Honoring Marx with tax dollars
Dr Fuji Kamikase
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By Michael Medved
Is communism really so irrelevant, so dimly remembered that
it's now no more threatening or controversial than "The Cat in
the Hat"?
That's the message from arts bureaucrats in Memphis, Tenn., who
chose to use taxpayer money to decorate the gleaming new $70
million central library with the most famous of all Marxist
slogans. The pavement in front of the new building has been
inscribed with the famous words "Workers of the World Unite!" –
adjacent to an image of the famous top-hatted feline from Dr.
Seuss.
Conservative elected officials angrily protested the Marxist
message in Memphis, but leaders of the public/private
partnership that sponsors the Urban Art Commission ignored
demands to remove the offending words. Concerning the quotation
from "The Communist Manifesto," Carissa Hussong, executive
director of the arts commission, baldly declared, "When you see
it in the context of the history of mankind, it is not
ideological."
This astonishing statement, quoted by the New York Times,
combines ignorance and mendacity to a breathtaking degree. If
the revolutionary rallying cry of Karl Marx doesn't count as
"ideological," what does? It is precisely "the context of the
history of mankind" that reveals the devastating impact of
communist ideas. When a political philosophy claims 70 million
mass-murder victims in its various international applications,
does it somehow take away the guilt and blood to claim that
this philosophy is "not ideological"?
As Memphis city councilman Brent Taylor aptly commented: "Over
100,000 Americans were killed in two wars trying to rid the
world of communism. We just don't feel a public place is
appropriate to inscribe the motto of our enemy of 70 years."
The fact that the communist slogan is surrounded by more than
150 other quotes, ranging from Groucho Marx to Nelson Mandela
and the Bible, only trivializes the unique nature of Marxist
slaughter.
"The Communist Manifesto" wasn't just another literary
contribution; it was a fiery blueprint for the most monstrous
tyranny in world history. The library director claims that the
designers of the quotes carved on pavement and pillars merely
"wanted people to be curious, to think, to find out more when
they weren't sure."
Would this purpose justify the inclusion of a celebrated
quotation from that distinguished thinker and author, Adolf
Hitler, who memorably proclaimed "One People! One Government!
One Fuehrer! One Germany!" Should those words be immortalized
too, as a means of inspiring curiosity about the Nazi era?
Actually, the Memphis officials already answered that question
with their treatment of the single reference to Hitlerism in
their sprawling collection of words and images. Carissa Hussong
declined an invitation to speak on my radio show (because, she
said, she hopes the controversy will "die down"), but she did
send me a full list of the citations selected as part of the
public arts project. There, on "Scroll B," directly between an
Arabian saying and a Japanese Gingko Family Crest, is a "Nazi
Swastika with 'Never Again' as seen at the museum at Dachau."
In other words, when the artists invoke Nazism, they feel the
need to place its symbol in a disapproving context. Why not
handle "The Communist Manifesto" reference in a similar way?
The words of Marx should appear with their own accompanying
"Never Again!" or a brief notation like "70 million killed!"
The truth is that leaders of elite opinion refuse even now to
view communist butchery with the same revulsion with which they
rightly respond to Nazism. Part of the revisionist attempt to
make heroes of blacklisted leftists from the 1950s (the
disappointing Jim Carrey movie "The Majestic" is only the
latest example) involves the stubborn refusal to take communism
seriously – even when recalling a period when Stalin himself
ruled half the world.
We're supposed to ignore the fact that some (but not all) of
the screenwriters and directors who suffered during the
McCarthy era remained dedicated Communist Party members who
proudly defended the bloodiest regime in human history. Would
anyone try to produce a movie or play or TV special about an
uncompromising American Nazi who suffered unjustly for his
beliefs?
If anything, communism ought to inspire more current discomfort
than Nazism, not less. Communism remains the official ideology
of close to 2 billion people – in China, North Korea, Vietnam,
and Cuba, not to mention many academic departments of American
universities. Nazis, on the other hand, exist only in thriller
novels and on the fringes of political discourse, while
enjoying no real power base anywhere on earth.
Five words carved into the pavement in front of the Memphis
Central Library won't add significantly to the momentum of
world communism, but this famous phrase does reflect the
arrogance and ignorance of the arts establishment. The creators
of the library's public art project insist they are shocked –
shocked – by the angry public reaction to their little Marxist
memento, because they refuse to acknowledge the special
responsibilities of artists who take tax money for their work.
Americans who value honesty about our historic struggle in the
Cold War should support those local political leaders who
demand some correction or addition to make up for this abuse of
public funds. In other words: Taxpayers of the world unite! You
have nothing to lose but a few smug bureaucrats, and an
important lesson to gain.
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God Bless America
Fuji
Non illegitimi carborundum est
Bill Clinton is a small dollop of pond scum masquerading as a
man. - Geoff Metcalf