The late, great, Roger Scruton once articulated that one of the most successful lies of the 20th century is the idea that the ‘far-left’ is nothing like the ‘far-right.’
Scruton noted that:
The success of Communist propaganda could be found in how it has persuaded so many people that fascism and communism are polar opposites and that there is a single scale of political ideology stretching from ‘far-left’ to ‘far-right’. Thus while communism is on the ‘far-left’, it is one stage along the road one must go in order not to be contaminated by fascism.
However:
Communism, like fascism, involved the attempt to create a mass popular movement and a state bound together under the rule of a single party, in which there will be total cohesion around a common goal. It involved the elimination of opposition, but whatever means, and the replacement of ordered dispute between parties by covert ‘discussion’ within the single ruling elite.[i]
In other words, the ‘far-left’ conceals its true nature behind an anti-fascist façade. It wraps itself in transcendent rhetoric devoid of God and is instead filled with inflated feel-good slogans where man is elevated to the position of God. Scruton categorises this as the ‘neo-Marxist rhetoric of totality, concealing the empty place at the heart of the system, where God should be.’ (ibid)
Step back to 1940, anti-nazi Anglican Bishop, George Bell, who agreed that Communism and Nazism share the same DNA, wrote:
Humanity has a relationship to the eternal world, which vitally affects human activity in the temporal world. It is this relationship [via Covenant & Christ] with the eternal that gives humanity real significance, and justifies the affirmation of absolute standards – absolute justice, absolute love, absolute truth. If man or woman exists only on the temporal level absolute standards are irrelevant.
Noting the façade, and the danger of its propensity to deify the self, Bell continues:
If he or she is only a value as “the expression of positive forces of history”, he or she is a mere atom, with no purpose. The “positive forces” of the day may be anything that dictators or democracies choose them to be. If the interests of efficiency so decide, he may be the [next] victim, at any time, of the most ruthless “purge”. And unless you have an Absolute Standard, a law of God [Biblical Christian ethics], it is hard to justify one’s instinctive revulsion to such a purge.
Through such an anti-fascist façade and its deification of self, Leftists could argue, as they do with abortion and euthanasia, that killing is beneficial, not just to the individual, but to the health of the state. Abortion and euthanasia become a patriotic duty guided by totalitarian ideology.
Enter the creation of the police state where thought which is unapproved by the state, is criminalised. This new police force is then used to effectively subdue, and imprison people who hold an opposing viewpoint, without the state ideology (the-state-as-God) being challenged by any effective opposition.
Does this sound too far-fetched for the 21st Century? According to three sources, led by The Washington Times, and carried by Law Enforcement Today, and Police One, this appears to be exactly what Democrats in Connecticut are currently proposing.
The proposal advocates creating a new police department to combat ‘right-wing extremism’, which according to Amanda Blanco from The Hartford Courant was ‘included in what senate Democrats called, ‘A just Connecticut’ agenda’. The proposal was put together in response to community concerns about “hate crimes”. The proposal also ‘includes legislation that will fund enhanced security features at religious facilities across the state.’
Jessica Chasmar of the W.T. further outlined the idea and the Republican response to it, writing that while bipartisan support existed ‘against any type of terrorism, Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, a Republican, took issue with the proposal only mentioning right-wing extremism.’
Fasano was right to call the bias out. Law Enforcement Today’s, Pat Droney, a retired police officer with 31 years of experience in the field, commented:
‘No mention is made of “violent left-wing extremism” such as Antifa perpetrated riots. You’ve got to love the hypocrisy. Once again, why only focus on one side of the extreme wave? This is such a blatant disregard to acknowledge that extremism exists on both sides.’
‘Far-left’ extremism is concealed behind an anti-fascist façade. Exemplified by potential Democrat Presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders who called abortion “healthcare” just days out from Holocaust Remembrance Day (27th January).
Abortion is health care.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 24, 2020
“Feel the Bern”, Bernie seems oblivious to the fact that his timing couldn’t have been more perfect for his critics. Calling abortion healthcare is an abuse of language. Dig deep enough and you’ll find that this kind of abuse has direct connections to how the National Socialist’s manipulative propaganda apparatchik, mobilised their vile ideology. For example: ‘the group in charge of the actual killing in the gas chambers was called the General Welfare Foundation for Institutional Care.’ [ii]
Cancelling the unborn in the womb is the epitome of “cancel culture”. On the whole, it’s rife with self-justification, self-deification, and creates an excuse for selective memory loss. Being loose with the truth, as was practiced under Communist rule, and by its ‘blood brother’ [iii], Nazism, this revisionist abuse of language gives wheels to tyranny. Unless stopped its slow march, becomes a blitzkrieg.
Protecting the people of the state from “hate speech” and “hate crimes” may have a veneer of benevolence, but under it and under the shadow of the hate-fuelled precedents set by Leftists since 2016, it’s fair to ask, who will protect the people from the state, when these invasive laws are misused and abused?
From the FBI conducting a clandestine investigation of Trump under Obama, in 2016, to the violent disruption of communities carried out by Leftists because of Trump’s election. The closed, one-party impeachment process, the current line-up of Democrats and their abuse of language to justify the barbarous cancellation of the lives of unborn children in the womb, including their celebration of youth mutilating themselves in surrender to the LGBT religion – there’s more than enough cause for concern and a need for scrutiny of any Democrat seeking more power.
In this instance, the insights that Scruton and Bell offer us above, are as much prophetic as their words are instructive.
References:
[i] Scruton, R. 2015. Fools, Frauds & Firebrands, Bloomsbury Publishing. (p.200)
[ii] Dean Stroud, 2013 ‘Preaching in Hitler’s Shadow: Sermons of Resistance’ Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing pp.132 & 136
[iii] “Marxism is [both] the arch-enemy & blood brother of Fascism’, Roger Scruton, 2015. Fools, Frauds & Firebrands (p.87)
