel Psychopath who was killed while gutlessly pleading for mercy. He got the same as he gave.
Mike Hawk| 3.28.12 @ 11:07AM
That's he. Why can't we edit after posting this??
Ground Control| 3.28.12 @ 12:03PM
You CAN "Preview" and proof read it before you post. Of course, I STILL have typos afterward, but they are fewer and less embarrasssing.
Paul McGrath| 3.28.12 @ 11:51PM
Because the American Spectator holds its people to the same standards. Of course, they don't post using vulgar pseudonyms.
C. S. P. Schofield| 3.28.12 @ 9:24AM
The Liberal Intellectual Radical Progressive left MUST deny the facts about Communism and its trail of misery and death because they have been enablers and accomplices of Communism through its entire history. If Communism has murdered tens of millions of people, then the LIRPs are accomplices to mass murder, and their delicate little minds aren't up to dealing with the shock. They deny the facts because to accept them would be to accept a burned of guilt that they are incapable of carrying. It would destroy them.
There have been and are honorable exceptions, but the vast majority of the Left cannot cope with the idea that they have the blood of millions on their hands.
Thunderbottom| 3.28.12 @ 12:14PM
"Though a few brave lefty souls conceded the ('The Black Book of Communism')'s damning evidence, the left's general response followed the usual playbook: attacks on the authors' credibility ... and even bizarre suggestions that such crimes shouldn't distract us from Communism's 'genuine achievements'." And those "achievements" would be...(sound of crickets chirping).
Ground Control| 3.28.12 @ 1:45PM
According to the Left, ALL of the great achievements of mankind were the result of scientific government taking all of us forward. In truth, communism has only one achievement: the systematic, mass murder of well over 100 million people for POLITICAL reasons. To paraphrase Brad Whitaker (villain from the Bond film "The Living Daylights") these Great Communists are "surgeons, cutting away society's dead flesh."
jay hoenemeyer| 3.28.12 @ 9:27AM
And so as the Islamist thugs build their bomb , their Shoah machine , does anyone remember that Bill Clinton failed to stop the Norks at Yonbon ? Will anyone in the history biz or the academy pin a nuked Seoul on Bill . Will anyone pin the end of Israel on Obama ??It seems you cam literally get away w/ murder if your politicas are of the right sort .
Timothy L. Pennell| 3.28.12 @ 10:46AM
Failed to stop them?
He BUILT the Goddamn things, for them.
Timothy L. Pennell| 3.28.12 @ 10:48AM
He Built, and Fueled their Nuclear Reactors.
Ipso, facto, it's George Bush' Fault.
Petronius| 3.28.12 @ 9:36AM
The world will not be good enough for the Liberal Eugenicists until they have had everybody murdered except their servants.
Surly Curmudgen| 3.28.12 @ 11:41PM
There are those among the elite who want to be our masters who think the optimal population for the planet is as little as two million. They feel that two million would provide enough servants/slaves to keep them in the lifestyle they want to become accustomed to.
Riff Raff| 3.29.12 @ 12:22AM
Interesting. A World population of 2 million would be living in the Stone Age. "Master" status notwithstanding. I doubt they are aware of this. (I doubt they are aware of much, really.)
henry| 3.28.12 @ 9:44AM
This is an expert opinion on the subject:
Propaganda must always address itself to the broad masses of the people. All propaganda must be presented in a popular form and must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed. The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination of the public through an appeal to their feelings, in finding the appropriate psychological form that will arrest the attention and appeal to the hearts of the national masses. The broad masses of the people are not made up of diplomats or professors of public jurisprudence nor simply of persons who are able to form reasoned judgment in given cases, but a vacillating crowd of human children who are constantly wavering between one idea and another
Propaganda must not investigate the truth objectively and, in so far as it is favourable to the other side, present it according to the theoretical rules of justice; yet it must present only that aspect of the truth which is favourable to its own side. The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their understanding is feeble. On the other hand, they quickly forget.
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf.
Doctor Detroit| 3.28.12 @ 1:39PM
"...vacillating crowd of human children..."
Hilarious. Imagine what he could have done with the brain dead masses in this country.
albert constantine jr.| 3.28.12 @ 9:45AM
About 20 years ago, I was at a Friday Happy Hour with several colleagues, enjoying adult beverages on an outdoor patio on a sunny spring afternoon. As inevitably happens at such gatherings, the discussion turned to work.
Amongst those present that day was one of our newly hired support staff, who in addition to being mousy and unattractive was at that point showing some signs of being emotionally unstable. Wishing to be inclusive, we cautiously welcomed our companion to our gathering.
One of our colleagues who was not present became the topic of discussion. I was at our agency when this individual started, and though we were demographically similar, we were received quite differently, and five years later, this particular individual was still quite controversial. Though a good looking guy, he apparently was raised in an environment where everything he did was praised, and his many mistakes and bad judgments were ignored, leading to an oversized ego and an overestimation of his own talent.
I pointed out that the basis of this controversy originated from the point at when, within a couple of weeks of arriving, this particular employee was announcing that no one at our agency knew what they were doing, except for him. I was explaining to newer colleagues that even if such an assessment was correct (and the second half was definitely false), more senior staff were bound to resent someone who expressed such an attitude, particularly at such an early juncture in his career.
Though I didn’t realize it before, our unstable new colleague had a crush on this particular officer, and leapt quickly to his defense. She suggested that everyone else should have been more mature in how they responded to his remarks.
To illustrate the difficulty of expecting such forbearance in the face of insulting remarks, I tried to create an analogous circumstance. I responded, “Well what would you know about it? You’re stupid.”, at which point, she threw a wadded up napkin at me (and into my beer) and left. One of my observing colleagues remarked that he understood the point I was trying to make, even if the lesson was lost on its intended subject.
Whenever I see the left’s reaction when one of their shibboleths (such as the sanctity of Che) are challenged, I am reminded of the reaction I just described. Like my unstable former colleague, they believe others should live by standards that they themselves feel no obligation to adhere to, and they are largely driven by questionable emotions. They will forgive the massive trespasses of those whom they admire (Mao), while condemning the sins of results or proximity to bad behavior of those whom they choose to vilify (Columbus, slave owning founding fathers). Mere hypocrites are worried about the bad reputation they are given by being associated with the left.
kwan| 3.28.12 @ 10:00AM
An FBI agent who penetrated the Weather Underground in 1975 asked while sitting in a room full of Weather Underground members which included Obama pal and fellow revolutionary Bill Ayers, "What's going to happen after we take over the government? You know, we become responsible for administrating, you know, 250 million people." There was dead-silence with crickets chirping and no answers. No one had given any thought to economics, how are you going to clothe and feed these people. From what the FBI agent could gather the Weather Underground expected that the Cubans, and the North Vietnamese, and the Russians, and the Chinese would all want to occupy different portions of the United States. In other words these leftist idiots were launching a revolution in order to turn the country and people over to various communist dictatorships. This is the sort of delusional psychosis these people and that includes Barack Obama assume to be rational thought.
The Bruce| 3.28.12 @ 7:07PM
Kwan, you left the best part of that story out.
Eventually someone in that room came up a partial solution. He understood that in order to make an omlet, you have to break a few eggs.
His solution? "We'll have to start by killing 25 million people." -- Bill Ayres
And according to the FBI agent, Ayres was deadly serious about it (no pun intended).
Bill| 3.28.12 @ 10:20AM
While we're mentioning incongruities, I have a couple to mention:
1. Why is the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. instead of Berlin?
2. Why is there a statute of Lenin in Seattle? They've probably torn them all down in Moscow by now.
Bill| 3.28.12 @ 10:23AM
"Statue," not "statute." My bad.
Timothy L. Pennell| 3.28.12 @ 10:53AM
Actually, I'm willing to bet that there are LOTS of Lenin Statutes on the Books, in wonderfully Liberal Mental Disordered Seattle.
Yes?
Louis Jenkins| 3.28.12 @ 11:08AM
Che will next be immortalized in a painting: Che Crossing the Delaware. Or maybe alone in the forest he bends down on a knee and prays to Chairmen Marx, Mao, and Castro. He may even end up on our dollar bill, immortalized for all to see every time they spend a buck. What a crock! Che was a communist, a disturber, a no account son of a jackel. We could do best by forgetting his name, and his image, not keep bringing him back to haunt our history with killings.
"...He was one of those rare people who are prepared to push past ethical constraints, even their own conscience, and bring about a greater good by doing terrible things."
How about just calling him a murderer and get over with it.
Thunderbottom| 3.28.12 @ 12:26PM
What with Che's mug plastered on T-shirts, posters, banners, and other merchandise, it's a wonder that you don't see stuff with SS bullyboy, Reinhard Heydrich's portrait. Reinhard (known to his subordinates as "The Blonde Beast") has a lot in common with Che: they're both photogenic, they both met violent ends (Heydrich at the hands of Czech resistance fighters in the 2nd World War), and they were both incorrigible racists who thought they were serving "the greater good" on behalf of totalitarian police states.
Tim the Enchanter| 3.28.12 @ 3:10PM
But with Che, it wasn't "murder" murder. /sarc off
Dipesto| 3.28.12 @ 5:57PM
There was a micromovement back in the 70s among Irving followers to reappraise Heydrich; Czechs really thought he was cool, he gave everyone in Prague a free pair of shoes, and the Brits were not nice for dropping those guys into Prague who killed him. And he played classical violin. More stuff of that ilk . The books are probably still in college library shelves somewhere.
The Bruce| 3.28.12 @ 7:10PM
I once saw a painting of Che nailed to a cross. I assume the painter was depicting Che's sacrifice to communism.
Riff Raff| 3.29.12 @ 12:26AM
Castro didn't think it a sacrifice. He actually sent Che to Bolivia knowing he would be caught and killed. But then, he already had that photo.
martin j smith| 3.28.12 @ 11:08AM
Back in my undergraduate days I was a history major
& did pretty well. But since then I came to realize its not History but History according to who or is it whom ? There lies the problem. The former USSR,Nazi Germany and Socialist and other LEFT all have their narratives based on their version of history as they see it. Most people who learn history do not realize that first they must asses whose history is it--but that should be part of their education. Which sadly it is not. The only way to counter the Historical Hysteria of the LEFT is thru a major organized counter propaganda (that is what it is ) organization thru out this country. Just discoveri9ng the lies of the LEFT is not enough.
Bob K.| 3.28.12 @ 11:47AM
Martin,
On this matter, if you have not, you should read some of John Lukacs's histories and essays on history. He is a Conservative.
A good essay to start with is "Democracy and Populism--Fear and Hatred," published in 2005 Yale University Press
An excellent history is "The Hitler of History" which is not a biography of Hitler but a history of his history, and of his biographies.
His "A New Republic--A History of the United States in the Twentieth Century" 1984 and 2004, Yale University Press is still in Print. Very well written with an unusual approach to the subject no doubt partly due to his living his first 23 years in Hungary between 1924 and 1946.
One of his most recent books is "The Legacy of the Second World War" published 2010 by Yale University Press which is in his words, "not a history of the Second World War but a book about it's history."
He has published over 30 books on or about history.
albert constantine jr.| 3.28.12 @ 12:03PM
"first they must asses whose history is it"
Initially, I thought that "asses" was a typo. The more I think about it, though, you may be more correct in your usage [in that 1) many who teach the leftist revisionist history are asses, or 2) it is our asses on the line in the current events that are the repetition of many cataclysmic events previously].
Surly Curmudgen| 3.28.12 @ 11:52PM
I Want to See the Hard Core communist/socialist agenda Crushed. I want to see their political philosophy dead and discredited. I want to see those enamored of it eradicated from the media, from politics, from academic positions, from any position of power. I want to see the adherents of that dead and discredited idea in charge of nothing beyond a gandy stick and acknowledged for what they are.
As intellectually challenged residents of
small communities.
Von Mises Jr.| 3.28.12 @ 11:58AM
Man, a social creature, has formed alliances with other people throughout time to increase productivity through division of labor, and for protection. The reality is that the people that caused the threat to our lives and property become part of that society. So instead of invading our village from afar, they do it from within.
Barack is one of these people. He is the "redistribution/social justice" Che. His wife is the "food" Che. Barney is their "housing" Che. Hillary and Nancy are their "health" Che combo.
Sowell wrote a book titled "Barbarians Inside the Gates." I cannot take credit for his brilliance, but I can tell you what I've read from a smarter man than me.
If only Barry, Moochelle, Barney, Hillary and Nancy realized that there are MUCH smarter people then them we would be allot better off. But that is not human nature, so we must defeat them politically. Please vote "non-Barbarian" in November!
Ground Control| 3.28.12 @ 12:22PM
Che = Himmler. (Minus the stylish uniform)
Propaganda is an appeal to emotion. The purpose is to draw an emotional response from the viewer. I have heard such drivel as Michael Moore movies described as "thought-provoking" by high school teachers. But "Bowling for Columbine" is no more "thought-provoking" than "Triumph of the Will". It is intended to make the subject audience FEEL a reaction, not to think about what is seen. Leftists put out propaganda promoting "Che as Hero" because it fills an emotional need, it appeals to masses of people on an emotional level, not to mention there is that perfect photograph to elicit that emotion. I read in Fontova's book how Carlos Santana (of all people!) wears "Che" acoutrements and defends the practice by claining that Che was "all about love, man!" When pressed further, Santana objected that the questioner was "obsessed with facts." How do you present facts to people who steadfastly refuse to think? Who commit their lives to emotions?
Hitler was right about propaganda and its effect, and modern leftists have learned his lesson well.
W| 3.28.12 @ 12:52PM
I saw a terrible movie in late 60's titled "CHE" starring Omar Sharif. Anyone see it?
Curtis Rasmussen| 3.28.12 @ 4:35PM
No, but I did see Benecio Del Toro in Che. I could not stand to watch the whole thing, and comments about Che by Benecio after the film was released solidified my opinion that Del Toro's a bona fide windy douchebag.
Dipesto| 3.29.12 @ 2:48AM
The most interesting thing about Che, the movie was that Jack Palance played Castro, and Mad magazine did one of their movie satires on the lousy flick.
cicero| 3.28.12 @ 12:56PM
Robert Conquest books have been around for decades, detailing the history of communism, and its toll on humanity (180 to200 million untimely deaths), and yet the most assigned history text book on American college campusses is "The People's History of the United States", by Howard Zinn (dec'd), former V.P of the CPUSA. The founders recognized that a republic/democracy could onlly exist with an educated populace. We have a schooled population, but not an educated one.
DRed| 3.28.12 @ 1:22PM
Robert Conquest also used to be a communist. The best story about him was that he (allegedly) told his publisher that he'd like change the title of a new edition of The Great Terror to I Told You So, You Fucking Fools.
Bill| 3.28.12 @ 1:23PM
One reason for that is that Robert Conquest hasn't yet written a history of the United States.
Bob| 3.28.12 @ 2:09PM
If you look at Cuba, you would think the whole country is a bunch of wackos who worship Che. But if you look at Cubans who fled Cuba and live in the US, the vast majority of them are as conservative as anyone you'll meet and would spit on Che's grave if given the chance. It's the same Cubans who are parents of Marco Rubio.
Seek| 3.28.12 @ 4:24PM
That may be true of the first generation, but no more. Survey data cited by the Center for Immigration Studies show that ethnic Cubans in the U.S. vote Republican over Democrat by only 55 to 45 percent. That's hardly overwhelming.
Florida's Marco Rubio, by the way, is a mass immigration booster -- not my kind of candidate.
JmsA| 6.10.12 @ 7:41PM
You're not only wrong, you're either ignorant or just a bald face liar.
In 2000, the share of the Cuban-American vote for Bush in Dade County, the largest county in Florida, where the greaters number of Cuban-Americans reside, was 75%. It was the Cubans, or as they were referred to by the mainstream media, the "Yuppie Lawyers", that kept Al Gore out of the White House, by blocking his attempts to effect his selective recount of the votes immediately following the election. Florida in General voted 48.8% for Bush in 2000.
In 2004, Cuban-Americans in Dade County voted 78% for Bush. Florida in general voted 52% for Bush.
The nearest figure to your claims of the Cuban-American vote is 60%, for Dole in 1996. Florida in general voted 42% for Dole in 1996.
According to Bendixen's exit polls, Obama won 35 percent of the Cuban-American vote in Miami-Dade County, nearly 10 points higher than Kerry's showing in 2004, despite 55% of 29 and younger Cuban-Americans voting for Obama. Get the picture? Eighty-four percent of Cuban-Americans 65 and older voted 84% for McCain.
Although much is made of the 35% of the Cuban-American vote for Obama, Cuban-American electoral support for President Barack Obama was less than that for Clinton in 1996. Therefore, any interpretation of the 2008 electroal results as a new voting trend in the Cuban-American community, as you erroneously claim, is wholly without merit.
These figures, were obtained from CTP.
podbaydoors| 3.28.12 @ 7:03PM
When the US currency bubble bursts after the last pumping of the QE machine and everything comes crashing down, will the left blame their own for the spending that issued it in? No, they won't. There will be attempts to deify those who brought us to this mess. Sadly, at that point, those cranking the propaganda machine will be needing to keep one eye in the back of their heads.
Surly Curmudgen| 3.29.12 @ 12:03AM
Those most enamored of communism/socialism are the least productive members of society who want those goodies that accrue to the most productive. Their agenda is detrimental to a productive society resulting in their attempt to hide that agenda by calling themselves progressives or liberals. These communist/socialists who call themselves progressives or liberals now control both parties and those two parties are rapidly bringing this nation to rule by man when it's supposed to be rule by law.
Throughout history when the citizens of a nation find that they can not and will not be accorded either justice or redress from those, Judges, bureaucrats, or politicians, tasked with administering justice and or redress, the citizens find they must correct these miscreants, quite often violently, by hanging, guillotine, or simply shooting.
From watching what is happening in our nation, a correct observation would be that judges, bureaucrats, and politicians, have failed to study or acquire any knowledge of such history.
Now I’m sure that there are those who are tired of my bringing up the communist/socialist agenda, but that is who has been working towards this point for over one hundred years. They now believe they have finished accumulating power and are over the hump and it is now all down hill consolidation of power, that is why they are so much out in the open.
The two wings of the Government Party offer you the choice of a disorganized and self indulgent megalomaniac leftwing progressive, or the focused and self disciplined megalomaniac leftwing progressive. The organized one -will- accomplish more harm if elected.
The question has become, will we, the US of America, be another failed communist government or will the people seize control of their own destiny from the tyrants.
Patricia Teel| 3.29.12 @ 12:20AM
"to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, to fish in the afternoon, breed cattle in the evening and to criticize after dinner, just as I please"
Karl Marx
He should have just moved to Texas. A lot of Texans do that almost everyday. LOL
SetOurChildrenFree | 3.29.12 @ 3:32AM
The author came very close to nailing the root of the left's belief system when he said they were into utopia. Many of them are athiests, and when you don't believe that humans have a Creator or purpose, then this life is all there is. That being the case, a leftist has an urgency to create utopia right here on earth with himself as god. Therefore all decisions necessary to accomplish these goals are justified. Many conservatives' belief systems presume an Intelligent Being and recognize the fallibility of man, and that there will never be utopia in a fallen world. And because they recognize that we are fallen beings, we enact laws that restrain our inherently dark nature, and submit ourselves to values designed by a Power higher than ourselves. Only in this way can mankind attain to his highest purpose - not by trying to be god, but by seeking the One who is.
POST American| 3.29.12 @ 3:46AM
---------------------FINAL WORD-----------------------
"Understand, even back in 1910, Churchill
himself became aware, and complained bitterly
about the FACT that ALLLLL the history
being written was capstone 'authorized'.
---Churchill himself! Now, consider the
deadly, deadly reach of the TAX FREE
capstone EUGENICS borg across the whole
span of media, academia ---the entire world."
We ALLL know what capstone control has
done for 'med--is--SIN' ---but be sure to do
a double take on the 'guidance' and 'agenda
promotion' underway via our foundation
funded 'HIS--story' establishment.
We also understand the UN has mandated
the 'upgrading' of libraries everywhere.
This usually measn nothing more than
installing more PCs and coffee lounges
and discarding all those musty, fusty old
--unexpuragetd-- pre 1900 history volumes.
KEEP your eyes on the dumps.
Grab these volumes if you ever come
across them. Knowledge is intentionally
scattered and suppressed. These volumes
are PUREST gold.
PASS IT ON
Lloyd Hendrix| 3.29.12 @ 9:09AM
The psychological commonality of the Left is the belief, clearly stated or sublimated, that the ends justify the means.
Surly Curmudgen| 3.29.12 @ 10:44AM
The Liberal/progressive world is a world where to lie, cheat, steal even murder to advance their agenda, is laudable behavior.
Gene Carr| 3.29.12 @ 2:14PM
Anyone familiar with how Ireland has evolved over the past few decades will not be surprised at this development. While the ordinary Irish people are fundamentally conservative, the Left now has hegemonic control over media, academia and the arts. The history departments are full of left wing ideologues posing as 'professors of history'. The debasement of the media is complete and Sarah Palin's concept of 'lamestream media' does not even begin to describe it. The leading newspaper is an even more debased version of the NYT, and its leading writers are left-wing loons with pretentions to intellectuality, who feed the stupid middle classes with defunct 19th Century drivel. Its readers are also treated to the defunct economics of Paul Krugman and the deranged ranting of Maureen Dowd. The gov owned national broadcaster RTE (think NPR only worse) has been run for decades by devotees of rival gangs of Stalinists and Trotskites, fronted by overpaid 'innocent idiots'. Since opinion formers at the national broadcaster are already devoted to two of history's worst mass murderers, honouring one more mass murderer is just one small step. Nowhere as much as in Ireland is the Kulturkamf against marriage/family and the Catholic Church carried out with such pitiless ferocity and disregard for truth. Ireland need a new St Patrick to drive out this generation of vipers.
Michele San Pietro| 3.29.12 @ 5:55PM
Che Guevara was just a murderer and a brutalitarian. The leftists all over the world who still defend him simply don't understand a thing.
Dipesto| 3.30.12 @ 2:03AM
I waded through a while back a number of books on Stalin and his era--Conquest ,and the book on Stalin as a red czar, and some other volumes, and all the authors spent time feeling great pity for the fates of Kirov and Bukharin and Tukachevsky and Proskrebishev's wife and any number of the Old Bolshis who were nice guys and had happy families and were innocent of what they got shot for. I got a feeling that all these nice Reds had all signed on to Lenin's New Order, and knew what was going on with the Kulaks and Whites and Wreckers, but no one ever told Stalin and gang to stop the killings. Were any of the leading people who were victims of Stalin actually totally innocent of crimes against the Soviet people?
Marc Jeric| 3.30.12 @ 12:00PM
Communism is inextricably linked with terror, utter poverty, and mass murder - everywhere it has come to power.
Dipesto| 3.30.12 @ 6:08PM
There was no poverty in the 20th century in Red lands, or in fascist lands either; there were Happy Peasants. I think it was P J O Rourke who mentioned this matter once in TAS.