Maverick Philosopher

Tom Coleman e-mails:

Very interesting article by Radosh. It should be widely read, espcially because it clearly depicts that Communists are not pacifists and that they can make themselves appear as anything to achieve their purposes.

Now as to the question as to why Lefties cannot apologize, I think first we must distinguish between the out and out convinced Marxist and the fellow traveler who just thinks it is tres chic to share the opinions of those whom his parents hate. The true Marxist cannot ever apologize because to him or her nothing done in the cause of Communizing the world is ever wrong. Marxists scoff at such notions of right and wrong as bourgeois sentimentality and only feign revulsion at phenomena such as racial discrimination, which civilized people actually regard as evil, in order to cause turmoil in target countries and win people over so that they will support the real Marxist agenda. This is almost impossible for the non-Marxist to grasp, just as a sociopath's ability to do evil without remorse is is difficult for a normal person to fathom.

This fact was understood by two great American authors, John Steinbeck and Ralph Ellison, who wrote with great insight and clarity about Communists in the US in the '30s and '40s exploiting both labor and racial problems. In Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle, one Red organizer describe his tactic for escalating violence: "And for every fruit tramp that gets bayonetted, there goes another thousand folks across the country over to our side."

It is as simple as that: there is no need to apologize because nothing they do is wrong, since it's "all part of the dialectic." This is not just a matter of rationalization as ego defense mechanism; they really don't see evil. A Marxist can no more feel guily about killing and lying about it than a Muslim can feel guilty about having four wives.

As to the inability of simple fellow travelers to admit they are wrong, an entirely different set of motives comes into play. Here we do find ego defense mechanisms. The fellow traveler has to invent reasons to either deny or defend evil, whether it is the butcheries of Mao or the treason of Hiss becuase his concept of himself as an enlightened and morally superior person is bound to his pinkish beliefs. In the first instance, Mao did what he had to do because of the social injustice of the land lord system. In the second instance, Hiss had seen the suffering that came about during the Depression and was driven idealistically into an or organization that promised to remedy economic equality for all time. Many of the most weak minded fellow travellers make themselves believe two contradictory things at the same time: There never were any Communists in the US government, and besides they were kind of like true Christians. What keeps many of these folks from seeing the evil that was done is that by siding with those who mock anti-Communism they are joining a special illuminati. They possess the truth. All of the people who disagree have not been vouchsafed by the powers that control everything the secret knoweldge that raises them above the rest of mankind. Such Lefties would no more read a book by Bentley, Dodd, Philbrick, Radosh, Chambers, Budenz, or Utely than Billy Graham would read Tropic of Cancer. More than a few of this type are to to be found in the ranks of the Christian clergy and religious (nuns and brothers). They don't have to know who Owen Lattimore was; they KNOW that McCarthy was a liar. They also don't have to read Pius IX 's Divini Redemptoris, the Chruch's defnitive document on Communism, because they KNOW that the Church no longer condemns Communism and that harboring anti-Communist sentiments is a sign that your parents might have belonged to a country club.

So there you have it. You need seek no more. I have explained why both types of Lefties cannot and will not apologize. Only the true converts, such as authors I listed above who Lefties are forbidden to read will apologize.