I was struck by comments from a former Cuban filmmaker this weekend.
Filmmaker and American citizen Agustin Blazquez never thought his native Cuba would become a communist country, but now he sees the same radical shift happening in America.
In this exclusive video interview for The Daily Caller News Foundation, he says the left has been clever by using “very non-threatening words,” like liberal, progressive and concerned citizens, for advancing government control of American lives. The truth about Cuban politics is hard to find because of media spin and propaganda dominating American discourse.
For Blazquez, watching American youth embrace avowed socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders for president, strikes him as “absurd.” It is the end result, he says, of the cultural marxist education and media propaganda that has anesthetized too many Americans who do not defend the values that made America exceptional.
There's more at the link.
I'm forced to agree with Mr. Blazquez. As an outsider, I look at American politics, society and culture and wonder how it's possible for people to be so blind to the external influences that have slowly but steadily taken over so much of this nation already. The so-called 'long march through the institutions' has been very successful indeed in this country.
Sarah Hoyt and I have talked about this at some length. She came to this country from Portugal, where she experienced a Communist revolution that took over the country. (She's written about it extensively; see here for a selection of her articles on the subject.) I came to America from South Africa, and I've traveled extensively in sub-Saharan Africa. Throughout the continent I saw at first hand the inevitable results of communist and socialist governments (economic chaos and national impoverishment, political stagnation, and the rule of ideology rather than law). I've fought Communists on the battlefield, and seen refugees from Communist victories flee with little more than the clothes on their backs, after being forcibly deprived of everything they owned by the victors. Many had been beaten up, raped, shot, and worse. (Yes, there are worse things. No, I'm not going to tell you more about them in this post. It wasn't pretty, and one doesn't forget. For example, I described one such incident here - just one out of many I saw or experienced. The perpetrators were terrorists belonging to an avowedly Communist movement. They are now 'good Communists', in the classic sense of the term.)
Sarah and I have discussed the subject in fairly strong terms (to the resigned tolerance of our respective US-born spouses, who haven't been through what we've experienced). We're astonished, and can hardly believe, that so few people see how deep the tentacles of communism (thinly 'disguised' as leftist, progressive or socialist ideology) have already penetrated so much of US society. It seems that only those who are middle-aged or older have a clear understanding of what's going on, because they've experienced (and have a better understanding of) history and what it means.
Many of us feel powerless to do anything about it. Fortunately, that's not true. We can stand up and be counted, not just in national, regional and local elections (which we should certainly do), but also by speaking out against the politically correct claptrap that infests daily discourse. If we point it out for the nonsense that it is (see 'newspeak'), we expose those behind it as well. When we do, they scurry like cockroaches, because they can't stand the light of
Let's have at it!
Peter
10 comments:
Hey Peter;
I saw this on Drudge and it really bothered me...it seems the poison that the soviets pumped into the American political system back in the late 50's and the counter culture of the 60's has taken hold and spread. I knew the folly of communism in my travels, when I patrolled the "1 K" zone between East and West Germany and Czechoslovakia. When I was attached to Field Station Berlin, you could see the differences between the 2 Berlins and the differences of capitalism and communism. In the 70's My father had given me a book called "Soviet power", It was a field manual that was published by the U.S. military and it explained in detail how communism worked and how a country goes communist, usually by force of arms...but occasionally a country would "vote" in such a system. For some reason that phrase has stuck in me, I see it slowly creeping into the American System. When I see that the millennial prefer socialism to capitalism, I know that their indoctrination is complete and we have lost another generation. I fear for the United States, once the bulwark of Western civilization.
I'll vote against this kind of thing as much as I can, but there's only so much voting can do, as we've seen. So much of this rot is perpetrated outside the government arena, though there's great enthusiasm within government to aid and abet it.
I've got another 15 years, give or take, before I could possibly retire in any reasonable fashion... I'm very, very seriously considering retiring beyond the borders of this once-great nation once I get to that point.
Heh.
You know, actual Communism as it was originally defined, was in reality even more rare in the "Communist" countries than elsewhere...
It just doesnt seem to work as a state-level system. Local level, it *may* in certain uncommon circumstances, and I wouldn't recommend trying without such. Regional... wouldn't risk it.
I've met people who I consider "good people" and who are communists, but they're the extreme-pacifist Christian Communist kind that went extinct in the "Communist block" countries very quickly. And I still wouldn't trust their ability to make sensible decisions on the municipal level, let alone higher.
In Mike Resnick's Santiago there is a character, jolly man I think, that explained young kids understand owning, because of their blankee.
Since my daughter starts working she has become very anti tax...
Another anon
I'm part of a "younger" generation than you are, Peter...only in my mid-30s. I've always had a love of history and I've studied on my own. Far, far too many people of my generation were taught very little history, US or otherwise, and now they lack the context they need to see where things could ultimately lead. It's the old saw, "Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Those that DO learn from history are doomed to watch all the other morons repeat it."
Despite the descent of the United States into insanity I still have hope, though. I'm sure the Romans of the day thought their nation was on the brink in the years following the death of Julius Caesar, but Rome did find renewal, for a time, when the right man rose to prominence.
And if worse comes to worst, well, I find it comforting that the 50% of the population most likely to resist a final surrender to the Gods of Government tend to be the 50% of the population that's reasonably well armed.
It is truly staggering to read some opinions, in which people seem to think that we should all just let government make our decisions for us.
In my Seattle paper, there's an article right now about the government permanently banning people from visiting a particular island due to people leaving trash, etc. The locals are fully in agreement with this "government rules us all". I call them on it and my words fall on deaf ears.
Heh.
I'm reminded of that internet thing showing a girl protesting, with the caption "Wants more government". The next photo shows her getting pepper-sprayed, with the caption "Gets more government".
Well, I'm in my early twenties, and though I have no doubt my understanding of what's going on is less clear than yours and Sarah's, I am trying to become more aware. I despise communism (and its cousin, socialism) and I am amazed that there's not as much social stigma attached to professing a communist worldview as there is for professing a Nazi worldview. Both of those ideologies are evil, but only one is repugnant to the average citizen. Oh, and I recently learned a bit more about "CTR"s (Cash Transaction Reports) and the unfettered power of the IRS to steal from people under the shield of "civil asset forfeiture" on nothing more than *suspicion* that a person is engaging in "structuring" their withdrawals of cash... It is actually *illegal* to try to preserve your privacy in your banking activities! How is this possibly constitutional! I just don't know what to say.
It's all fun and games til they shut off the beer.
http://babalublog.com/2016/05/01/caracastan-death-spiral-update-no-beer-for-anyone/
It is rather disheartening how the Left/Progressives have perverted the language even of those purportedly opposed.
Communism got top billing but only as an obfuscation. Communism is just socialism imposed by revolutionary/violent means. The so-called "peaceful" socialist work to move society to the same final state but by creeping increment and interventionism.
Many Conservative writers eagerly use the term "liberal" and redefine it with traits of the Progressives. This circumvents the promotion of true liberalism, now classical liberalism.
Take the definitions of capitalism and socialism. Even to the top economics professors and writers, the definitions are stuck in 11th grade economics test answer. And they are quick to avoid highlighting the interventionism, which is the march to total state socialism (Communism) and should be called out for what it is.
I realize capitalism was the word created by Marx, but then we have no word for the liberty to save and use productive capital to make wealth for oneself. But this liberty, if called capitalism, runs from laissez faire thru regulatory and licensing beyond confiscatory taxation to government cronyism to total state capitalism (Communism), where only the bureaucrats can gain wealth by extraction from state production.
It is time to call out the name and identification of what is being promoted, slavery for all but the officeholder.
"First, what is the best the socialists, in their writings, can offer us? What do the most optimistic of them say? That our subsistence will be guaranteed, while we work; that some of us, the best of us, may earn a surplus above what is actually necessary for our subsistence; and that surplus, like a good child, we may "keep to spend." We may not use it to better our condition, we may not, if a fisherman, buy another boat with it, if a farmer, another field ; we may not invest it, or use it productively ; but we can spend it like the good child, on candy — on something we consume, or waste it, or throw it away.
"Could not the African slave do as much? In fact, is not this whole position exactly that of the ... slave? He, too, was guaranteed his sustenance; he, too, was allowed to keep and spend the extra money he made by working overtime; but he was not allowed to better his condition, to engage in trade, to invest it, to change his lot in life. Precisely what makes a slave is that he is allowed no use of productive capital to make wealth on his own account. The only difference is that under socialism, I may not be compelled to labor (I don't even know as to that -- socialists differ on the point), actually compelled, by the lash, or any other force than hunger. And the only other difference is that the ... slave was under the orders of one man, while the subject of socialism will be under the orders of a committee of ward heelers. You will say, the slave could not choose his master, but we shall elect the ward politician. So we do now. Will that help much? Suppose the man with a grievance didn't vote for him?"
--Socialism; a speech delivered in Faneuil hall, February 7th, 1903, by Frederic J. Stimson
Like Moldbug says: America is a communist country.
Post a Comment