Goldstein Lives!

There is no surrender.
Liberals like myself long ago gave up the fight for justice and equality in America. We have instead been trying desperately to drive away the vultures and hyenas that have been picking away at the liberal state's corpse.

We plead "uncle, uncle, uncle" for the thugs to stop beating us. But all they hear is "unc, unc, unc" and "cul, cul, cul" because in a perverse way... they need us... if only as a boogieman to scare their quiverfull children.

Right-wingers can only be happy if they have an enemy. They are naturally aggressive and need a target for their aggression. The Twentieth Century can be seen in some ways as a winnowing of these enemies progressively toward the center. It was uncontroversial that the US was a liberal society at the turn of the century, liberal in a classical sense. This meant the right of individuals to vote for their representatives, to be secure in their personal liberty and property, and pursue happiness in their own way. But at the same time, corruption in government and business was rife, voter fraud and vote-buying was rampant; and "let the buyer beware" was the only protection from everything from fly by night insurance, patent medicine, mystery meat, and bank failures. Sounds like a right-wing paradise right? Wrong. While big government, feminists, and homosexuals had yet to come on the scene in a big way to oppress innocent white men, there were uppity Negroes to lynch, Catholics and Jews to oppress, Freemasons, immigrants, etc. Oh yes, there was that moral crusade against demon rum too.

There were genuine radicals in America at that time too. Anarchists and Socialists and even Communists had small niches in American politics. Emma Goldman and Eugene Debs would die laughing if they heard the paroxysms of horror coming from our current right wingers about "socialism" and "Marxism." A couple of red scares later, the rise and fall of the new KKK, and a couple world wars rendered genuine radicalism a fringe element in American politics. Realistic, pragmatic, and mature liberals instead built a society where some freedom to harm others was restricted, other forms of fraud and abuse regulated, and generally placing watchmen between workers, consumers, and those who would do them harm. The other side of the coin was a public commitment to assisting those who needed help. It worked pretty well for over a generation. Americans enjoyed the highest standard of living in the world and our government managed to protect not only this country from totalitarian communism, but a great many allies as well.

So what the hell happened? The same government and spirit of public service that built that standard of living and protection from external attack is itself under attack from so many people who benefited greatly from the very thing they now despise. Having driven real radicals from the scene long ago, today's occupiers can barely hold a candle to bomb-throwing anarchists of a the previous age, right wing authoritarians now attack... teachers?

Tina Dupuy recently wrote how the right needs an enemy, if a real one cannot be found, one can be invented. Perhaps she is right that this time they screwed up, but to the faithful, it just does not matter. Wind them up and point them toward what ever the masters feel like attacking, away they will go pitchforks in hand. There just seems no disconnect between attacking the people we entrust to teach our children as overpaid and a burden on society in some fantasy land, and the reality. There are shadowy "teacher's unions" and "birth-control pushing feminazis" to send the posse after. And away they go. Victory is never complete. No matter how many "moral" transgressions their leaders are guilty of, no matter how badly right wing politicians screw up the system on purpose, no matter if you actually benefited from a program now targetted as "immoral" or how low your taxes actually are. The right is always on the march.

Orwell depicted Emmanuel Goldstein as just such a shadow threat to the glorious Ingsoc system of Oceania. Did he or Big Brother ever actually exist? The two minutes hate must continue regardless of reality.

I am tired of surrendering to these jackasses. They will never stop coming for all the things you value, if their violent rhetoric is to be believed, soon they will be coming for you as well. It does not matter if you really are a liberal or not. The right wing nuts who cheer death, cheer injustice, cheer misery to others must be stopped. If the NRA's rant on the supposed Goldsteins coming for "your" guns did not convince you, look around. They are everywhere and horribly afraid that you might pursue happiness in a way they don't like. If Goldstein does not exist, he must be invented. Therefore, we will never be safe. To the barricades! Stop hiding! Stop hoping they will get tired of hitting you or come to some sense of civilized reason. It is time to fight back!