90 Miles From Tyranny

Saturday, March 18, 2023

When many people of the 21st century think of communist authoritarianism, they probably tend to think of the horrific genocidal regimes of dictators like Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. Their approaches to political dissidents and Marxist theory were blunt, and done in a quick fashion, so as to hasten the revolution and bring about their fictitious "utopia" much more quickly than non-authoritarian states. Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, for instance, wasted no time in initiating the revolution, because as soon as the regime gained power in Cambodia, it went straight to work purging the cities and forcing its inhabitants into the country to work on agricultural projects, and then proceeded to summarily execute between 1 and 3 million Cambodians, including the most disfavored group: the intellectuals, whom those in power were able to recognize because they "wore glasses," in what became known as "the killing fields of Cambodia."

Similarly, about a half century before, the Bolshevik regime, under V.A. Lenin, initiated what was known as the "Red Terror" against their political and class enemies, a campaign of murder against non-Bolsheviks (known as "the Whites") that resulted in up to 1.3 million deaths between 1918 and 1921. This approach was simple, to the point, and expedient, but it left a trail of death and destruction that some future communists, particularly communists in Western nations, sought to steer clear of.

In the race between the Tortoise and the Hare, Lenin and Pol Pot were the Hare. What modern Marxists have come to realize, however, is that the Tortoise, the one who took the "slow and steady" approach to the race, ultimately won. That is why the current slow-rolling communist revolution going on in the United States today will not, and does not, involve mass murder, Gulags, and manufactured famines.

See, the Marxists of the 21st century have learned their lessons from the revolutions of the 20th century. The Marxist revolutionaries of today are taking the Tortoise's approach to the race toward revolution and communist "utopia." They are, and have been since the 1960s, doing a "long march through the institutions," where they hope to fundamentally and radically transform society over a long period of time through the culture. After all, politics, the politics of the revolution, is downstream of culture.

At present, the left has successfully captured nearly every major institution of society. Instead of sending political dissidents to Gulags or re-education camps, they instead send themselves and the champions of the cultural revolution to, say, Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity training seminars, where they engage in Maoist-style "struggle sessions" between and among the various races of employees.

They have all the employees "of color" air their grievances against the white employees, or all the white employees "admit" their "racist" attitudes or beliefs to the "people of color," all of whom they are trying to indoctrinate as "oppressed" and "oppressor." According to critical race theorists, who view all human interactions and structures of society through a lens of power dynamics and systems of oppression (just as Karl Marx did, except through the lens of class and economics), white people "dominate" society and the institutions of it, and have "cultural hegemony," which results in the various "people of color" being "oppressed" by them.

Modern Marxists believe that if passive-aggressive activities like this are done long enough, with enough intensity and commitment, then indoctrination will result, and a revolution will not have to be forced onto society. The revolution will instead occur naturally because an eager and brainwashed populace wants it to happen, and has been taught that it must happen.

Not a single shot will have to be fired to achieve this revolution, because the culture, after a long enough period of time, will embrace the ideology of the revolution and bring about its goals of its own accord. The left is playing the long game. That is why leftists are teaching Critical Race Theory and Comprehensive Sexuality Education and using Social-Emotional Learning strategies in schools, all of which are rooted in neo-Marxist critical theory.

The left knows that it will take but one generation of students indoctrinated into Marxist dogma to foment a cultural revolution. The revolution, necessarily, in this case, would not be violent, or even contentious, because once an entire generation is uniform in thought and has no opposition to speak of, they can implement their agenda with complete impunity. The left is not betting on a turbulent revolution in the present; it is betting on a gradual and peaceful revolution in...

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Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #988

Are We the Byzantines?

The Byzantines never woke up in time to understand what they had become. Will Americans?

When Constantinople finally fell to the Ottomans on Tuesday, May 29, 1453, the Byzantine Empire and its capital had survived for 1,000 years beyond the fall of the Western Empire at Rome.

Always outnumbered in a sea of enemies, the Byzantines’ survival had depended on its realist diplomacy of dividing its enemies, avoiding military quagmires, and ensuring constant deterrence.

Generations of self-sacrifice ensured ample investment for infrastructure. Each generation inherited and improved on singular aqueducts and cisterns, sewer systems, and the most complex and formidable city fortifications in the world.

Brilliant scientific advancement and engineering gave the empire advantages like swift galleys and flame throwers—an ancient precursor to napalm.

The law reigned supreme for nearly a millennium after the emperor Justinian codified a prior thousand years of Roman jurisprudence.

Yet this millennium-old crown jewel of the ancient world that once was home to 800,000 citizens had only 50,000 inhabitants left when it fell.

There were only 7,000 defenders on the walls to hold back a huge Turkish army of over 150,000 attackers.

The Islamic winners took over the once magical city of Constantine and renamed it Istanbul. It had been the home of the renowned Santa Sophia, the largest Christian church in the world for over 900 years. Almost immediately, this “Church of the Holy Wisdom” was converted into the then largest mosque in the Islamic world, with minarets to follow.

So what happened to the once indomitable city fortress and its empire?

Christendom had cannibalized itself. Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy fought endlessly. Westerners often hated each other more than they did their common enemy.

In the final days of Constantinople, almost no help was sent from Western Europe to the besieged city.

In fact, 250 years earlier, the Western Franks of the Fourth Crusade had detoured from the Holy Land to storm the supposedly allied Christian City of Constantinople.

Then they ransacked the city and hijacked the Byzantine Empire for a half-century. Constantinople never quite recovered.

The 14 th-century Black Plague killed tens of thousands of Byzantines and scared thousands more into moving out of the cramped city.

But the aging and dying empire battled more than the challenges of internal divisions, or an unforeseen but deadly pandemic and the empire’s disastrous responses to it.

The last generations of Byzantines had inherited a global reputation and standard of living that they themselves no longer earned.

They neglected their former civic values and fought endless battles over obscure religious texts, doctrines, and vocabulary.

They did not expand their anemic army and navy. They did not reunite their scattered Greek-speaking empire. They did not properly maintain their once life-giving walls.

Instead of earning money through their accustomed nonstop trade, they inflated their currency and were forced to melt down the city’s inherited gold and silver fixtures.

The once canny and shrewd Byzantines grew smug and naïve. Childlessness became common. Most now preferred to live outside of what had become a half-empty, often dirty, and poorly maintained city.

Meanwhile they underestimated the growing power of the Ottomans who systematically pruned away their empire. By the mid-15th century Islamic armies were ready to exploit fatal Byzantine weaknesses.

The Sultan Mehmed II grandly announced the Ottomans were now the real, the only world power. Ascendent Ottoman armies would eventually move on to the very gates of Vienna in an effort to rule all the lands of the ancient Roman empire.

We should take heed from the last generations of the Byzantines.

Nowhere is it foreordained that America has a birthright to remain the world’s preeminent civilization.

An ascendent China seems eerily similar to the Ottomans. Beijing believes that the United States is decadent, undeserving of its affluence, living beyond its means on the fumes of the past—and very soon vulnerable enough to challenge openly.

Left and Right seem to hate each other more than they do their common enemies.

Like the Byzantines, Americans gave up defending their own borders, and simply shrugged as millions overran them as they pleased.

Our once iconic downtowns, like end-stage Constantinople before the fall, are now dirty, half-deserted, dangerous, and dysfunctional.

America prints rather than makes...