Beware of Idealists

When I was in high school a number of years ago, a popular social studies teacher with a leftist perspective asked who in the class was an idealist. A nearly unanimous class raised their hands enthusiastically to the teacher’s approval. I was one of the few who did not and I was rewarded with the teacher’s scorn. At that time, and now, I don’t believe there is room in the classroom for political indoctrination, however innocent it may seem.

That there has been much injustice in the world is factual and obvious to most informed people. What is not so obvious is the real meaning of the solutions that have been offered in the name of justice, social, economic or otherwise. The subject is examined in great detail by the late Robert Conquest in his magnificent book “Reflections in a Ravaged Century”. Whether you prefer the word of Latin origin millenarian or the more obscure Greek origin word chiliastic is unimportant. What is important is that the twentieth century was horrible. Who can even begin to total the number of human beings murdered in the name of idealism and justice? (Significantly, not justice for all) Who were the greatest idealists of the twentieth century? Great, not necessarily in a positive sense but certainly in their influence in the world and what they did or did not accomplish. In that first rank are such horrible people as Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It is not an accident that Communists and Fascists are both listed together here as there is no essential difference between them. Yes, purists will argue about the right and left, but if our reality is a dot in the center surrounded by a moving, closing circle starting from top to bottom or right to left, the result is that the right and left meet and surround what decency there may be in the center. The left offered a better world; just get rid of the bourgeoisie, which Marx himself called the most productive class in history. Not insignificantly, Fascism was founded by a Marxist, Georges Sorel. Mussolini, founder of the National Fascist Party (PNF) and the world’s first fascist ruler, started out as one of the leaders of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). He broke from the PSI over party doctrine concerning World War I. Interestingly, all European Socialist Parties voted war credits in their country’s parliaments to help start the war they pledged to block. Hitler, too, was an idealist. He promised a better world if only you could get rid of one group that was obstructing humanity’s progress. Who was that? The Jews.

Castro gave new meaning to the word pared as in a la pared. He executed untold numbers of Cubans he perceived as his enemies. Finally, the Iranian mullahs led by Khomeini and his fanatic followers found an ideal world in eighth century Islam and the redoing of the Battle of Karbala. Forty-five years after the Iranian Revolution, this insane mullocracy remains in power as an oppressive, tyrannical regime. It will end only when the Iranian people have decided that they have had enough.

If all of this doesn’t sound too pleasant, it isn’t. Today, the world is full of idealists. They mean only well The Students for a Democratic Society and its offshoot, The Weatherman were going to make a better Amerika. (The k is not a spelling error.) These super educated upper-class idealists were going to cure America with bank expropriations, bombings and murders. They were really road pavers as they proved that the road to hell was paved with good intentions. America took a detour, and we didn’t let them accomplish their heinous tyrannical goals. But they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams as they conquered the universities with faculty, particularly in soft subjects where they indoctrinate young impressionable minds as to what is good and what is evil. Today, they masquerade under the name of progressivism and democratic socialism. Beware of these misnomers. They are mini-tyrants in waiting. They participate, in particular in the Democratic Party where their leader, a pseudosocialist named Bernie Sanders has twice tried to win that party’s nomination despite not even being a registered Democrat. He styles himself an Independent, has beaten Democrat candidates in Vermont multiple times yet he caucuses with the Democrats in the U.S. Senate. A cadre of members of the House of Representatives now style themselves similarly. They have pushed the Democrats, a moderate party with a history as long as the U.S. sharply to the left by offering attractive programs as did Lenin and Hitler. But they reject secretly most of the American constitution, laws and traditions. They are the greatest threat to democracy in our country. Not because they are of the left but because they are idealists.

What should be done? An educated and informed public is our greatest strength in protecting our democracy. Handouts of money are just a form of bribes and the left are specialists in bribing voters. An alert public is most important. A proper understanding of our history and indeed, the history of the world is necessary. The greatest enemy of American democracy is the group masquerading as progressives and democratic socialists. Ignorance and stupidity are their greatest allies. Even Adolf Hitler understood the need to have the word “socialist” in his party name and he offered significant social and economic privileges to those who belonged to his so called “national community”.

Ultimately, there is no real difference between the left and right. They get along just fine with each other when it comes to power. There can be no compromise with evil even if their program sounds fair and generous (and it does). Remember, you get the whole program. You can’t pick and choose. Freedom is precious. Freedom is costly. We cannot afford idealism which will lead us to a living hell.

N.B. Today I visited the Museum of Communism in Prague, Czech Republic. It tells the tragic story of that country under a terrible dictatorship that lasted for over forty years. Crying over history is not required. Knowledge is cumulative. Let us learn from the history of others and not let so called progressives lead us down the road to perdition.

Garry S. Sklar

Prague, Czech Republic

July 4, 2022