Our son came home from school last week. I wanted to touch him, but I only brushed his cheek.  We were both wary, but I really wanted to talk with him, and see how he was doing.  So much is going on these days. Schools are challenging kids, but not in the way they used to be.

Literally aching with concern. I looked straight at my boy, and asked him how things were going. I was thrilled when he looked straight at his Dad, and started to talk to me.

“At school, they are saying: ‘America was never not great’.  Andrew Cuomo got that quote from university professors.  They say America has failed to deliver everyone from poverty, and has failed in its promise of equality.  And there is more.”

“The reason that all are not equal is the white exploitation of others.  White privilege is everywhere, preventing equality for all.  Then, there is patriarchy. White men have dominated the world, using women for their own ends, again preventing equality for all.”

“Finally, there is our environment, spoiled by self-seeking capitalists who changed the world from a wilderness paradise into man-made factories and housing parks.   First white men created pollution, then over-population took the stage.  More recently, we had killer bees, super bugs, and global warming, which turned into climate change, and, of course, pandemics.”

“Catastrophes are coming, because white men saw the world as raw material and fashioned it to meet their needs instead of leaving things as they were.  Every study and data report of an environmental problem is taken as proof of a coming disaster caused by self-seeking capitalists.”

“Every study and data report showing that all people are not equal is taken as proof of exploitation by white male-dominated society. Dad, they don’t like us at my school.  White people are not good, and white males are the worst.  They don’t like business much, either.”

It seemed like my boy needed help and support.  I held him for a moment, and thought to myself.

“Gary, let’s go across the fence and talk with Grampa Abe for a while.  Maybe he will have some salve for your wounds … or at least a stiff drink.”

Walking to the back of our lot, and crossing a fence to get to my father Abe’s cottage, we entered a small domain under the complete control of my father, and Mark’s grandfather, Abraham.

As we enjoyed a cold beer, I asked my son to repeat his presentation of the narrative he had been taught in school.

Abe frowned, then, smiled grimly, then began to speak.  Looking directly at me he said: “Maybe you didn’t notice, my son, but these things have been happening since the 1960’s when I was in school.”

“In 1964, Berkeley introduced campus riots to the USA.  Gradually, other schools followed suit, many in 1968.  Then, in 1970, a bank was burned down on the campus of a well-known party school … and nobody was held accountable.”

Mark looked pretty puzzled, and started to speak, but, quickly, Abe resumed: “You may well ask me what campus riots have to do with politically correct narratives of inequality, white male domination, and environmental catastrophe?  My answer is that complaints about inequality have everything to do with riots, because they are performed by the same group of people, based on the same ideas, following the same narrative.”

“Inequality, and environmental degradation, caused by capitalist exploitation leading to riots that achieve the violent overthrow of the establishment are elements of a scenario brought from Europe by post-modern, Marxist, nihilist university professors beginning in the 1930’s.”

“The early post-modern, Marxist, nihilists were mostly German intellectuals reacting to the Weimar Republic, National Socialism, and Hitler.  I guess this is why they like to call everybody they don’t like a Fascist, despite the fact that there are hardly any Fascists around them now.”

“Euro intellectuals, like Foucalt and Derrida, get credit for developing post-modern ideas designed to undo the enlightenment philosophy of humanism, reason, and individual liberty (which they like to call “the establishment”).  The post-modern position is that reason does not exist, nothing can be proved, and, therefore, one idea is no better than another. So, why not tear everything down, make everyone equal, and start over?”

Mark still looked puzzled and blurted out: “Most people never heard of these guys.  How influential could they be? “

Abe smiled sympathetically and went on with gusto: “It’s an old story. Influencers you never heard of influence others, who eventually influence people you HAVE heard of.  These guys influenced American professors like Rorty who spent his career at Princeton and Stanford teaching American academics that reason doesn’t really work, the world is impossible to understand, but social justice can be achieved through feelings and violence.”

“Maybe, you HAVE heard of Herbert Marcuse, the so-called “father of the New Left” a professor who emigrated from Germany in 1933 and spent time at Columbia, Harvard, and UC San Diego, where he mentored, counseled, and inspired Norman Brown, Angela Davis, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, the Black Panthers, etc.  Herbert Marcuse was brought up by those guys you never heard of, and, of course, a fellow named Karl Marx.”

“When you read some of Marcuse’s ideas, you realize that he has written the entire play book and the script that the New Left has been reading since 1964.”

“Equal opportunity is not fair. Only equal outcomes demonstrate social justice.  In a market economy, successful people are oppressors who must be overthrown to achieve social justice, i.e. equality of outcome. Equality can only be achieved through redistribution of wealth, and position. Riots and violence are necessary, because oppressors will never agree to be overthrown. Tolerance means toleration of movements from the Left, and intolerance against movements from the Right.”

“Now, here is something they don’t say, but which becomes clear when you see what Marxist revolutionaries actually do.  As Kennedy said (and Ronald Reagan quoted), “A rising tide lifts all boats.”  Capitalists like to point out that, due to the rising tide of capitalism, a poor man today is richer than a rich man 50 years ago. That is true, but, as leftists and Marxists like to point out,  a rising tide does not usually raise everyone to the same level.  To Marxists, if one guy benefits more than another guy, it is all bad.”

“In the end, Marxism is not about raising people at all.  Giving and sharing doesn’t raise others up.  The government can’t really raise people up at all. When people have rights and opportunities, they can raise themselves, but persons raise themselves up by different amounts.  Because government can’t really raise people up, the only way Marxism can make people equal is to keep pushing people down until everyone is at the same level.”

“That is what Marxists did in Russia, then in Cuba, then in Venezuela.  Many other countries have different, more complex stories, because they used Marxist ideas, but were not necessarily dominated by them.”

Mark looked around the room.  “Wow, Grandpa.  That was quite a mouthful”.

Abe smiled thinly, “Your Dad kind of knew what I might say.  Guess he thought it was time for you to hear it.”

Mark smiled and winked,  “What now?”

Abe stood up and looked out the window, then, looking at his pictures of Jefferson, Madison, and Ben Franklin, he smiled.  “I guess, soldier, now it is time for you to go back and fight for your beliefs.”

Categories: Fiction, Stories