A fine mind ruined by Marxism

 kw: book reviews, nonfiction, biological evolution, philosophy, social justice, polemics

I was raised to care for what people can do, not what they look like. This was during the era of Jim Crow. I was 15 when Dr. King made his "I have a dream" speech. Once it was fairly reported (a chancy thing in 1963), I embraced its core idea: to judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. For most of the sixty years since, I have seen the systemic racism I grew up within gradually abated. Progress in this area halted sometime after 2008 when our first black President showed by his actions that he liked to poke a stick in the eyes of anyone who wasn't a Leftist or Marxist. Overt racism began to rise again.

Judged against the past 15 years, racism in America has been on the rise. Judged against the prior 45 years, tremendous progress was followed by a significant pullback. However, there was a parallel trend that I have watched for more than the past 60 years, of creeping leftism that has gradually taken over the Democratic Party.

When I was in college during "the Sixties" there was radical activity all over the country, particularly on campuses. It was very visible for a few years, and then seemed to vanish. Later I realized that the wiser radicals didn't go on the stump, they went to Law school. Bill and Hilary Clinton exemplify them. They also exemplify the utter amorality of leftism.

I am a classical liberal, which means "conservative" in America. I am for smaller government, the greatest amount of freedom for the greatest number of people, for the rule of law and not by fiat ("executive orders" for example), and for a strong social attitude that supports personal responsibility and eschews blaming others for our own errors. The Left is against all these.

I was taught to be color blind; now that's called racism. It is the opposite of racism!

I was taught to treat everyone fairly; a few percent of people demand to be treated better than fairly. I decline.

Most particularly, I learned from the Bible that the people of God are not called to destroy the wicked (Jesus called them "tares", or "weeds") but to leave that to God. The Left is intent on destroying the good, and they began by demonizing everything that is good about America and vilifying "ordinary Americans" who happen to not be leftist. Leftism is the enemy of all that is good.

There is huge hue and cry about "white supremacy" and "institutional racism". One would think that all white Americans (except, of course, the Left) are arrayed in a crusade against all "people of color". Not so. Consider this: All the "institutions" have been taken over by the Left, including most news organizations, universities, and a growing number of businesses. If there is institutional racism, guess who is running the institutions? Not conservatives.

During World War II my father trained a squad of primarily black soldiers. He and they were all in the Corps of Engineers. His previous squad was primarily white. He told my brothers and me that the white soldiers were better educated, but neither squad had any engineering background. The two groups learned equally fast. Having grown up in a racist family, Dad got re-educated that "race" didn't mean anything, from his own experience. He took that lesson to heart.

Let me also mention that I am about as White as they come, without being Scandinavian. Most of my ancestors that immigrated to America were from England, Ireland or Scotland; none that I know of were Celtic. Throw in a bit of German and Welsh, and that almost completes the picture. I also have a grandfather who was between a quarter and half Cherokee, and a great-grandfather who had a black grandfather or great-grandfather. European Americans who don't hail from the British Isles are descended from Roman citizens and Roman slaves, which in both cases were 10% African. My nonwhite ancestry is about 15%. I am neither proud of it nor shamed by it. I am descended from serfs and kings, merchants and pirates, soldiers and criminals. What I am is what I am, no more, no less.

This is just a taste of my background, so you have a chance to understand my reaction to A Voice in the Wilderness: A Pioneering Biologist Explains How Evolution Can Help Us Solve Our Biggest Problems by Joseph L. Graves. The book is half memoir and half social observation with a strong "social justice" flavor.

Dr. Graves is the first African American to earn a PhD in Evolutionary Biology. He is seven years younger than I am, so when I was on campus heckling leftist radicals, he was in Jr. High School, not yet sure if he would go to college. As he tells it, he experienced pervasive racism all his life. Interestingly, his primary mentors were white; of course, there were nearly no black role models for him. Once he did enter college, before long he read Karl Marx and became a Marxist. It seems he still is.

I reserved judgment through the whole book. By the end, though, I became clear. Dr. Graves is a brilliant biologist, a leader and mentor in his field. Equally clearly, he is politically blind. The only sources of news he cites are CNN and other outlets of genuinely Fake News. He claims that the fakery is all on the right, but I've observed every trace of truth drain out of the "mainstream media" since midway through the broadcasting career of Walter Cronkite, about the time the Huntley-Brinkley Report went off the air in 1970. By the time Cronkite retired, the decline of "the media" was well under way.

The last chapters of the book are full of diatribes against Donald Trump and those who voted for him. This is what I would expect of a Marxist, and of someone who believes the extremely gross and misleading caricature of Trump found in nearly all the media. In one sentence he groups Trump with Stalin and Hitler. Seriously?!?!? Stalin assassinated several political opponents and upon achieving power he exiled hundreds to Siberia, where most soon died. He was later responsible for the deaths of more than 15 million Russians. And we all know Hitler's history. 

If Donald Trump were actually the man "the media" (and Joe Graves) think he is, the day after his inauguration he would have had Nancy Pelosi, both Clintons, James Comey, Chuck Shumer and probably several others arrested and summarily executed. Three years later, after his first weaselly speech about COVID-19, Dr. Fauci would have "disappeared". I could go on, but what's the point? Here's a plain fact that seems to have escaped Dr. Graves: During the Trump administration, unemployment fell to the lowest level is decades, and to record low levels for people of color. Donald Trump was the best thing that ever happened to "the Blacks and Browns among us", to use an oft-repeated phrase. Biden and the Left are their worst enemies. Those whom they can't gaslight they denigrate, sideline, and if possible indict.

I am wholly opposed to Marxism in all its manifestations. Of the four biggest mass murders of the 20th Century, three were committed by Marxist rulers (Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot), and the fourth was perpetrated by "national socialists", abbreviated Nazi. The other genocides of the same Century were nearly all by Marxists. Dr. Graves wrote, "…Karl Marx was probably one of the greatest theorists of human social activity…" Idiocy! Mark's "theories" have always been carried out via enormous bloodshed and oppression.

I was hoping that the phrase in the title, "explains how evolution can help", would be followed up by a clear, cogent explanation with workable suggestions. That ought to have been the subject of the last 2-3 chapters, not diatribes against conservatives. What a pity. The idea that evolutionary thinking can help us solve great problems is a good one. A proper treatment of the subject would be very helpful. But the book is instead a screed in favor of Socialism. As Churchill wrote, "Capitalism is the worst system, except for all the others." Socialism is a formula for misery. Always has been, always will be.