Russia, 2006. I was there to meet Moscow publishers about the forthcoming Russian translation of my novel "Crosspoints: A Novel of Choice." This was after the fall of communism but before the tightening of Putin’s regime. I spent two weeks interacting with individuals from intellectuals to taxi drivers who constantly remarked about certain of their fellow countrymen: “Oh, he/she still has a communist mind.” This was uttered with disdain by those who were energetic, industrious, and enjoying new freedoms in reference to others who missed the security of the state: assurance of jobs (no matter how lowly), housing (no matter how humble), healthcare (no matter how antiquated), and strict rules (no matter how inane).
America, 2016. Those experiences in Russia haunt me now because I am encountering this “communist mind” in my own country. Note: Our present nanny government and cultural decline did not begin with Barack Hussein Obama; his election was the result not the cause of a collectivist mentality metastasizing throughout the populace from the dawn of the 20th century. Americans have become soft and security obsessed, looking more to government for comforts and less to taking responsibility for themselves.
Once we swallowed the poison pill of political correctness, all else — affirmative action, racial strife, ethnic quotas, discrimination/harassment suits, welfare increases — was bound to follow because PC made the strong and successful feel guilty for their prosperity, making way for the weak and lazy to finally demand, as if by right, privileges and subsistence from hard-working producers via the government’s wanton spending of tax dollars.
Let’s meet some Americans with “communist minds.”
The successful, well-intentioned liberals come first for they, like Lenin’s “useful idiots,” through altruism and dreams of a “let’s all love each other” utopia support politicians bent on redistribution of money from the haves to the have-nots. They will relinquish portions of their own wealth and freedom for the “good” of others. Notice, however, that they insist the rest of us are forced to do the same.
Collectivist politicians and judges, the most conscious and consistent “communist minds,” are not well-intentioned even if they manage to believe their own lies during the telling, a psychological feat that in the real world (from which they have become disconnected) is impossible. Deep down, they know what they are doing and for whom: their personal benefit and their own power to control the rest of us.
“Communist mind” teachers at all levels of education have become a commonplace as they insert political correctness into every curriculum and neglect to teach rational critical thinking to the young and impressionable.
Hollywood has always been replete with activist “communist minds” making propaganda movies, but now TV joins them by offering brainless, vulgar, and sex-obsessed programming. Add to this mix a collectivist mainstream media and mind-numbing rap “music,” both producing nonstop distraction, disinformation, or overt collectivist ideas for the gullible, instant-gratification-driven, and short-term-attention-spanned masses to absorb as if by sensory-emotional osmosis.
A stealth tyranny takes many decades to establish itself via “education” of the populace, increasing government rules and regulations, greater government control over the money supply, military distractions, media propaganda, and so on, e.g., America today.
Individualism disappears over time in large part because each succeeding generation accepts government control as a fact of life from childhood on. Others become apathetic out of despair that they can’t do anything to curtail government interference, so they just accept and live as best they can. America’s emerging soft, socialist tyranny resembles that of post-World War II Europe, but ours will be more lethal when finalized because our current politicians are becoming more shrill, bold, and urgent in their lust for raw power.
Luckily, we are a seriously divided country at this moment — observe the popular vote in the last few elections — and growing numbers of alarmed individuals are finally gathering together to fight back against a seriously oppressive government. The window of opportunity is slim, however, because the bulk of our population is sliding ineluctably into a “communist mind.”
Look around at your own immediate social environment. How many Americans truly want to take responsibility and stand accountable for their actions? Look, too, deep into the reflective pool of your own value system to see if any part of a “communist mind” is lurking there.
Like a mixed economy, a mixed value system is unstable, unpredictable and, in the end, doomed to disaster. A significant number of Americans are waking up to the impending dangers of living under governmental authoritarianism of one stripe or another, but we must open our eyes all the way and act in accordance with objective reality, exercise our faculties of reason and judgment, become familiar with the U.S. Constitution, speak up, and become politically active (especially in local communities) in order to challenge and thwart those who would enslave us.
Alexandra York is an author and founding president of the American Renaissance for the Twenty-first Century (ART) a New-York-City-based nonprofit educational arts and culture foundation. She has written for many publications, including "Reader’s Digest" and The New York Times. Her latest book is "The Innocent." For more on Alexandra York, Go Here Now.
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