More Commie Proof

From the NYT comes more evidence from a NYC exhibition about the Spanish Civil War of the left's attempt to rehabilitate Communism into a respectable ideology.

For their moral vision, the exhibition also suggests, these heroic figures paid yet another price. They were persecuted as loyal members of the Communist Party. One object here is a collection can labeled “Save a Spanish Republic Child” that belonged to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg — a piece of evidence introduced against them when they were charged with conspiracy to commit espionage. A vague impression is left that both the accusations and the evidence of party involvement were frivolous compared to the couple’s virtuous intentions.

"In this attempt to re-establish the civil war as a morality tale, the show is not alone. In February, for example, in The Guardian of London, the historian Eric Hobsbawm celebrated the ultimate triumph of the war’s losers and suggested that the virtues of their cause transcended Stalin’s machinations. The recent film “Pan’s Labyrinth” portrays populist forest-dwelling partisans confronting a monstrously evil fascist leader. In June, W. W. Norton is going to release the latest edition of Paul Preston’s much-hailed history, “The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution, and Revenge,” which blames “an unholy alliance of anarchists, Trotskyites and cold warriors” for obscuring the nature of the war against Spanish fascism. Mr. Preston goes out of his way to justify and explain the Soviet position, dismissing “revisionists” who “resuscitate the basic theses of Francoist propaganda.”

I should begin to track these pieces of evidence more thoroughly. Right now you'll have to settle for the brief dribs and drabs that I run across.

The New Communism

I'm only half facetious when I say that with extreme environmentalism comes the stifling air of communism.

Consider how closely the modern extremist environmentalists act like communists. And as I write this last sentence I pause over the word extremist, as I'm not sure that the rank and file aren't increasingly acting like the extremists of yesteryear...

Herewith, a semi-random assortment of reasons why the greens and the reds are in bed together.

1) Limits of speech and thought: Extreme environmentalism? Yep: try to deny man-made global warming. Communism: Yep.
2) Passionate belief in a sanctimonious mission: Extreme environmentalism? Yep: Save the Earth or else! Communism: Yessirre.
3) Hatred of capitalism and profits: Extreme environmentalism? Yep: ever met a pro-capitalist environmentalist? Communism: Check.
4) Distrust of individual actions, unless directed by those who know better than you how you should act: Extreme environmentalism? Yep: No more cars for you. You really want to ride the bus, don't you? Don't you? That's right. Yes, you do. You don't want to be responsible for the death of the entire planet, now do you? Communism: Yeah, it's here too.
5) Desire for some mythical world that has never empirically existed, but that is supposedly the natural state of mankind: Extreme environmentalism? Yep: The Earth was just swell 'till the coming of capitalism and its unnatural selfishness. Communism: Indeed. Funny that.
6) Affected as a status symbol by the hipster community who, as is obvious, are clearly among the world's great and good: That's a check each for the greens and the commies.
7) And finally, denial that their ideology is an ideology. Score one for the greens and one for the reds.

So just remember these little nuggets when the next wave of environmental freak-out movies hits the silver screen this year. Check out the NYT report below for details.

Environment - Movies - New York Times