When Reality's Up For Grabs

by Mark Steyn - May 21st, 2007 - Western Standard

In 1984, George Orwell wrote, "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." The Muslim community in Europe does not yet "control" anything: they are, relatively, small in numbers, though big in certain cities and bigger still in the schools of those cities. Nevertheless, it is significant that, though still quite a long way from formal "control," they are already determining the shape of the future, and thus of the past. The Holocaust did happen. Millions did die. "Facts," said John Adams, "are stubborn things." But not in the Europe of 2007. Faced with serving a population far more stubborn than any mere fact, Continental teachers are quietly putting reality up for grabs. It's a small thing, initially--the sin of omission, of discreetly gliding over "controversy" in the interests of multicultural sensitivity.

In the name of political correctness, this same pattern has taken hold here in America. It is an interesting phenomenon but many democrats here in Eastern Carolina have accepted two main themes from the democrat party leadership. (I suspect this acceptance is more widespread, but I don't have evidence. I have seen it here.)

First, they insist they are not socialists. No matter how much their government based programs resemble a lack of faith in free enterprise, and reject Friedman's premise that individual freedom is based on continuation of the economic freedom that must first exist under free enterprise, they simply deny they are socialists.

Second they insist that though they are not socialists, socialism has not failed, it has simply not been tried under the right conditions.

They are not socialists but socialism is not bad?

This article is a good read about a growing problem. Steyn is as usual quite perceptive. He could have written the same article about people in America who want to believe (as much as muslims want to believe the holocaust never happened) that socialism has never failed. That way they can vote themselves free services from government and they are not doing someting stupid.

There was a popular theme in college back in the 1960s. Perception is reality. Some people still believe this. However reality is reality, perception is not. When you ignore reality really bad things happen. Sometimes the bad things happen at the hand of those who reject reality, just so they can cling to their illusions. Nazis clung to illusions and killed 6 million Jews and almost as many Slavs and others they thought of as "degenerates".

It will be interesting in the future to see what are the consequences of the Muslim's rejection of the holocaust and belief that killing jews is okay because they are evil. It will be equally interesting in the future to see what are the consequences of the democrat's rejection of free enterprise and belief that taxing the rich is okay because they are evil.

When reality is up for grabs, evil happens.