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Revolutionaries, be careful what you wish for Here is an interesting exercise that can be done using Wikipedia (the subject matter being unrelated to current events, it should not be much affected by the political agenda of the current crop of editors). Use it to look for an organized crime figure, in this case the Mafia. Say, the late and mostly unlamented (one would hope) John Gotti. Now, in any article of sufficient length and complexity, there are a large a number of links to related subjects. For example, the John Gotti article will have links to Paul Castellano, "Sammy the Bull" Gravano and other associates. Now, follow those links, and similar links in those articles. As you read them you will find that a great many of them died by violence, generally perpetrated by their own colleagues. Now, look up Joseph Stalin. In his article you find links to many Russians who were involved with him in the Russian Revolution. As you read those articles, you find that many of them held posts in the government. And many of them died, violently one might say since they were executed by the government they had created and served. Those enablers of the current attempts to transform the republic established by the founders into a Marxist regime should consider this. The wealthy business owners and street-level agitators alike, if they succeed, are likely to eventually become victims of their creation. And many of Stalin's victims were no politicians, they were part of the artistic sector of society - music, theater, and literature. So those of today's celebrities who use their position to attack the social order that made their wealth and fame possible, should take heed. The mind of criminals such as those in organized crime is difficult for a normal person to understand. There is the allure of money and power, and the benefits they provide, balanced against, one would think, the prospect of having a shortened life, possibly ended by a rather unpleasant sort of death. Similarly, one must wonder what the Russian revolutionaries thought. It might be argued that idealism motivated some of them, but their subsequent behavior argues against that in most cases. Of course, unlike the Mafia, which has a long history of killing off its members, the communist regime that came to Russia had no such track record, so its victims might be forgiven for not anticipating the danger. Today's attackers of the republic seem to exhibit the same shortsightedness. Still, we reap what we sow and nothing can change that. Arthur Koestler's excellent book, "Darkness at Noon", is an exploration of the experiences of one of the many Old Bolsheviks who perished in this manner. The revolutionaries of today might do well to read it. |
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