Outbursts of murderous mayhem in addition to an undercurrent of political incivility – the exhibitionism of barbaric rudeness and physical assault – have become common and sometimes shrugged off as simply folks being a little too exuberant. Much of it emanates from our cities and universities (the two are often synonymous). It sounds like the seething cauldron of pre-revolutionary Russia as described by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his novel “August 1914”. We have a city and university problem like Russia of a century ago.
We have Antifa, the Resistance, and a Democratic Party in the grip of the worst bombast coming from the other two – frequently the three groups are synonymous. Similarly, Russia had radical student activism in the cities and campuses. Rudeness, outbursts of pandemonium, and violence were incessant.
The tie that binds our and their activists through time and space is leftist ideology. The leftist belief system has three basic planks: (1) the overthrow of tradition, (2) collectivism, and (3) an unquestioning faith in pure equality, equality in everything and in almost every way. Our lefty activists have much in common with those running around in Russian towns, cities, and campuses of a century ago.
Take a look at collectivism, with socialism being the political expression of it. Collectivism was popular among Russia’s young at the time as it is today among our young. Look at socialism’s positives in our 18-26 age cohort. Collectivism treats people as a generality. To the collectivist, people are a group, not individuals. To ensure the well-being of all, they say, everyone should control nearly everything. “Everyone” means the state. Personal possessions are at the behest of the group.
Sound familiar? Sounds like Barney Frank’s famous quote, “Government is simply a word for the things we decide to do together”? Sounds like free [you name it], the schemes of confiscatory taxation, the Green New Deal’s massive overthrow of our constitutional order, and expansive government powers to advance the alleged interests of any fad-of-the-moment victims’ group, as expounded in the talking points of Democratic politicians?
It doesn’t stop there. Tradition is the harbinger of all evil to the leftist. Family, faith, and old principles of civil order are to be eliminated or refashioned to fit the vision. The metric to govern the social engineering is “equality”, equality in nearly all things. If disparities exist, it is assumed to be the result of a systemic or hidden [you name the evil].
Herein lies the totalitarian temptation. Equality of outcome doesn’t come naturally. People vary so much in so many different ways as to make its attainment impossible … if left alone. For a leftist, you can’t leave it alone. Equality will have to be forced. Thus, the Leviathan must be huge and intrusive.
We seem to be repeating Russia’s path of the last couple of decades of the 19th century to the penultimate explosion of 1917. The centers of upheaval in Russia were the towns, cities, and college campuses as they are today in our country. And they were as horribly misguided and destructive as they will be in our own time if given the power. I hope cooler heads prevail.
I’m a fan of the aphorism frequently attributed to Mark Twain: “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes”. So true. So true.
RogerG