“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme,” apparently Mark Twain said that. I have to admit that I am torn about whether or not I agree with this statement. In one sense there is truth in it, the precise events don’t often happen exactly. But then I remember Afghanistan.
For centuries, no invading army has managed to hold Afghanistan in any meaningful way. That is why it is known as the graveyard of Empires. You would think people would learn from this, but no, empires continue to smash themselves against its mountainous terrain.
Then there is the cycle of prosperity, leading to decadence, decadence leading to decline, and decline leading to the strong again rising. This is a clear cycle throughout history, across millennia and peoples. So, as I said, I am torn.
Perhaps a better way to look at it is that cause and effect remain constant in human interactions. Certain events, certain causes, create certain effects, certain patterns. For example, large scale immigration always causes fractures in a society, it is unavoidable. Immigration creates diversity, diversity, by definition, is division, and division exacerbates as time goes on.
This is a repetitive pattern with clear cause and effect elements. You can make predictions of what events will happen, because they are contingent on certain causes, that can be observed both in real time, and in history.
In this sense, history does not just rhyme, it repeats, and it repeats with a consistency that is rather amazing, but not surprising, as our universe is a cause and effect system.
It is in this context then that I ask this question: Has anyone else noticed that a lot of the demonization of white people by some progressive groups today (which are dominant in education, media and entertainment, hence controlling most of the public discussion) is reminiscent of the demonization of Jews by the German Nazis, or of the bourgeoisie (middle class) by the Russian communists?
Anyone familiar with these events will be familiar with the tracts that were published, the stories that were written, the newspaper articles printed and more, that created a certain zeitgeist about these groups in those respective empires.
I am not claiming that white people are being persecuted for their skin colour, except maybe in South Africa, and some American cities. What I am saying is that the rhetoric of hate against white people because of their perceived privilege and their skin colour, is reminiscent of things said by the above peoples about the groups they hated.
The Bolsheviks – and yes I am aware that their leadership group was largely made up and influenced by Jewish intellectuals and students, but not entirely, it was also an internationalist movement made up of many of the people’s conquered by Russia (I recommend Solzhenitsyn’s 200 Years Together, for a detailed exploration) – stirred up the peasants class of Russians against the business class (bourgeoisie) of Russians.
This overflowed into the attempted 1905 revolution, and then the eventual successful and bloody 1917 revolution, during the Great War, which overflowed into a bloody civil war, the starvation of many Ukrainians and Russians who resisted (the Holodomor), and much other violence. But it began with rhetoric, that stated repeatedly that anyone who had more, had it at the expense of those that didn’t.
There was even some truth in this, but not everyone who had more was an oppressor of those who had less. However, that didn’t stop the rhetoric eventually leading to the ravaging of the Russian Empire, eventually creating the Soviet Union.
The similarities between the anti-bourgeoise rhetoric and the modern “white privilege” conspiracy are reminiscent to those pre-Soviet Union days towards the end of the era of Russian Tsars.
Demonize one particular group, again and again, and again, make it fashionable, support it with intellectual arguments, fund movements to challenge the power of said group, and then– well, we know the rest of the events that followed. No event in history has been more bloody than the Russian Revolution. Everybody suffered, whether they had previously had power or not, every group suffered in the extended periods of violence. But this isn’t the only event it reminds me of.
The similarities between the “white privilege conspiracy” and the “Jewish conspiracy” are many as well, let me lay it out for you: that white people favour each other, in such a way to maintain their dominance over other groups. Sound familiar? This is precisely what has been said about Jews for some time.
Now to some degree, Jewish people do look out for each other. No nation can survive for so long living stateless among other nations without favouring their own in some way. You need a deeply shared identity and loyalty to survive as a distinct people across so many millennia and lands.
Is it true that Jews are over-represented in the billionaire ranks of the United States and hence wield some influence and power with that wealth? Yes, of course as this article, “Meet the Jewish Billionaires Shaping the 2016 Presidential Election” in the Israeli paper Haaretz claims about the US Presidential election, “A quick look at the list of top political donors for 2014 reveals a striking fact: At least a third of the most generous 50 mega-givers were Jewish.”[1]
Does this mean every Jew is involved in some conspiracy? Of course not. What billionaire does not seek to leave their stamp on the world? Some for good, many for bad. Likewise, did some powerful white people once conspire to exploit other less powerful nations? Yes, but this does not mean every white person is involved in some conspiracy to hold down the black man, brown man, or any other man.
In fact, just because white people are highly represented in positions of power in the West, does not mean that every white person has power. It is ridiculous to even suggest it.
As noted above, before this violence broke out in Russia and Germany, there were decades, at least, of such rhetoric escalating in those nations, and others. And it escalated in education, academia, the media and entertainment, and under the shroud of war both movements broke out against those they blamed for their ills, perceived or otherwise.
Why did it break out under the shroud of war – war pushes people to their limits and can motivate them to do things they would otherwise not even conceive, or at least take them to a level they would not otherwise intend.
This sort of thing is common in history. It may seem like a radical fringe who are saying things about white power and privilege now. But so did the precursors of the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks seems like odd extremists in the late 19th century…in the 20th, well we know what happened.
Challenge the hate, don’t accept it, and make sure our political leaders understand the importance of not allowing such rhetoric to get out of hand. Part of doing this is speaking honestly about the underlying issues, even if these truths make us all uncomfortable.
You may think it is inconceivable that such a terror could be unleashed on any Western nation, but history tells us a different story when such rhetoric is not challenged adequately. Whether history repeats or rhymes, that is a track we don’t want to hear again.
[1] The Forward and Nathan Guttman 2015, “Meet the Jewish Billionaires Shaping the 2016 Presidential Election”, Haaretz, https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/meet-the-jews-shaping-the-2016-election-1.5367173, accessed on 21/07/2020.
