Keep Right — Column by Ralph K. Ginorio
Silence can speak with more power and truth than even the most eloquent orator. So it is now for those who shouted at the top of their lungs, exhorting us to be moved by the plight of the Palestinian people.
The (often-paid) protesters who chanted, “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA” for over two years have had the most telling reaction to President Trump’s recent Peace Treaty between Israel and Hamas, witnessed by many regional powers. These folks, including “Gays for Palestine”, have by and large said a thunderous… nothing.
Why? Why would those whose big hearts bled so copiously for those whom they claimed were the downtrodden Arab victims of Israeli power have so little to say about the culmination of this war? Why wouldn’t the prospects of increasing peace and prosperity for those very Gazans elicit some discernable joy from their most ardent Western advocates?
Could it be that the performative outrage that filled our campuses with self-righteous anti-Semitic hatred and filled our city streets with so many colorful signs and syncopated chants was never about the poor Palestinians in the first place? If not the plight of real flesh-and-blood Arab victims, then what could have elicited so much passion and action?
Conservative actor John Voight offered an insight into this. As a young man, he was fired by the plight of the Vietnamese whose lives were being destroyed, as he thought, by the American involvement in their Civil War. He marched, spoke, contributed, and most of all he cared.
Then came the peace agreement in 1973 and the North Vietnamese conquest of the South in 1975. Voight was fascinated with what could come next. Would the Peace Movement provide much-needed aid and support to those Vietnamese victims of that brutal struggle? Would the wealth in talent and finance that had stood so stalwartly against what was deemed to be American Imperialism now be brought into the struggle for post-war peace and prosperity?
To Voight’s shock, now that the war was over no one seemed to care anymore about Vietnam and the Vietnamese. The fashionable people of conscience had moved on, inspired by new causes.
That is when Voight realized what remains true today. It was never about the Vietnamese then. It was never about the Palestinians now.
All of that emotional energy and frenetic activity signifies something else entirely from anything that could be characterized as compassion or empathy. Since from before the French Revolution, in good causes and in bad, Jacobins, Abolitionists, Socialists, Communists, Pacifists, Temperance Advocates, Social Reformers, Feminists, Environmentalists, and countless others defined themselves by their willingness to personally oppose what they deemed was their own society’s corruption and oppression.
In the name of “the People”, the slaves, the poor, war crime victims, battered wives, child workers, the marginalized, and the global climate these brave souls found a cause worthy of their best efforts. As they stepped up to wage a personal crusade to save the world from itself, their life’s paths became clear and both confusion and depression dissipated.
These reforms and the idealism of their many advocates is not, of itself, a bad thing. Our Western civilization’s willingness to engage both in severe self-criticism and resulting painful reform is one of our best traits. We can improve ourselves in so many ways, and we have done so precisely because of those who took up “the cause”.
However, predators have always been there to exploit the idealism and, yes, innocence of the true believers. These manipulative perpetual activists utilize what they call “useful idiots”. Just as it is never the Islamist Terror Leaders who strap on suicide vests and end their lives in a blaze of glory, these demagogues channel the protests filled with energized foot soldiers into political power for themselves. These users understand keenly an exploitable characteristic of human nature.
Many of us are emotionally self-indulgent Narcissists whose sole real concern is how we feel about ourselves. Community Organizers exploit those with this weakness as viciously as do Casinos exploit the character flaws of compulsive gamblers. The relationship between the shadowy masters and their credulous followers is less like that between mentor and protégé and more like that between a predator and its prey.
Professional malcontent Greta Thunberg personifies this reality. Her association with the global cult of man-made climate change brought her worldwide fame. However, when that cause paled in comparison with a new paragon of injustice, she ditched her environmentalist cloak in order to wrap herself in the Palestinian flag. Now that Gaza is calming down, the mind boggles at the
myriad possibilities of what she might choose to be her next grand crusade.
So it is with the Soros organization, the World Economic Forum, the Tides Foundation, and the ventures of many other anti-Western Plutocrats who will bankroll any cause that blunts American self-confidence and any sense of national identity and shared purpose.
When one noble cause reaches some form of culmination, another will immediately attract those vulnerable souls who have crafted their self-image around being one of the special few who most keenly perceive injustice and stand up against it. This innocence, idealism, or Narcissism demands an outlet. Coldly exploitative professional agitators pervert what in some cases may be worthy causes based on fair criticism into cheap tricks to bring them personal gain.
Perpetual outrage transcends any particular issue. We would be wise to understand and remedy those genuine injustices that can rightly provoke dissent, while refusing to grant legitimacy to those who callously exploit the victims both of oppression and of idealism.
