Competing Ideologies

I was ten years old in October 1962, when a confrontation between the United States and the old Soviet Union, sparked by the American ballistic missile deployment in Italy and Turkey, resulted in an attempted Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Castro's Cuba. For 13 days it would be the closest the Cold War ever came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. At the height of the tensions I remember walking home from school on a Friday, wondering aloud to a neighbor whether or not we would be able to return to school on the following Monday. An imminent all-out nuclear war was all anyone talked about - adults and children. It is a fear that will never be forgotten.  While President Kennedy stood his ground against the saber-rattling Chairman Krushchev to resolve the crisis, it left an indelible mark on the psyche of this fourth grader.

Communism was an evil ideology in my mind long before I understood why. Any socialist leanings in our nation were viewed as un-American and detested at large. But the Communist influence was always there. Only a decade later in college there were professors that publicly declared they were Communists and allowed to promote their ideas as competing ideology in the classroom without repercussions. As a hippie I participated in civil non-violent protests against the military action in southeast Asia and for civil rights. It was an enlightening period in which I witnessed first hand how collective civil action could sway political policy.

I was never arrested despite nearly stepping over that line in protesting the Rocky Flats Nuclear Arsenal near Boulder, Colorado, with the Berenger brothers in the mid 1970's.. Rather than join a commune or ashram as many other hippie activists had, I enlisted in the Marine Corps before the war in Viet Nam concluded, seeking a more balanced perspective on world politics.

So, both sides I have represented; both sides I have argued. In final analysis, I've concluded that it is the gradual encroachment of the evil self-serving leaders of both ideologies that raises my ire most. Both capitalist and socialist approaches to managing society are corrupted by leaders who have traded the purity of values for self-serving power, influence, and greed.

I still find the socialist approach sorely lacking in an understanding of human need. It is disturbing to see the ignorance behind a growing contingent of the American public that thinks socialism holds the promise of a better way of life. The recent Congressional elections added an alarming number of self-proclaimed Communists to our national governing body. This shift does not portend well for our traditional way of life if this trend continues unchecked by the electorate.

The question that first needs addressed is how things have reached this point. How have so many Americans been swayed to believe that an ideology and managing system that has never proven to work effectively even once deserves a chance to supplant the greatest success at governance ever experienced in history? I think the answer begins with matters of a prescient "term" paper that I wrote when I was but 16 years young regarding the use of negative and positive propaganda to influence the behavior of an electorate. 

Over the past half century I have watched as the United States has unquestionably lost the battle of propagandized ideas to the old Soviet Union... the topic of tomorrow's continuing blog.