Tuesday, November 25, 2003



I can't remember where I found this, so if anyone deserves the hat tip, let me know.

Because it's damn good. As usual, all emphasis is mine.

As an émigré from the Soviet Union, whose parents were dissidents and were persecuted by the KGB, I grew up in this society completely bewildered and baffled by the Left. From a very young age, I was shocked to observe leftists minimizing the evils of communism and painting their own society as not only just as evil, but even more evil than the Cold War enemy.

Yep, you read that right. That ties in with the Eastern Europe countries coming out and saying that the EU government is "Something they've already seen, and do not want".

Throughout my life, I argued with myriad leftists about communism, trying to convince them of its perniciousness. During my doctoral years in the field of Cold War History, I spent an inordinate amount of time debating with my colleagues about who was responsible for the Cold War.

My colleagues, of course, always howled with one another about my views.

I remember how they reserved special mockery for Reagan’s reference to the Soviet system as an “Evil Empire.” As I continue to reflect on what happened to my own family under communism (i.e. both of my grandfathers were murdered by the Soviet secret police), and what it means that communism extinguished 100 million lives in the 20th century, I remain befuddled by what exactly was so laughable about Reagan’s reference.


At this point I'm convinced that if people can't figure out that Communism is bad, it's because they want to ignore it. Perhaps they lust to be on the top of that power, running a country and watching the plebes move to their commands. Perhaps it's because they refuse to acknowledge right and wrong. Whatever the reason, those people cannot be allowed to hold the reins of government, else they turn our successful country into a Communist, totalitarian hell hole.

When I approached my colleagues with this new evidence, ranging from everything from the issues of the Korean war, Berlin, Soviet espionage, American communists’ links with the Soviet regime, etc., I showed how I had been correct on every issue that we had argued about for years.

And yet, instead of hearing a mea culpa, a stated regret or admission of some kind of lesson learned, all that I witnessed, in a manner that remains extremely eerie for me to remember, was a callous indifference and smug contempt for the issues at hand. Some of my colleagues articulated a few incomprehensible justifications of their positions; others just switched topics with remarkable speed and ominous neglect. All of them condescended to me for being interested in something so “old” and “ancient.” They patiently counselled me, with a disdain and arrogance that I will never forget, to stop chasing “old ghosts” and “engaging in necrophilia.”

And these were historians.


I can't get over my nausea today. First the story from New Jersey, and now this.

Any wonder why I'm called "Raging" Dave?

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