“Silence is Violence” leads, of course, to compelled speech

The New Neo Posted on by

Jonathan Turley has this to say on the subject:

“Silence is violence” has everything that you want in a slogan: Alliteration. Brevity. Simplicity. It also can be chilling for some in the academic and free-speech communities.

On one level, it conveys a powerful message that people of good faith should not remain silent about great injustices. However, it can have a more menacing meaning to “prove the negative” – demanding that people prove they are not racist.

In a prior column, I warned of the thin line between speech codes and speech commands, as people move from compelling silence to compelling speech: “Once all the offending statues are down, and all the offending professors are culled, the appetite for collective suppression will become a demand for collective expression.”

The line between punishing speech and compelling speech is easily crossed when free speech itself is viewed as a threat…

The concern over speech codes becoming speech commands would have been viewed as utterly absurd just a few years ago. Now, even calls for civility in dialogue have been denounced as racist dog whistles. Trinity College professor Johnny Williams condemned those who call for civility as “uphold[ing] white supremacist heteropatriarchal capitalist power.”

The whole thing is worth reading. I have tremendous respect for Turley, who in recent years has shown not only intelligence but courage as well. However, there’s something I think he’s leaving out of his piece. Actually, a couple of things.

The first is that the phrase “Silence is violence” is an oxymoronic statement, emblematic of the toxic combination of illogic and anti-libertarianism that characterizes what passes for thought among the left these days, especially the academic left. And by “these days” I mean for many decades.

Silence is not violence and cannot be violence. It is not even speech. Nor is speech violence, although speech can contain a call to violence. This blurring of the line between speech and acts is not accidental nor is it trivial. The distinction between the two is one of the pillars of our legal system, and one of its great triumphs. Harmful speech is largely protected (except for defamation), but harmful actions are much more likely to be judged and penalized.

My second objection to Turley’s piece: when he writes that “the concern over speech codes becoming speech commands would have been viewed as utterly absurd just a few years ago,” I beg to differ. Yes, it would have been denied by the left a few years ago, to get the camel’s nose in the tent. And no doubt many naive people, unaware of how the left works, would think it an absurd possibility. But anyone familiar with the left would have to know that, as with Havel’s greengrocer parable, compelled speech would be on the agenda sooner or later.

Jordan Peterson recognized the problem years ago, and in fact it was the topic gained him fame in 2016 when he opposed a Canadian law that he said would compel the use of certain pronouns:

He zeroed in on Canadian human rights legislation that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or expression.

Dr Peterson was especially frustrated with being asked to use alternative pronouns as requested by trans students or staff, like the singular ‘they’ or ‘ze’ and ‘zir’, used by some as alternatives to ‘she’ or ‘he’.

In his opposition, he set off a political and cultural firestorm that shows no signs of abating.

At a free speech rally mid-October, he was drowned out by a white noise machine. Pushing and shoving broke out in the crowd…

At the same time, the University of Toronto said it had received complaints of threats against trans people on campus.

His employers have warned that, while they support his right to academic freedom and free speech, he could run afoul of the Ontario Human Rights code and his faculty responsibilities should he refuse to use alternative pronouns when requested.

They also said they have received complaints from students and faculty that his comments are “unacceptable, emotionally disturbing and painful” and have urged him to stop repeating them.

And that was hardly the first sign. The slogan “silence is violence,” with its threatening implications, is not new in 2020. I found some sporadic uses of it earlier, for example in music lyrics as early as 2005, but more importantly in campus demonstrations (against alleged racism) such as this one from 2015.

As the Black Lives Matter movement picked up steam, so did the slogan “Silence is Violence.” BLM officially began after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting, in July of 2013, but the movement became more well-known and popular after the Michael Brown case in 2014 (both cases hyped, distorted, and lied about by a combination of leftist activists, lawyers such as Ben Crump, and an army of MSM journalists). After that, we see the increasing use of the slogan in demonstrations such as the one I already linked to, or articles such as this one or this. Clearly, the slogan was already in use in the context of racial grievance groups. It also has often been paired with the word “white” as in “white silence is violence.”

By now “Silence is Violence” is mainstream, regarded as almost banal – although there is nothing banal about it. You can buy your “silence is violence” products on Etsy: T-shirts and COVID masks, for example, many of them with the added word “white” for emphasis (over 2 1/2 thousand results, here). Maybe some day the insignia will become a required national uniform.

And then there’s Serbia and Kosovo

The New Neo Posted on by

More news from the White House:

Today, I am pleased to announce yet another historic commitment. Serbia and Kosovo have each committed to economic normalization. After a violent and tragic history and years of failed negotiations, my Administration proposed a new way of bridging the divide. By focusing on job creation and economic growth, the two countries were able to reach a real breakthrough on economic cooperation across a broad range of issues.

We have also made additional progress on reaching peace in the Middle East. Kosovo and Israel have agreed to normalization of ties and the establishment of diplomatic relations. Serbia has committed to opening a commercial office in Jerusalem this month and to move its embassy to Jerusalem by July.

Let’s give Trump at least two Nobel peace prizes.

Black unlike me: the strange case of Jessica Krug

The New Neo Posted on by

This is one of the strangest stories I’ve ever read. I had never heard of Jessica Krug before; I doubt many people have. She seems to be somewhat typical of the sort of leftist professor focusing on racial studies so prevalent in colleges and universities today.

But in one way she’s very atypical – she’s been “passing” as black for her entire adult life, although she’s white.

A photo can be found here.

Krug’s photo points out the difficulty of racial classification by phenotype, because it turns out that Jessica is Jewish by birth (certainly not by practice; leftism seems to be her religion). I can see how she could pass for mixed race or Hispanic (she claimed to be of Caribbean origin), and this is true of a lot of basically white people.

It’s been true of me, too, although it never occurred to me to even try.

Krug remains an unrepentant and deeply committed leftist, and as such is also a person who has bought every single bit of the “anti-racism” anti-white line of the left. For all I know, she’s anti-Semitic too; it wouldn’t surprise me in the least, although she doesn’t say anything about that. But she’s what one might call a “self-hating white” – and my guess (and it’s only a guess) is that her hatred of herself as a white person caused her to flee into blackness, even more than the history of early personal trauma to which she refers, or even a desire to advance her career (which was probably also operating, although she doesn’t mention it).

Krug also obviously wants attention at this point, and she got it. Even from me.

First we had fake news. Now we have…

The New Neo Posted on by

…fake news conferences.

(Hat tip: Ace.]

The comments at that YouTube video of Biden that I just linked are brutal.

One of the comments was this: “We’re witnessing the craziest gaslighting Psy-op ever.” Yes. There’s the fake format; it’s not even a news conference. Joe isn’t reacting impromptu to hard-hitting questions, making up answers as he goes along. All politics is theater of a sort, but this is scripted theater.

Not only is the “press conference” format fake, but the content is lies. The press pretends that it’s all on the up and up, though, because they are desperate for Biden to win.

It’s like a caricature and intensification of the process we’ve seen for decades, in which the press is biased and covers up for the Democrat. But 2020 has taken it to such an extreme that it’s remarkable to see. The result is that the press looks even more ludicrous and craven and mendacious than before, and that’s quite a feat. They don’t mind disgracing themselves, though, as long as it defeats Trump and gets Democrats elected.

Will it? Who knows. Perhaps it will, because they’ve laid the groundwork for four years through so many lies about Trump that at least half the American people would vote for a cockroach rather than the current president. And with mail-in voting, no matter what the vote may actually be, the Democrats may be able to close the gap with fraud.

So I don’t find it the least bit amusing that this glitch-ridden automatron may actually win, although I fervently hope that won’t happen.

[ADDENDUM: Once again, Joe Biden reads the instructions off the teleprompter.]

The Portland shooter gives an interview, dies a few hours later during an attempt to arrest him

The New Neo Posted on by

[See UPDATE below.]

Are they going to make this guy into a martyr too? After all, it sounds like the feds killed him. Unless he killed himself as they closed in.

Breaking news:

NYT Reporting Portland Shooter Micheal Reinoehl killed in Lacy, Washington, when federal fugitive task force moved in to arrest him.

Portland District Attorney’s office had issued an arrest warrant earlier Thursday, apparently after Vice News had teased an interview set for later Thursday night in which Reinoehl admitted that he was the person who shot and killed Aaron Danielson in Portland on Saturday night.

I guess that was too much even for the Portland DA Schmidt.

More:

Michael Reinoehl was interviewed by Portland area “Independent” journalist Donovan Farley, and parts of that interview was broadcast on Thursday night on Vice TV.

In the interview Reinoehl confessed to shooting and killing Aaron Danielson in downtown Portland on Saturday night.

Reinoehl had been identified by his sister from video taken during various events leading up to the shooting…

He claimed self-defense – you might call it the Rittenhouse defense. However, unlike Rittenhouse, the footage and witnesses available of Danielson’s killing indicated that nothing of the sort was involved. And again, unlike Rittenhouse, Reinoehl had a previous arrest history.

I previously wrote about Reinoehl – including his estrangement from his family – here. He had been arrested a month ago for “possessing a loaded gun in a public place, resisting arrest and interfering with police.” But the charges were dropped by the prosecutors on July 30. Danielson was killed by Reinoehl less than a month later. And now, less than a week later, Reinoehl is dead.

According to this report, US Marshals were involved in the attempt to apprehend Reinoehl:

The U.S. Marshals Service was part of the law enforcement team that attempted to arrest Reinoehl when shots were fired…

“I am 100% ANTIFA all the way! I am willing to fight for my brothers and sisters!” he wrote. “We do not want violence but we will not run from it either.”

In that same Instagram post, Reinoehl wrote that there was an opportunity to “fix everything.”

“But it will be like a fight like no other! It will be a war and like all wars there will be casualties,” he said. “I was in the army and I hated it.”

While Reinoehl’s sister said she had a vague recollection of her brother being in the service, an U.S. Army spokesperson was unable to find any records connected to Reinoehl in an Army database.

It would not surprise me at all if he had never served in the armed forces.

UPDATE:

More information has come out:

…[I]t was four officers of the Pierce County Apprehension team, a US Marshal Fugitive Task force, who fired the fatal shots. Officers had observed him exit an apartment and head towards the vehicle, and could see that he was armed. After initially entering the vehicle, Reinoehl exited the vehicle and fled on foot…

Reinoehl then exited the vehicle with an assault rifle which he use to fire at the officers, who then returned fire killing him. The witnesses estimated as many as 30 or 40 shots were fired.

The article mentions that one of the reasons authorities had not apprehended Reihoehl before was that the videos did not unequivocally reveal his identity. Once he gave the interview, however, that hurdle was cleared, because he admitted to being Danielson’s killer, although he claimed it was self-defense.

Why did he give that interview and make that confession? I have several theories, not mutually exclusive. One is that he wanted the notoriety. Another is that what Rittenhouse did in Kenosha gave him an idea for a storyline for his defense, and what elements it needed to have. Another is that he wanted to commit suicide by cop.

The riots and “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”

The New Neo Posted on by

[BUMPED UP: scroll down for new posts.]

Commenter “Snow on Pine” asks, of the left and the rioters:

Having created the monster, do those on the Left believe that they can call it back, that those who have tasted excitement and blood will just slink back into obscurity and silent, impotent rage?

Good question. My answer will start with a source that may surprise you.

Remember the Disney animated feature “Fantasia,” in particular the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” section? I certainly do. When I was a child it struck real fear into my heart, and it remains somewhat anxiety-provoking (and powerful and brilliant within its genre, I believe) even today. The part that especially frightened me was when it became clear that Mickey had no ability to control the monster-broomstick he had created, and in fact his efforts to stop his destructive creation had only made it more powerful.

You can see that beginning around minute 6:14, but it helps to watch the whole thing. YouTube sometimes takes videos like this down because of copyright problems (especially regarding music), but at the moment it’s available in full in this version:

When I researched the film several years ago, I was surprised to discover—very surprised indeed—that the story is not really Disney’s, although Mickey Mouse as protagonist adds the Disney touch. Its inspiration, however, is a German story-poem by Goethe.

Goethe? Yes, Goethe:

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” (German: Der Zauberlehrling) is a poem by Goethe written in 1797. The poem is a ballad in fourteen stanzas…

The poem finishes with the old sorcerer’s statement that powerful spirits should only be called by the master himself.

Goethe’s tale became part of the German vernacular [emphasis mine]:

Der Zauberlehrling is well known in the German-speaking world. The lines in which the apprentice implores the returning sorcerer to help him with the mess he has created have turned into a cliché, especially the line Die Geister, die ich rief (“The spirits that I called”), a garbled version of one of Goethe’s lines, which is often used to describe a situation where somebody summons help or uses allies that he cannot control, especially in politics.

Goethe’s poem was so famous that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (Germans both) referenced it in The Communist Manifesto, “comparing modern bourgeois society to ‘the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells.'”

The origin of the story behind the poem is a Turkish and/or Iraqi Assyrian tale that came to Goethe’s attention this way:

In 1788, [Goethe’s] friend Christoph Martin Wieland, a great writer and philosopher and also an accomplished translator from classical Greek…published a translation of the stories of Lucian of Samosata…a second century Assyrian, from a town on the headwaters of the Euphrates…who wrote a series of brilliant satires in classical Greek. Deep in that collection was a work called Philopseudes (the “Lover of Lies”). Midway through the story, a narrator named Arignotus weighs in and tells of a magician and his apprentice.

So the original story is also about the effect of lies. That article gives the exact quote of the famous lines from Goethe’s version [emphasis mine]:

And Goethe put [it] very elegantly, in two of the most quoted lines in the German language: “Die ich rief, die Geister,/Werd ich nun nicht los.” (“The spirits which I have summoned/I now cannot banish.”)

That brief article was written for leftist Harper’s in 2007. It is about Iraq and what the author believes were Bush’s lies. However, we can apply this quote from the article to the lies being told today by the left in order to promote the idea that black people are being singled out, hunted down, and killed by white police officers in a racial vendetta:

When the people have heard these lies, have been bewitched and stirred up by them, what is the consequence? Lucian says it is useful to think of the lies as a disease, and their recounting as a rabid dog biting the uninfected. He, too, then risks the infection. Is there is no shield to use against this scourge?

The general idea of Goethe’s version of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice is not especially about lies. The message is that we are not wise enough to know what the result of our efforts will ultimately be. When we call forth any powerful forces—inventions, weaponry, politics, laws, theories, artistic creations – they can be used for good or evil and everything in between, and we don’t necessarily have any say in the matter. The same is true if we call forth powerful destructive forces such as mobs, for ends we think we are achieving.

Right now, the “we” is the left (books, the press, the education system, the Democratic Party), and the force that’s been called forth is the Antifa BLM mob. Elected politicians such as a mayor like Ted Wheeler of Portland or Jenny Durkan of Seattle have already glimpsed the army of broomsticks coming towards them to trample them. But this is no cartoon.

In Iran in 1979, the left played footsie with the Ayatollahs, thinking it could use them and that the left would win in the end. History tells us they were wrong. Right now in the US it’s left vs. left – the political, elected left (and the “useful idiot” liberals) versus the more anarchist/nihilist/sociopathic left such as Antifa. The first group is Mickey Mouse (in more ways than one) and the second group the broomsticks.

And the elected left may find that the spirits it has summoned cannot be banished.

[NOTE: Is there a sharp distinction between the two parts of the left, as I have stated here? Not really; there is some overlap. But I believe that, although both are of the left, there is a general distinction between the leftist mayors and the leftist mob in terms of the extremity of their methods and ultimate goals.]

Reacting to the riots: Mayor Ted Wheeler, Governor Kate Brown, and the sheriffs

The New Neo Posted on by

The Portland rioters are testing Wheeler, to see just how far they can go. They understand that he’s weak and getting weaker, and they revel in it. Now he’s thinking he may have to move from the condo in which he lives, in order to spare his neighbors the violence.

You can run, but you can’t hide.

Wheeler probably doesn’t know what hit him. Although, looking at his Wiki page, I discovered that Wheeler’s stint as mayor already hadn’t been a bed of roses, even before the riots:

In September 2018, Portland residents who found Wheeler’s response to the growth of homeless encampments inadequate petitioned his office and other local agencies to take stronger action.

In 2018 Wheeler was overheard saying, “I cannot wait for the next 24 months to be up.” But he has also said he aspires to break the streak of one-term mayors. In early 2020, Wheeler declared he would seek reelection in 2020.

He may have changed his mind about that last bit.

There’s also this, which I hadn’t realized before:

In August 2019, Wheeler requested that Governor Kate Brown keep the National Guard ready to respond in anticipation of a potentially explosive stand-off between far-right groups and Antifa demonstrators. His request was denied.

Governor Brown has recently announced a plan that involved six steps, including these::

1. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office will prosecute serious criminal offenses, including arson and physical violence….

4.The Governor is asking Clackamas and Washington County Sheriff’s Offices and the City of Gresham Police Department to support the Portland Police Bureau with personnel and resources to keep the peace and protect free speech….

KGW has reached out to the Gresham Police Department, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) to see if they will honor the governor’s request for mutual aid.

Guess what? The sheriff of Clackamas County says that Brown hadn’t asked him about this, and neither sheriff is exactly pleased with what she’s been doing [emphasis mine]:

On Monday afternoon, the CCSO [Clackamas] said it would not be sending staff into the city of Portland. In a statement, Sheriff Craig Roberts said that he was surprised to learn of CCSO’s involvement in the governor’s plan because she had not reached out directly.

“Had Governor Brown asked me, I would have told her that no amount of human resources will stop the ‘cycle of violence’ (her term) that is making Portland unsafe. For that to occur, the criminal justice system will need to do its part and hold offenders accountable.”

Sheriff Roberts said he believes the Multnomah County district attorney and the presiding judge should require bail with conditions for release.

WCSO [Washington County] similarly said in a statement that they would not be sending deputies to work in Portland but would support PPB through indirect ways like analyzing risks associated with social media, air support and assisting with a specific criminal investigation.

“The lack of political support for public safety, the uncertain legal landscape, the current volatility combined with intense scrutiny on use of force presents an unacceptable risk if deputies were deployed directly,” Sheriff Pat Garrett said.

Can’t say I blame them one bit. You can’t ask police to do a job you won’t let them do, or a job that is simply a revolving door because offenders are let out again.

Brown also wants to have a nice discussion:

The governor will also convene a community forum to “create a venue for all community voices to come together, listen to each other, and co-create a just and peaceful future.” The forum will include Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and invite Black protest organizers and community leaders.

“Change will not come overnight, and, as we have seen in these last months, it does not come easily either. But we are building a more just future,” Brown said.

“A more just future” – the quest for cosmic justice isn’t doing too well in Oregon, it seems. But the dream dies hard. Brown and others need to learn that first, people must feel safe, and that there must also be meaningful follow-through when rioters are arrested, or the violence will go on and on. The organized and activist far left will take full advantage of the weakness prominently displayed by those in office.

[NOTE: I want to draw attention to the sheriff’s sarcasm over the use of the phrase “cycle of violence.” His sarcasm is well-deserved. What an absurd phrase to use here, when the violence has been predominantly on the side of the left. It reminds me of the use of the phrase for the Middle East (Israel and Palestine), when it was equally inappropriate.]

Cooking the COVID books

The New Neo Posted on by

I’m not sure why this is being treated as news. I wrote about the prevalence of comorbidities in COVID deaths a long time ago (see this, for example, as well as this).

Here’s the latest, however:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has quietly published information indicating that just 6 percent of victims who died from COVID-19 had no other co-morbidities, highly suggesting the disease is far less lethal to healthy people.

And if that’s the case, then the total U.S. coronavirus death count is likely way overblown, according to investigative reporter Jordan Schachtel, who uncovered the information and posted it online.

“The chatter circulating social media is accurate: CDC has reported that only 6% of COVID-19 deaths in the United States occurred in people w/out any comorbidities. Remember, the real # is significantly lower, given US standard for recording COVID deaths,” Schachtel wrote in a Twitter thread with a link to the health agency’s page containing the information, as well as a screenshot.

You can find the details at the link. But I would caution that, as I wrote in some of my earlier pieces on the subject, some of the comorbidities are extremely prevalent conditions in people over sixty, such as hypertension. So it becomes very difficult to know – and I have yet to come across research that purports to say – whether it’s that COVID is generally more deadly in that age group, or whether it specifically targets those with comorbidities in all age groups. I’ve tried to tease out that data, but so far have been unsuccessful. Again, please see this for one of my early efforts, written on April 2 of this year.

COVID has been with us in the US for over seven months. You’d think we would have learned more by now, at least about the statistics. Those supplying the information increasingly look like knaves or fools or both, take your choice.

And by the way, while we’re at it, why have I seen nothing since way back at the beginning about how long the COVID virus actually remains viable on objects? In other words: can you catch COVID from something you buy in the store? The original information was tentative. Are we still advised to be washing our groceries and being completely OCD about that? I realize that by now everyone has his or her own routine, and some are ignoring such suggestions. But I’m wondering why the researchers haven’t updated their information, which was preliminary at best over a half-year ago.

Then there’s the question of whether I’d trust what they say at this point.

Speaking of trust, here’s what the public currently thinks of a COVID vaccine and whether they would take it:

A third of Americans would not agree with taking a coronavirus vaccine, were one available, according to a multinational survey, which found the US to be one of the most vaccine-sceptical nations worldwide…

The reason most cited by Americans who suggested they would not get a coronavirus vaccine was worry about potential side effects (60 percent). Over a third (37 percent) said they didn’t believe it would be effective, while a fifth (20 percent) said they were against vaccines in general. Nineteen percent said they felt they were not enough at risk to get a vaccine.

Going to the poll report itself, I can’t find any details about the age of respondents. It seems to me that among younger people, not taking a vaccine right after it’s been developed is probably a reasonable position. The idea is that for them the risks of the vaccine might be higher than the risks of the illness. For someone like me, though, with one pre-existing condition at least, and of a certain age group, my thought at the moment is that it’s better to get the vaccine.

If one-third of the US population doesn’t get the vaccine, and two-thirds gets it – and if the vaccine is fairly effective – it should make the disease far far less prevalent even for the unvaccinated. It wouldn’t totally eliminate it, probably, but it would make it considerably harder for the disease to spread.

Undoing the leftist deed

The New Neo Posted on by

Gerard Vanderleun reminds us of how relevant Milan Kundera remains. Here’s the quote from my favorite work of Kundera’s, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting:

At a time when history still made its way slowly, the few events were easily remembered and woven into a backdrop, known to everyone, before which private life unfolded the gripping show of its adventures. Nowadays, time moves forward at a rapid pace. Forgotten overnight, a historic event glistens the next day like the morning dew and thus is no longer the backdrop to a narrator’s tale but rather an amazing adventure enacted against the background of the over-familiar banality of private life.

Since there is not a single historic event we can count on being commonly known, I must speak of events that took place a few years ago as if they were a thousand years old: In 1939, the German army entered Bohemia, and the Czech state ceased to exist. In 1945, the Russian army entered Bohemia, and the country once again was called an independent repub­lic. The people were enthusiastic about the Russia that had driven out the Germans, and seeing in the Czech Communist Party its faithful arm, they became sym­pathetic to it. So the Communists took power in February 1948 with neither bloodshed nor violence but greeted by the cheers of about half the nation.

And now, please note the half that did the cheering was the more dynamic, the more intelligent, the better.

Yes, say what you will, the Communists were more intelligent. They had an imposing program. A plan for an entirely new world where everyone would find a place. The opponents had no great dream, only some tiresome and threadbare moral principles, with which they tried to patch the torn trousers of the established order. So it’s no surprise that the enthusiasts, the spir­ited ones, easily won out over the halfhearted and the cautious, and rapidly set about to realize their dream, that idyll of justice for all. I emphasize idyll and for all, because all human beings have always aspired to an idyll, to that garden where nightingales sing, to that realm of harmony where the world does not rise up as a stranger against man and man against other men, but rather where the world and all men are shaped from one and the same matter.

There, everyone is a note in a sublime Bach fugue, and anyone who refuses to be one is a mere use­less and meaningless black dot that need only be caught and crushed between thumb and finger like a flea. There were people who immediately understood that they did not have the right temperament for the idyll and tried to go abroad. But since the idyll is in essence a world for all, those who tried to emigrate showed themselves to be deniers of the idyll, and instead of going abroad, they went behind bars. Thousands and tens of thousands of others soon joined them, including many Communists like the foreign minister, Clementis, who had lent his fur hat to Gottwald. Timid lovers held hands on the movie screens, adultery was harshly sup­pressed by citizens’ tribunals of honor, nightingales sang, and the body of Clements swung like a bell ring­ing in the new dawn of humanity.

And then those young, intelligent, and radical peo­ple suddenly had the strange feeling of having sent out into the world an act that had begun to lead a life of its own, had ceased to resemble the idea it was based on and did not care about those who had created it. Those young and intelligent people started to scold their act, they began to call to it, to rebuke it, to pur­sue it, to give chase to it.

It took over forty years and a lot of suffering before that deed was called back, and when it happened it was a group effort rather than solely the work of the Czech people.

Many years have passed since I first read Kundera’s book in 1980, when it was first published in English. At the time, I don’t think I paid much attention to the statement of his with which the second paragraph in the above quote begins: “Since there is not a single historic event we can count on being commonly known…” Now, however, it has tremendous force and resonance. Short attention spans and ignorance of history, as well as its misrepresentation by propagandists, are some of the great dangers we face today.

To me, though, the best example of Kundera’s ability to condense the destructive and inevitable paradox of idealistic leftism into a succinct and bitter phrase is this:

There, everyone is a note in a sublime Bach fugue, and anyone who refuses to be one is a mere use­less and meaningless black dot that need only be caught and crushed between thumb and finger like a flea.

The leftist progression from the dream of the sublime Bach fugue to the reality of the insect coldly crushed in the hand is one that history has informed us will be occurring. Some on the left know that and don’t care. But some are much like Kundera’s “young, intelligent, and radical peo­ple,” who – when it was too late – wished to “scold their act,…to rebuke it, to pur­sue it, to give chase to it.” Kundera himself was one of those people:

He belonged to the generation of young Czechs who had had little or no experience of the pre-war democratic Czechoslovak Republic. Their ideology was greatly influenced by the experiences of World War II and the German occupation. Still in his teens, he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia which seized power in 1948…

Kundera, along with other reform communist writers such as Pavel Kohout, was partly involved in the 1968 Prague Spring…Kundera remained committed to reforming Czechoslovak communism, and argued vehemently in print with fellow Czech writer Václav Havel, saying, essentially, that everyone should remain calm and that “nobody is being locked up for his opinions yet,” and “the significance of the Prague Autumn may ultimately be greater than that of the Prague Spring.” Finally, however, Kundera relinquished his reformist dreams and moved to France in 1975.

[NOTE: The process Kundera describes is also what happened to many revolutionaries in Iran after 1979, and what author Asar Nafisi was describing about that country, something I discussed in this previous post.]