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Most historians credit Jamestown with being the first British settlement in North America. What they mean is the “second” Jamestown settlement that succeeded with the introduction of the Spanish contraband crop, tobacco. The first settlement at Jamestown failed miserably when it relied on finding gold that wasn’t there and in one case led to cannibalism.
The settlement of the West is one of the greatest achievements of American pioneers. Their self-contained covered wagons had to provide everything they needed for months of a treacherous journey, just as NASA today equips its spaceships to Mars. But the Donner Party was a casualty of that adventurous spirit when they were overwhelmed by winter snow in a High Sierra pass. They also resorted to cannibalism to survive.
A similar process happens when revolutions or movements that appear successful begin to destroy their own. For example, take the Jacobins, the most influential political group of the French Revolution until they introduced the Reign of Terror. Over ten thousand people were put on trial and executed in France for political crimes. The guillotine was the method of choice. Promoted by a French doctor of the same name, it was a quick immediate death, more humane than hanging, definitely not cruel and unusual punishment. But when the French Revolution turned into a bloodbath and executed one of its own, Robespierre, the most famous Jacobin of all, people realized this was a nightmare and not the “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” as promised.
In America during the 1950’s another reign of terror was destroying lives and livelihoods with the accusation of communism. McCarthyism raged. Hollywood stars were blacklisted. Alger Hiss and the US State Department were implicated as spies. Accusation alone was guilt. But it wasn’t until Joseph McCarthy turned against the US military with accusations of communist sympathizers, in effect cannibalizing our own, President Eisenhower and the public said enough is enough.
Unfortunately, in all these cases the human damage was done. But the lesson of the 1790’s and 1950’s is that when a movement over reaches and starts to consume its own, it’s the beginning of the end. It cannot sustain itself. Even the Salem Witch Trials lasted just over one year, 1692-93, until the hangings made people sick and they saw this for the injustice it was. The question today is will that be the fate of “woke culture” in the 2020’s? When they begin to cancel too many of their own iconic figureheads will that be the tipping point for public rejection of their misguided intentions.
As with Salem, the #MeToo movement righteously came and disappeared. It was at its peak in the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. The refrain was “every woman must be heard.” Until they started eating their own and Tara Reade accused Joe Biden of inappropriate behavior. Biden now won’t even comment on Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment allegations. That slope is way too slippery. And he’s one of us. Don’t listen to those women.
Leftist media will often say that Conservatives are promoting a false premise here, a grievance cottage industry, complaining about Dr. Seuss and Twitter and Facebook cancellations, making a mountain out of a molehill. The Media says there is no “cancel culture,” just embittered white supremacists who are nostalgic for the good old days. But there is a culture war going on . . . with vast consequences. Just ask HBO commentator Bill Maher.
Bill Maher, the high priest of the Leftwing, agrees that America is destroying itself because “half the country is having a never ending woke competition deciding whether Mr. Potato Head has a d*ck” while China is dominating in every arena they enter.” Maher continues, “We’re not losing to China. We lost. The returns just haven’t come in yet. They made robots to check a kid’s temperature and got their a**es back in school. Most of our kids are still pretending to take zoom classes while they watch Tik Tok and (their) brains slowly commit ritual suicide.”
Maher goes on, “There is a progressive trend now to sacrifice merit for equity, colleges are chucking the SAT and ACT test and in New York Mayor de Blasio announced merit would no longer decide who gets into the schools for advanced learners, but rather a lottery system. . . You think China’s doing that? Letting political correctness get in the way of nurturing the best and the brightest?” Even Bill Maher admits this.
If past patterns are any indication, then the American public’s gradual rejection of “woke culture” will serve as a backfire to stop it. But that’s not happening. People are too afraid of losing their social credit, reputation, job and career. It will only stop when “wokeness” cannibalizes its own higher celebrities, and then like Robespierre decapitated, the nightmare will burn out.
Again, heed the warning of Bill Maher that “never ending woke competition” is destroying America. He may be wrong! And I may be wrong! But what I do know is that everywhere it has been tried . . cannibalism has failed! Destroying our own is not the future.
"Accusation alone was(is) guilt.” That phrase pretty much sums it up, Jerome. And there in lies a very scary thought.