Lessons of History

The funny thing about the Occupy Wall Street movement is that it has managed to highlight a very important flaw in our system. No, I am not referring to the injustices that OWS seeks to address. I am talking about…arrogance. Systematic, overwhelming, logic-defying arrogance.

It isn’t even the good kind of arrogance, the can-do attitude that we have fallen back on in hard times, the odds-defying ambition that has allowed us to triumph in times of adversity.

This is the destructive kind of arrogance. The kind that drives people to think they can accomplish that which history itself has proven impossible. The kind of arrogance which threatens the very well-being of individuals and the nation as a whole.

Does anyone at OWS truly believe themselves to be pioneers for the cause of social justice? Have they stumbled onto a new concept of class struggle? Have they come up with new, fresh solutions to this issue?

More importantly, is there anyone down at OWS who believes themselves to be an intellectual equal of a Marx, Lenin, or Trotsky? Do they have the charisma of a Fidel Castro? The single-minded ambition of Che Guevara? The support system of a Mao?

I have news for you, people. Better men have tried to address social inequalities. Better men have failed miserably. It’s not just Communism that fails, but any system that attempts a radical redistribution of wealth. Every time a man stood up to rail against the rich, no matter what sheep’s clothing they attempted to disguise themselves in, wolf fangs were eventually bared and blood flowed.

What makes you think you will do things right? What makes you think you will avoid the errors and pitfalls suffered by your betters throughout history? What makes you think that your righteous anger can lead us into a utopian future?

It is painful to watch ignorance. Guy Fawkes masks? That is the symbol of your fight for equality? Why not grab your smartphone (made by a, surprise, corporation) and Google Guy Fawkes; who he was and what he represented. The Che Guevara t-shirts, long a symbol of the pseudo-intellectual left? Congratulations, you are glorifying a murderer and a thief, a modern day Robin Hood who stole from the poor to give to himself.

The list of OWS supporters and well-wishers ranges from hypocritical millionaire celebrities such as Michael Moore and Alec Bladiwn, to such luminaries of freedom and democracy as the Nazi Party of America and Iran’s Surpeme Leader Ali Khamenei. With a fan club like that, what can possibly go wrong?

I recently hung out with some friends of mine, also from the former Soviet Union. All of us were as lower-middle class as it gets, part of the alleged 99 percent. However…not a kind word for OWS. Why?

Because if you ask us, we will tell you where this foolishness leads. We don’t need to theorize, quote experts, dig deep into political science. We lived it. We lived the consequences. We left the country because of it. We came here to avoid it. And now you wish to make us relive this nightmare again?

In the end, let me leave with the words of a man much wiser than I. This is a rough translation of a poem/song attributed to the great Soviet singer/poet/bard/dissident Vladimir Vysotsky, allegedly written in 1978 after one of his few trips beyond the Iron Curtain. I won’t attempt to translate in rhyme, for even if I could, I would never be able to convey the right emotions of Vysotsky’s poignant prose. Nevertheless…

 

The New Left, what brave fellows

A noisy mob with ref flags

What attracts you to these sickles and hammers?

Perhaps you have smoked or shot up something that affects your judgment?

 

I hear the words of the mindless orators

“Expropriations, expropriators”

I see the portraits over the rising smoke

Mao, Dzerzhinsky, Che

 

It’s hard to say who is left and who is right

I know only that power is a bloody burden

So keep doing what you are doing

Though I wish you could spend even a few months in Butyrka prison (famous prison for political dissidents)

 

Don’t worry Madam Translator

I won’t sing to them, not today

I don’t think I can convince them anyway

All I can do is gift them a history textbook

 

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