The Internet Monk
"the power of opinion, the phenomenon of speech, the impact of truth"
A Webjournal and News Review by Michael Spencer
Updated 12/23/00
"A Little Rebellion Now and Then"
Special Feature by Michael Spencer
"George
Washington was a President of the United States, and therefore, by
definition, he was a sick, filthy genocidal murderer."
"it (sic) is time to fight against racism, sexism and all the injustice that the white man has heaped on the peopl's (sic) of this world. It is time to fight to end the population of this poluting (sic) scourge. That goes for all of them. With revolutionary love."
The above two quotes, taken from message boards at a web site organizing demonstrations for the Inauguration of President-elect Bush, are not particularly harsh in comparison to what anyone can find among the communications of today's new breed of campus radical. No doubt, such statements, inserted into most college classroom discussions, would hardly awaken the sleeping back row. Remember John Lennon's advice? "You say you want a revolution, well, you know, we all want to change the world...But when you talk about destruction, don't you know you can count me out" Someone tell the Beatles that today's radicals have changed their mind on that one. Violence- verbal, political and actual- is rapidly becoming acceptable currency in the counter-culture.
Today's Baby Boomer Political leaders assume the protestors in the streets are the counterparts of the protest movements of their own college years. Note Bill Clinton's attempt to be as sympathetic as possible to the mobs in Seattle, denouncing only the "few" violent among the peaceful majority. While there are provocative anarchists at these protests, Mr. Clinton is clearly not listening to the main line of ideological argument from the majority of these groups: America is evil; it's Constitutional form of government, a sham; it's white middle class, the very devil himself. These revolutionaries are not patriots, they are haters of America, prepared to destroy its institutions and reject its constitution.
Of recent history's three great revolutions- the American, the French and the Russian- only the American Revolution succeeded. The Founders were particularly aware of the difference between their own revolution against King George and the heads rolling in France. The difference came from the Founders themselves. It was the moral humility- the knowledge of their own sinfulness- that came to them from their religious and philosophical framework. The Founding generation feared what would happen in the aftermath of a revolution if party and regional interest, combined with human ambition and greed, prevailed in the national character. Even Jefferson, who at first watched the French Revolution with naiveté and cheers from the sidelines, eventually concluded that the French had replaced one set of evils with another much worse.
Ever heard of Shay's Rebellion? In 1787, five years after the end of the American Revolution, discontented farmers in Western Massachusetts, led by Captain Daniel Shays, reformed their revolutionary militias and marched against various institutions of the Massachusetts government. Their grievances read remarkably like the Declaration of Independence, prompting Jefferson to utter his famous line that "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing...". The government sent in the troops and dispersed the militia.
Of the rebellion, Massachusetts Justice William Cushing said ""[I fear] evil minded persons, leaders of the insurgents...[waging war] against the Commonwealth, to bring the whole government and all the good people of this state, if not continent, under absolute command and subjugation to one or two ignorant, unprincipled, bankrupt, desperate individuals." Later, the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania presented the new nation with a similar choice, and President Washington didn't call a press conference and commend the rebels. No, he sent in 13,000 troops and endured much criticism, but President Washington, unlike today's liberals, knew all revolutions are not virtuous to the republic, even if they have a cool web site.
You will find none of this civic or self-knowledge in the current revolutionary crowd. They've not been formed by the lessons of American history, but by the post-modernism and nihilism of today's college campus. (Read The Atlantic Monthly's recent account of hatching the Unabomber in the incubator of Harvard's intellectual chaos.) Yes, liberals will hear the familiar themes of power to the people, justice for the oppressed and empowerment of the disenfranchised. What they will not hear is any hint that the revolutionaries doubt themselves to be the embodiment of righteous vengeance and virtue. With utter conviction that they will wield the sword justly, the moral arrogance of this movement knows no bounds. Heads will roll and MTV will televise the awards show.
Thomas Sowell and others have written that liberals routinely fall for the belief that their sensitivity to injustice makes them morally superior, and therefore, their actions to correct injustice are unquestionable. So conservatives who want school vouchers rather than pouring more money down the drain of public education are not just wrong; they are evil, cruel and perverse. And those who oppose them are pure in heart, good and true. God is always on the side of those who want more money spent on the cause of the day. If you are a conservative convert, you are no doubt grateful to have been delivered from the thinking out of which the French and Russian revolutions were born. This misstep in understanding motives and consequences is why liberal Democrats see the Seattle mobs as no different from the Labor Day parade.
So we must ask our Democratic friends, have you considered what these mobs you will bus to the Inauguration are all about? Do you take their outrage at the Bush Presidency to be your outrage? Well, you are wrong. They may march with the unions, but if they get what they want, the unions will go right along with the churches and the shopping malls and pasteurized milk. Their venom at the election in Florida isn't a vote for your side; its the despising of the very concept of republican government. Like all the tyrannical revolutions they admire, they will call out for democracy and demolish the institutions and mechanisms that make any measure of democratic government possible. Don't be surprised to see guillotines on T-shirts.
In the classroom, I meet young people who call themselves anarchists and sympathizers. They listen to Rage Against The Machine, treat MacDonalds as a Nazi outpost and admire the destruction of every Starbuck's in Seattle. But they don't understand anything about the true nature of the movement they parrot. It's a fashion statement, a place to meet girls and a cool road trip to D.C. man. These young people are the raw material of manipulated mobs, and frankly, it frightens me. I can easily see them turning violent against those who find them merely amusing. All they need is a leader who knows how to light the fire.
Which is what this embarrassing revolution is lacking. So far, no one has come on the stage to galvanize the movement to the heights of revolutionary excess of which it is clearly capable. At this point, they are another group of sheepish consumers, buying revolution in small, fashionable doses. But the time will come. The time will come.
On December 22, Attorney-general designate John Ashcroft quoted a phrase found on the Supreme Court building: "I recall walking past the high court, beneath the words etched in marble." Hear all he said:
``Justice, the guardian of liberty.'' That inscription, if less quoted than its counterpart, ``Equal justice under law,'' is no less profound...Quite simply, we will strive to be a guardian of liberty and equal justice. For freedom, as President-elect Bush has noted, can flourish only in a culture defined by the rule of law, a rule of law that knows no class, that sees no color, and bows to no creed. It is a rule of law that has been elemental to the American experiment since our very first days."
This is the basic idea of America. Liberty balanced by law. It is why other revolutions fail and the true American spirit goes on. It is what today's campus radicals reject, and why they may one day be the greatest threat our Republic faces in the new century.