Perpetually aggrieved

Hello, reader. I was in central Melbourne today attending a meeting, and briefly watched the weekly Free Palestine protest march as it worked its way down one of its major thoroughfares. The radical left can be relied upon to attend any demonstration. These people always seem to be protesting for or against something. Next Sunday, please leave the red flags at home. It gives the appearance of gate crashing, or jumping on a bandwagon to advance your own cause, because you people are attendees, and not the main organisers. Put another way, to my eyes, it looked like an unwelcome distraction. 

 

Tact and sensitivity

It is with heavy heart that I see due to the Corona virus pandemic, the Marxism 2020 conference, a fixture of the radical left's calendar, has been indefinitely postponed. In this statement on the conference website, the organisers speak of the importance of continuing to fight against the evils of capitalism. Never mind that the Corona virus originated in a Communist dictatorship, and is arguably a direct consequence of it, as the American Enterprise Institute has observed. Without being able to contact the organisers to give them a right of reply, why are they so obstinate that they cannot see this?

This ideology has devastated the lives of millions of people. As the world grapples with the economic and social disruption of the Corona virus, it beggars belief that there is a small core of people who want to perpetuate the political system that created it. 

How goes the revolution, comrade?

As a diversion, I took this test to determine how Communist I am. Unsurprisingly, I scored very low. If you feel so inclined, you can take the test for yourself here.

https://www.idrlabs.com/communism/test.php

Watermelons are in season

I took a passing interest in the blockade of the International Mining and Resources Conference, held in Melbourne this week. In media interviews, such as the one with Andrew Bolt on his Sky News Australia television programme, blockade organisers haven't done much to win people to their cause, nor does their penchant for allegedly punching police horses. While they may have raised some valid points about the environmental impacts of the mining industry, or whether its business and taxation arrangements are ethical, most of the protesters are radical Marxists.

When asked about the aims of their movement, they want to close down the mining industry by enacting a Marxist revolution. Presumably, ending mining and the use of all fossil fuels is also the only way to avert ecological Armageddon, and there's no way to do this without also ending capitalism. Never mind that Marxism has failed wherever it has been implemented, and it is well documented that communist countries have or had appalling environmental records.

To add to their historical illiteracy, speaking as a nitpicking, annoying pedant, I question the credibility of any political activist group that runs a website containing spelling errors.

Long live the revolution

Recent events have shown that imprudently posting a meme on social media will get you in trouble with our self appointed cultural gatekeepers. This one is based on actual conversations I have had with radical socialist street activists, most of whom I presume are university students. Despite their historical illiteracy, and stubborn devotion to this failed and evil ideology, these conversations were polite and civil in tone. 

Top weekend

The Marxism conference is an annual fixture on the radical left's calendar in Australia. It's a pity that they always choose to hold this conference over the Easter weekend. Presumably they won't be spending the weekend reflecting on the death and resurrection of Jesus, or taking short family holidays.

From its website, I see that the conference theme is "Tear Down the Walls." The irony of this appears to be lost on the conference organisers. History shows that far from tearing down walls, Marxism usually builds them. This year is also the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a despised symbol of Communist oppression and tyranny.

Brain food

I consider myself fortunate to have never lived under a communist regime. Reading about the millions of people who suffered and died under communism in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China, North Korea, and Cambodia is enough to open up your eyes about how evil people can be.

It seems that some people have forgotten these lessons, stubbornly clinging to the belief that communism is worth trying again. I can personally attest to this. Radical leftists I have spoken with believe that the Russian Revolution was a good thing, and would have turned out alright if Stalin hadn't corrupted it. Marxists also hold a annual conference in my home city every Easter long weekend. Presumably this event is not just a talkfest, and they actually want to implement their ideas. Research cited by James Bartholomew shows that communism and communist ideology is particularly popular among young people. Barth is raising funds to establish a Museum of Communist Terror.

The aim of this museum is to keep alive knowledge and understanding of the deaths, terror and economic failure that took place under Communist regimes, primarily in the 20th century. The strategy is to do this through social media, its website, talks and films for schools and universities, lobbying for improvements in the teaching of the history of Communist regimes, events and the creation of one or more small museums leading up to the development of a full-size museum in London.

When it opens, it will be high on my itinerary when I visit London again.

https://www.museumofcommunistterror.com/

http://thesydneyinstitute.com.au/blog/communism-what-the-young-should-know/

A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic

More convenient historical amnesia. According to some people, you'd be forgiven that Stalin was infallible.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/10/nyt_reports_russian_ceremony_for_stalins_victims_forgets_to_mention_s_word_or_walter_duranty.html

Don't bother me with the facts

This is why historical literacy is so important. As well as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Anne Applebaum, those who think that Communist gulags were pleasant places to live should also read books by Timothy Snyder, such as Black Earth and Bloodlands. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/11/soviet-labour-camps-compassionate-educational-institutions-say/

No cause for celebration

Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, the founding father of communism. Will those who see fit to celebrate this occasion spare a thought for the millions of people who were killed during the 20th century as a direct result of his ideas being implemented? Communist regimes killed millions of people in the former Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, North Korea, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, East Germany, and Ethiopia? Don't let the facts of history spoil your party, comrades.

http://nationalpost.com/news/world/happy-birthday-karl-marx-we-could-have-done-without-the-millions-dead

Don't bother me with the facts

The Easter long weekend is a time for reflecting on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, spending time with family and friends, or heading out of the city for a short break. 

If none of those things tickle your fancy, and you live in Melbourne, or have the means to get there, you might care to attend the Marxism 18 conference. 

I glanced over the conference program, and was surprised to see that some of the speakers are smiling in their photographs. Maybe I should go, just for the rare opportunity to meet an actual happy Marxist. I didn't know they existed. 

Presumably this conference is not just theoretical, and attendees (or comrades) will come away with renewed zeal to implement Marxism in Australia, but which version of it? Is it Lenin's? Trotsky's? Stalin's? Mao's? Ceaucescu's? The Kim dynasty's? Pol Pot's? 

My brow furrows as I write this. History clearly and consistently shows that their ideology has failed, so they choose to ignore it. Presumably, the deaths of as many as 100 million people at the hands of communist regimes is not important to them. That old saying, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results," applies to them. 

Act your age, not your shoe size

Triple J is moving its Hottest 100 countdown from Australia Day to January 27. The radio station said it moved the countdown in recognition of “increasing debate” surrounding and the day’s meaning for indigenous people. In response, Senator Cory Bernardi, leader of the Australian Conservatives Party, decided to compile his own alternative list of 100 Australian songs on Spotify. The created controversy, when many of the artists on the list demanded they be removed from it.

To paraphrase, "You and your party are against everything I stand for. I refuse to let you use my music for your political purposes," they said.

Bernardi also invited suggestions from Twitter users. Leftist keyboard warriors couldn't resist the opportunity to smear and mock him by suggesting songs like Mummy Doesn't Know You're a Nazi, by Frenzal Rhomb, and Christian songs with titles such as Jesus Use Me, He Touched Me, and Hallelujah, The Lord's Coming Again. Well, tee hee, and chortle. What shining wits these people are. 

Two can play at that game. Here's some of my song suggestions for the other side, some of whom stubbornly cling to socialist ideology, despite ample historical evidence that it doesn't work. 

Dahp Prampi Mesa Moha Chokchey (National anthem of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge)

The East is Red by Li Youyan

The Internationale (Traditional)

Haste Siempre, Comandante by Carlos Puebla

Onwards Toward the Final Victory by Kim Moon Hyuk and Yoon De Geun

Solidarity Forever (Traditional)
The Stalin Album by the Red Army Choir

State Anthem of the Soviet Union (1944 version) by Alexander Alexandrov 

Here ends today's history lesson. 

Road of bones

I listened to an audio documentary on the forgotten victims of communism. October 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the Russian revolution. To paraphrase, some of the younger generations, who are ignorant or apathetic about history, and intellectuals, who do know about history, but ignore facts that challenge their ideology, think that communism is worth trying again, because it hasn't been tried properly before. 100 million victims of communism in Russia, China, and Cambodia might beg to differ.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/unherd-audio-documentaries/id1261079523?mt=2