Yuri Bezmenov (1939 – 1993), known by the alias Tomas David Schuman, was a Soviet journalist for RIA Novosti and a former PGU KGB informant who defected to Canada. After being assigned to a station in India, Bezmenov eventually grew to love the people and the culture of India, but at the same time, he began to resent the KGB-sanctioned repression of intellectuals who dissented from Moscow’s policies. He decided to defect to the West. Bezmenov is best remembered for his anticommunist lectures and books from the 1980s — here are some adapted excerpts:
Marxism-Leninism
Wide Awakes vs #Woke (Destroying vs Building)
Yuri Bezmenov (1939 – 1993), known by the alias Tomas David Schuman, was a Soviet journalist for RIA Novosti and a former PGU KGB informant who defected to Canada. After being assigned to a station in India, Bezmenov eventually grew to love the people and the culture of India, but at the same time, he began to resent the KGB-sanctioned repression of intellectuals who dissented from Moscow’s policies. He decided to defect to the West. Bezmenov is best remembered for his anticommunist lectures and books from the 1980s:
(An Aside: I will highlight the reason for the posts name below. There will be many links included to fill in the history of ar for further knowledge about an issue discussed)
Armstrong and Getty discuss the toppling of statues… the rioters do not care a wit about the history of slavery, real change to better trained officers, etc. And the proof of this is their tearing down of heroes of abolition and people who fought and died to free the slaves.
And this toppling of statues of heroes fighting to protect and free slaves is an issue I want to explore a little bit. But keep in mind our President predicted this (which many people mocked at the time):
- “So this week it’s Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?” President Trump asked on August 15, 2017.
I would submit that these people don’t really care about the history of slavery, they are just using this opportunity to further aims they are (a) either aware of, or, (b) merely acting out on misperceived injustices (ignorance), or, (c) filling a void‡ only God can fill (boredom [see #9] and no “Biblical Rest” [See more in the Appendix]), acting emotionally and without thought on the encouragement or behest of others to feel a sense of accomplishment.*
‡ VOID
What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words, by God himself.
Blaise Pascal, Pensees 10.148
*One might say that the politician, the doctor, and the dramatist make their living from human misery; the doctor in attempting to alleviate it, the politician to capitalize on it, and the dramatist, to describe it.
But perhaps that is too epigrammatic.
When I was young, there was a period in American drama in which the writers strove to free themselves of the question of character.
Protagonists of their worthy plays had made no choices, but were afflicted by a condition not of their making; and this condition, homosexuality, illness, being a woman, etc., was the center of the play. As these protagonists had made no choices, they were in a state of innocence. They had not acted, so they could not have sinned.
A play is basically an exercise in the raising, lowering, and altering of expectations (such known, collectively, as the Plot); but these plays dealt not with expectations (how could they, for the state of the protagonist was not going to change?) but with sympathy.
What these audiences were witnessing was not a drama, but a troublesome human condition displayed as an attraction. This was, formerly, known as a freak show.
The subjects of these dramas were bearing burdens not of their choosing, as do we all. But misfortune, in life, we know, deserves forbearance on the part of the unafflicted. For though the display of courage in the face of adversity is worthy of all respect, the display of that respect by the unaffected is presumptuous and patronizing.
One does not gain merit from congratulating an afflicted person for his courage. One only gains entertainment.
Further, endorsement of the courage of the affliction play’s hero was not merely impertinent, but, more basically, spurious, as applause was vouchsafed not to a worthy stoic, but to an actor portraying him.
These plays were an (unfortunate) by-product of the contemporary love-of-the-victim. For a victim, as above, is pure, and cannot have sinned; and one, by endorsing him, may perhaps gain, by magic, part of his incontrovertible status.
David Mamet, The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture (New York, NY: Sentinel Publishing, 2011), 134-135.
The people in category “c” are what Stalin understood as “useful idiots,” defined well by the OXFORD DICTIONARY (UK):
- (Originally) a citizen of a non-communist country sympathetic to communism who is regarded (by communists) as naive and susceptible to manipulation for propaganda or other purposes; (more widely) any person similarly manipulable for political purposes.
…More on this in a sec…
You know they do not care about past injustices because they have vandalized black military monuments (examples: Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment; the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial; etc) or have toppled or defaced abolitionists who fought and died for the freedom of black slaves:
- HANS CHRISTIAN HEG — “Heg, an immigrant, early prison reformer, and leader of the abolition movement. At the start of the Civil War, Heg swiftly volunteered to fight for his adopted country. Heg led his men, all made up of volunteer immigrants, to numerous victories before he was killed by a Confederate snipers bullet. To remember his sacrifice, a statue of him was built by a fellow immigrant, overseeing his home state of Wisconsin’s capital.” (THE FEDERALIST) [….] He formed a secret society that acted as bodyguards for Republican (read that anti-slavery) politicians and combatted slave catchers called the Wide Awakes. When the Civil War broke out, he was commissioned by the Governor to raise the 15th Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment. Because of his prominence in the Scandinavian community, he raised a regiment that was almost entirely Norwegian. (RED STATE)
- Protesters in San Francisco defaced and toppled the statue of former President Grant, who led the Union Army during the Civil War. In attacking Grant, those desecrating our cities in the supposed name of racial justice besmirched the memory of one of the figures who was most important for pushing the nation forward on civil rights. (USA TODAY)
- Matthias William Baldwin (December 10, 1795 – September 7, 1866) was an American inventor and machinery manufacturer, specializing in the production of steam locomotives. Baldwin’s small machine shop, established in 1825, grew to become Baldwin Locomotive Works, one of the largest and most successful locomotive manufacturing firms in the United States. The most famous of the early locomotives was Old Ironsides, built by Matthias Baldwin in 1832. Baldwin was also a strong advocate of abolitionism. (WIKI) [….] In Philadelphia, the statute of abolitionist Matthias Baldwin was attacked, despite his fight for black voting rights and his financial support for the education of black children. (JONATHAN TURLEY)
I was listening to David Horowitz the other morning being interviewed on the Glenn Beck Program, and he had a good insight to what the Marxists of his day were saying. They were saying then that the police are an occupying force [essentially standing in the way of toppling the capitalist system]. David was raised in a Marxist home and was a radical Marxist for years, editing a radical publication of his day (“…Root and Branch, which published essays embodying the political vision of the New Left.” – NATIONAL REVIEW) …here is more about David Horowitz from National Review:
…After publishing “Student”, Horowitz left California, taking his young family to Sweden. During the year he spent there, he wrote “The Free World Colossus”, a revisionist history of the Cold War. It was one of the first expressions of the New Left’s fixation with the repressive workings of an American “empire,” and was ultimately translated into several languages. In the U.S., The Free World Colossus became a handbook for the growing anti–Vietnam War movement, providing a litany of America’s “misdeeds” abroad — the coups in Iran and Guatemala, the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam — that became a staple of left-wing indictments of America.
Earlier, when he was seeking a publisher for his manuscript, Horowitz wrote to the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation and was somewhat surprised to receive a job offer. Horowitz had only a casual relationship with Russell, but while in London he became close to and profoundly influenced by two European Marxists: Ralph Miliband, whose two sons eventually became leaders of the British Labour Party, and the Polish Trotskyist Isaac Deutscher, the famed biographer of Stalin and Trotsky. Under the tutelage of Deutscher, Horowitz’s career as a New Left intellectual flourished. He wrote Empire & Revolution: A Radical Interpretation of Contemporary History, which offered a New Left perspective on imperialism, Communism, and the Cold War. Horowitz returned to the U.S. in 1968 to become an editor at Ramparts magazine, the New Left’s largest and most successful publication, with a circulation of a quarter-million readers….
He is now – of course – a long time outspoken anti-Marxist, anti-Leftist.
This brings us back to the idea that many of these brainwashed youngins may not realize what they are doing with all the information they get from elementary on up through university. They are useful idiots who are yelling at (or what I have seen termed as “whitesplaining” black cops calling them racist [and they need to be killed].
(See this humorous look at this via MTV [I am not agreeing with their purported reason for the video, all I am saying is that it is funny]) Or tearing down history.
And we have others, for instance, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors who said in a newly surfaced video from 2015 that she and her fellow organizers are “trained Marxists” – making clear their movement’s ideological foundation.
They are pushing or guiding the “manipulable for political purposes,” or, useful idiots.
What has perpetuated this movement of ideologues and morons in part is the labeling that has occurred since the New Left has gotten into education after the Vietnam War. Today this labeling is on steroids, and easily remembered as S.I.X.H.I.R.B.
- sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist, bigoted | HILLARY’S version: “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”
What this does is allow a person to disregard any information that would usually happen during normal dialogue. (It creates a self-imposed “safe-space” for the individual, a “cone of silence” so-to-speak – Get Smart TV series… before your time.) If you label someone “racist” you do not have to listen to them any longer.
I mean, who would want to dialogue with a racist?
My two favorite examples of this is a very short excerpt from a documentary I love called Indoctrinate U. It is a Leftist professor saying that there is no push back on Left leaning students because countering ideas are censored… making for an incomplete person/education (I adapted that a bit). Here is that video:
And this is still one of my FAVORITE clips I uploaded to my YouTube via Dennis Prager:
In an article I just read from THE FEDERALIST, they make note through history that when this starts happening, bloodshed typically follows. Here is there title: “Everywhere Statues Are Torn Down By The Mob, History Promises People Are Next: The promise of bloodshed coming alongside or following shortly after is an historic certainty. The symbols of a people never satisfy: People themselves must always come next.”
Here is a small excerpt:
…In 1790, mobs looted and pillaged Paris’s treasured Notre Dame. To the revolutionaries, the cathedral symbolized everything that was wrong with France’s history and society — a history of kings, tradition and religion, and a society beset by royal injustice and systemic inequality.
Over the next three years, the 12th-century church’s riches and artifacts were stripped, stolen, and destroyed, their remnants hidden by the faithful and sold off by the faithless. Statues of the Virgin Mary were removed and statues to the Goddess of Liberty took their place on desecrated altars.
At nearby Sainte-Chapelle, the revolution pulled the apostles from the pedestals where they had stood watch over Christ’s Crown of Thorns. The 12 statues were vandalized and buried — half so badly they are still undergoing attempts at restoration. As the destruction of religious art unfurled, priests who did not swear allegiance to the new order and those who aided them were sentenced to death.
Back at the cathedral, the revolutionary government mistook the 28 statues of the kings of ancient Judah for French kings (rich old men and all), dragging them into the public square for decapitation. Their buried heads were not rediscovered for nearly 200 years.
In the Place de Louis XV, the large statue of the square’s namesake was torn down and the plaza renamed Place de la Revolution. A guillotine was raised, and the “liberated” space would see the execution of more than 1,200 prisoners, from King Louis XVI and his wife to the executions’ ringleader himself, Maximilien Robespierre….
We may be seeing this violence against person in an increased way if this movement is not rebutted and refuted. Either by force, but preferably by true dialogue and Godly renewal or Salvation. In compiling this post I spoke to one of my mentors in the faith. He mentioned a podcast that I am a good way through. The name of the YouTube podcast is “Conversations That Matter.” The title of the episode is, “Why are All My Friends Marxists?.” Here is the video as well as the description of it:
While friends and family are lamenting their “white privilege” and vowing to own their complicity in “systemic oppression,” Jon explains how a Marxist revolution is actually taking place, and it’s not just a political movement—it’s a new religion.
The video is wonderful, I had figured out the title of my post before watching it and it lined up quite well. Also, earlier posts and uploads of mine coordinate well with the topic dealt with, for instance:
Here was an upload of radio talk show host Larry O’Connor discussion the “Collective Guilt”
Larry O’Connar references two excellent articles. One is from SPIKED ONLINE: “I Did Not Kill George Floyd: The Attempt To Hold All Whites Responsible For The Death Of Floyd Shows What A Dead-End Woke Politics Is:
And a FEDERALIST article, again, both articles are top notch: “The Left’s Normalization Of Collective Guilt Is Ripping America Apart: All Decent Americans Stand Against Racism. But If We’re To Live As Brothers, We Must Stop Indicting All Those Who Share A Skin Tone For The Sins Of Others”
- I also posted on the topic of kneeling in a post entitled, “American’s Should Not Kneel/Kowtow Before Provably False Ideas“
- I will also post this video elsewhere, But I am always a fan of Dr. Voddie Baucham’s work. Here is one of his videos: Cultural Marxism | Dr. Voddie Baucham
And the appendix are some excerpts from a friend and mentor. I post these in relation to finding fulfillment in God. Enjoy
APPENDIX
Created for Glory (Part One)
We must behold glory now in order to safely reach glory
By Jay Wegter
An entranced vision of God begins with seeing God as He is revealed in His Word and seeing ourselves in light of His sef-revelation (Ps 139). By ‘entranced’ we mean much more than entertaining or holding to a ‘god concept’. No, an entranced vision of God takes possession of the whole man. It generates an experience of both delight and trauma, of both wonder and repentance, and of both affection and reverential awe. This sets up a line of sight in which our utter dependency upon the Lord begins to stagger us and knock us off balance. When the sinner is first confronted with the gospel in the hands of the Spirit it creates a kind of crisis. Self is dethroned, our imagined sovereignty is demolished and we are cast down as ruined wretches.
[….]Do not settle for anything less than an entranced vision of God. For, nothing less than beholding the glory of the Lord has the power to transform you and transport you. Refuse to settle for spiritual stagnancy and unfruitfulness.
[….]In this experience of beholding God’s sublime glory is beauty, pleasure, purpose, sweetness, and relational love. Edwards called it ‘sweet entertainment’. This enjoyment of God in the soul is essential to our Christian walk.
[….]Jonathan Edwards got is right; true religion resides primarily in the affections. It has everything to do with what you love. The great blessing of receiving spiritual eyes and ears is not merely to feed off spiritual principles but to behold the glory of the Lord as His unveiled ones (Mt 13: 16ff.; 2 Cor 3: 18). The spiritual sight and savor for the glory of the Lord is the key to consecrated living. For, God’s glory story in Christ is a plot so compelling, the cosmos was created to be its stage. Beholding glory fits us for glory. The reverse is also true; for where there is no awe of God, there will be no lasting pursuit of holiness. Let us remember that beholding His glory for the first time is how the Lord saved us (2 Cor 4:6). Continuing to behold His glory is essential to our ongoing transformation (2 Cor 3:18), and seeing His glory face to face will someday glorify us in an instant (1 Jn 3:2).
Created for Glory (Part Two)
We must behold glory now in order to safely reach glory
By Jay Wegter
…The effect of His mediatoral glory is salvfc (He secures our salvation, “He obtained eternal redemption;” Hebrews 9: 12). For the sinner who believes and repents, the sight of God’s glory in the face of Christ evicts from the soul the darkness and the hostility that is inherent in original sin (Col 1:21-23)
[….]You don’t have to climb up to heaven to see that the sun is there-you are bathed in its warmth and brightness. You do not need to go into heaven to see f Christ is interceding for us. For, we behold Him in the Word interceding, and we can look into our own hearts. Are they quickened and inflamed in prayer? Can we cry “Abba, Father? By this interceding of the Spirit who dwells within us, we may know Christ is interceding above for us. Faith is an act of recumbency, of reclining upon Christ, our ‘new and living way’ of access…
[….]It is the experimental knowledge of Christ’s love and glory that gives us the disposition to love one another, and to bear one another’s burdens (Phil 3:7-11). His love gives us the disposition to please and obey our Heavenly Father. His precepts give us the specifics of how to please God; He directs our love by His precepts. We must understand that our being “in Christ” is our strength. Our union with Christ is vital, living, transformative, and organic; it is not merely federal representation (Rom 5: 17-19). The mind of Christ is available, the might of Christ is available-we don’t have to fulfill a single command by ourselves, in our own strength. We operate in the realm of His grace full and free (Rom 5: 1-2)
[….]…Those who make it their full purpose of heart to behold His glory will be changed into His image (2 Cor 3: 18). What is this transformation? Answer: when our trust in Christ is constantly exercised, virtue proceeds from Christ to purify our hearts, increase our holiness, strengthen our graces, and fill us with joy-at times, “joy inexpressible filled with glory” (1 Pet 1 :8). Christ’s glory beheld quickens the understanding at the same time as His love is communicated to the heart…
[….]…Our sin, guilt, lust, cravings, insecurities, and desire for happiness-all combine to make the soul restless. Christ has everything the sinner needs. In all things, He is perfectly suited to all the needs and cravings of the immortal soul. “All my springs are in Thee” (Ps 87:7)…
[….]We have seen that feeding on the glory of Christ fits us for prayer, communion, worship, hope, and service. Just as the Israelites in the wilderness did not grow their own food, but merely gathered the manna, so also, it the privilege and duty of the saint to gather his soul’s daily food that his spirit might be fully nourished on the glory of the Lord.
Created for Glory (Part Three)
We must behold glory now in order to safely reach glory
By Jay Wegter
…Christ fulfilling the terms of the covenant is responsible for every dimension and facet of grace: “… blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1 :3). The covenant purpose of God, to bruise His Son at Calvary is the greatest reality in the history of humanity (it is why there is a human history; this reality must fill our consciousness) …
Is It the Democratic Party Platform or the Communist Manifesto
The original video is now an official PragerU video. Watch Ami play a game with liberals to see if they can tell the difference between the Democratic Party platform and the communist manifesto!
No Analogy Needed For This Failure of Socialism
BREITBART notes the following:
The Russian-made jeep carrying the ashes of the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro broke down in the middle of his funeral procession on Saturday, forcing soldiers to push the vehicle until it could be repaired.
Nearly every major news website buried the news, though it was perfectly symbolic of the Cuban regime’s economic failures, and those of socialism in general.
Fox News reported:
- The breakdown of the jeep in the midst of adoring crowds chanting “Long live Fidel!” was symbolic of the dual nature of Castro’s Cuba. While his legacy inspires fierce adulation by many of the nation’s citizens, others continue to grumble about Cuba’s autocratic government, inefficient bureaucracy and stagnant economy.
I just want to note that a man who had 900-million dollars, was brought to his final resting spot by a crappy Russian jeep the broke down. And those guys pushing their leaders ashes — by hand — is the best visual of the failure of socialism. (NEWSBUSTERS) Conan O’Brien mocked the moment, making the obvious comparison to the problems of communism:
- “Here’s a weird story: On Saturday, the hearse carrying Fidel Castro’s remains broke down and had to be pushed. The hearse was being driven Cuba’s minister of metaphors.”
The Creature from the Leftist Lagoon
My PREVIOUS POST on a Yale issue should be noted as well.
GAY PATRIOT has a post worth reading, here is a snippet from his slightly larger post:
Today, a white progressive university president and Chancellor resigned because a group of spoiled special snowflakes had their feelings hurt by his insufficient supplication to the idol of racism.
[….]
The Left is learning they have built a monster; one that will be impossible to appease or placate. The more they surrender, the more emboldened the monster becomes. The Democrat Party *cannot* say no to these radicals. They have constructed this trap that all #BlackLivesMattergrievances and demands must be given absolute legitimacy no matter how radical. No matter how they look to the sane part of America, they have to cater to the radical #BLM left.
Update: David French: Missouri’s Lesson: the Campus Wars Are about Power, Not Justice: “This is a movement built from the ground up around power and coercion. They hate free speech because free speech represents nothing but a threat — a chance for dissenters to expose the bankruptcy of their ideas. They hate due process because due process stands in the way of class-based justice, of identity-based jurisprudence.”
POWERLINE once again notes:
University of Missouri president Tim Wolfe resigned yesterday after the school’s football team threatened to go on strike. The threatened strike was in support of student protests over alleged “systematic oppression” of blacks at the school.
As at Yale, I have seen no reports of violence directed at any African-American at the University of Missouri. The “systematic oppression” appears to consist of a few incidents of racial slurs directed at a couple of black students (as I understand it, the main offender who was identified, a drunken student, was removed from campus pending formal disciplinary action).
Approximately 35,000 students attend the University’s Columbia campus. How can the University guarantee that no student will ever utter a racial slur?
Rich Lowry argues that the black students are really complaining about not being sufficiently coddled. I haven’t been on campus, but Lowry’s claim finds support in complaints like this one from the Student Association: “In the months [following the Michael Brown shooting], our students were left stranded, forced to face an increase in tension and inequality with no systemic support.”
Why the shooting of a thug who attacked a police officer required the University of Missouri to provide “systemic support” to students is unclear. What was the University supposed to do, postpone exams?…
Gay Patriot notes at the top that the left has “created a monster and It’s turned on them… the campus wars are about power, not justice” ~ This is something I have said for some time, and I see it as having two outcomes:
A conservative think tank had to have their yearly meeting in an undisclosed place due to threats of violence, Michael Steele had Oreo cookies thrown at him, conservative speakers like Ann Coulter need body guards when going on to a campus when speaking (the reverse is not true of liberal speakers), eco-fascists (like the above) put nails in trees so when lumber jacks cut through them they are maimed, from rapes and deaths and blatantly anti-Semitic/anti-American statements and threats made at occupy movements, we are seeing Obama’s America… divided, more violent, forcing Christians to photograph, make cakes for, and put flower arrangements together for same-sex marriage ceremonies… to pro-choice opponents with jars of feces and urine taken from them after chanting “hail Satan” and “fuck the church,” a perfect storm is being created for a real culture war… all with thanks to people who laugh at terms like “eco-fascists” and “leftist thugs.” The irony is that these coal unions asked their members to vote for Obama. Well, the chickens have come home to roost.
My other thoughts for here is something I have said for quite a while now: “leftism” eats itself. It always has. We have seen socialist groups fight for their agenda to be paramount (thinking of Russian and German historical hegemony that led to many deaths to accomplish this goal… before the end result of the power structure and well-known leaders took power — which caused even more deaths).
Because of the flag issue, already there is talk of the Jefferson Memorial (the founder of the party running around from activist issue-to-issue ~ they do this because they replace the God shaped vacuum with politics)… banning Gone with the Wind (even though a black woman [the first time in our history] won “Best Supporting Actress)… etc.
The hubris of the left can be seen as well in thinking that they [politicians] can control weather (the sun) by legislation. Or changing gender by the stroke of a pen. Pride predates the fall.
[….]
ALL THAT BEING SAID… there is a dangerous aspect to this. As the left eats itself, they have historically looked for scape-goats. Jews and Christians are typically the fall-guy… especially in the 20th and 21st Century.
The left “KNOWS” its goals are well meaning, and so find acknowledgment that they are true and society “NEEDS” them ~ again, based on the “well meaningful’ness.”
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. Their very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be ‘cured’ against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals. But to be punished, however severley, because we have deserved it, because ‘ought to have known better,’ is to be treated as a human persons in God’s image.”
C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2002), 292 (Full text).
So, in the West as these “well-meaning” ideals works themselves out, expect more legal, cultural, and violent expression against those who hold to a historical, conserving theology and expressing this in public life…
Michael Beasley Reviews Hitchens Book, “God Is Not Great”
Michael John Beasley speaks on atheist Christopher Hitchens’ completely shallow views of God and Christianity from his book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
I want to deal a bit with Hitchens worldview that is the drive for such a book that uses bad-thinking to get an emotional response (e.g., propaganda). Here Hitchens hat-tips Karl Marx by saying that this [Marx’s Manifesto] was “…OUR first attempt at philosophy, just as it was OUR first attempt at healthcare, cosmology… astronomy, and so on….”
Here is a wonderful documentary (15-parts, they will load automatically) about the Marxist/Leninist philosophy. Before watching the documentary, consider this by a former leader in the 60’s communist movement here in the states:
…To transform society, you need the power of the state; it is the only way their future can be achieved. That is why they are willing to follow the marching orders of a party that can control the state, and that is why they want to advance its fortunes. The Democrats’ perennial campaign message — Republicans are conducting a war on minorities, women, working Americans, and the poor — rests on the central idea that unites progressives behind the party: We are for equality, they are against it.
The reasoning behind such behavior was revealed by Leon Trotsky when he explained why he would not leave the Bolshevik party even after Stalin — who would eventually murder him — became its absolute leader: “We can only be right with and by the Party,” Trotsky said, “for history has provided no other way of being in the right.” “If the Party adopts a decision which one or other of us thinks unjust, he will say, just or unjust, it is my party, and I shall support the consequences of the decision to the end.”
Non-Bolsheviks may not share Trotsky’s metaphysical certitude, but they will recognize the principle. If the cause is about changing the world and there is only one party that can acquire the means to do it, then even though it may be wrong on this or that matter, its fortunes must be advanced and its power defended. This commitment is magnified when the opposition party is viewed as the enemy of the noble cause. If Republicans are seen as the party of privilege at war with minorities, women, and the poor, then their ideas are not only wrong but evil. As President Obama’s political mentor, Saul Alinsky, put it in Rules for Radicals: “One acts decisively only in the conviction that all of the angels are on one side and the devils are on the other.”
Here is another statement from Rules for Radicals: “We are always moral and our enemies always immoral.” The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the immorality of the opposition, of conservatives and Republicans. If they are perceived as immoral and indecent, their policies and arguments can be dismissed, and even those constituencies that are non-political or “low-information” can be mobilized to do battle against an evil party. In 1996 Senator Bob Dole — a moderate Republican and deal-maker — ran for president against the incumbent, Bill Clinton. At the time, Dick Morris was Clinton’s political adviser. As they were heading into the election campaign, Clinton — a centrist Democrat — told Morris, “You have to understand, Dick, Bob Dole is evil.” That is how even centrist Democrats view the political battle.
Because Democrats and progressives regard politics as a battle of good versus evil, their focus is not on policies that work and ideas that make sense, but on what will make their party win. Demonizing the opposition is one answer; unity is another. If we are divided, we will fail, and that means evil will triumph…
Enjoy this tour of worldviews: