Cultural Survival Skills

Beck’s “Revolutionary Holocaust: Live Free or Die”

Thanks, Frank,  for the URL of a review of Beck’s program. I watched Beck’s program intently and I think that the following review is, in the main, a fair one…with repectful support for Beck’s work near the end of the review.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31882.html

There was not much history in this documentary that I was unaware of.  The murder of millions by totalitarian socialist/communist regimes, was certainly no surprise to anyone in their 60’s, or those who have read the history of such events. However, I was not fully aware of the full extent to which Mao and Stalin had used the starvation of their own populations in an attempt to implement their Marxist-Leninist social redesigns. It was reported that Stalin was personally responsible for the starvation of 7-10 million people in only one year. In the Ukraine, the citizens were left to starve as the grain they produced was confiscated and sold to provide funds to further Stalin’s personal political and cultural goals. It was reported that 10 million tons of grain were needed to avoid starvation and that the Ukrainians had produced over 12 millions tons of grain, which was confiscated.

It was estimated that 65 million chinese citizens were killed under Maoist Communism. Mao was identified as the greatest mass murderer in history, by a factor of 3 to 1.

It was estimated that 100 million citizens died under the rule of communism in the 20th Century. This, it was presented, accounts for more than the estimated death rate due to Small Pox and the Bubonic Plague.

Che’ Guevara, was portrayed as a sadist who enjoyed killing people. It was presented that Che’ embraced censorship of artists and intellectuals and  that he advocated killing people who did not agree with the goals of his revolution.

Beck did exposeand document the ignorant buffoonery of those on the radical left who wear or brandish Mao and Che’ memorabilia as they ” demonstrate for freedom”.  The program did spotlight the fact that significant numbers of our own citizens, miniature “black holes” for truth and reality,  have bestowed celebrity and near Sainthood upon Mao and Che’.

A  main point in this program was that our educational system and our media, along with the tollerance of  the rest of us, are responsible for not educating our youth about the true history and savagery of these Communist/Socialist movements.

There were a number of compelling  first person accounts of the horrors suffered by citizens living under these regimes.

I did not get the impression that Beck was trying to imply (as one reviewer thought) that such horrors would be perpetrated, in America  by Americans, any time soon. Rather, he concluded that too much governmental power in the hands of one, or a very few, is much more likely than Democratic rule  to lead to Revolutionary Holocausts.  Yes, Glenn Beck is very concerned that the federal government is gaining way too much power in our time and if unchecked, will lead to greater losses of our freedoms. I share this concern.

I was impressed with Glenn Beck’s efforts to educate America’s public through his special production. Some reveiwers called it propaganda. I will call it good propaganda!

If you want the “Whole Truth”, with all of its nuances, consider obtaining  a major in history.

For a  sample of the whole program, as well as other insights, go to the following URL.

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/34922/

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 1/24/10