Posted on 07/28/2002 8:09:00 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
(Reprinted from SOBRAN’S, June 1999, page 3)
Twenty years ago, I was struck by the way various sorts of political “progressives” — Communists, socialists, liberals, “civil libertarians,” “moderates,” “pragmatists” — all spontaneously cooperated with each other. It wasn’t a conspiracy; there was obviously no central direction. But the pattern was too clear to be denied.
The word “left” was a dead metaphor; it said nothing interesting about the people it referred to. So I used the metaphor of an insect hive, which captured the way such people moved in harmony and communicated with each other.
In a beehive, the worker bees have many specialties. The hive is organized around the queen bee, but she doesn’t have to give the workers their instructions. The bee that finds pollen returns to the hive and flies in figure eights; this tells the others the direction and distance of the pollen, and they go get it. And of course the bees need no orders to attack an enemy.
Members of the progressive Hive likewise act on their own instincts and have their own code of communication. They feel free, but they are also predictable. Liberals laugh at conspiracy theories that assume that because there is a pattern there must be some central control; but the fact that there is no central control doesn’t mean that there is no pattern.
My Hive metaphor was enriched by an essay by Igor Shafarevich, “Socialism in Our Past and Future,” in Solzhenitsyn’s collection of dissident writings, From under the Rubble. Shafarevich argues that socialism is not just a modern phenomenon, but a perennial problem of decadent societies. In the name of equality, it tries to destroy the family, private property, and religion — institutions that prevent the state from monopolizing loyalty, wealth, and authority. Since ancient times, socialists (under whatever labels) have favored sexual license — “the community of wives,” “free love,” “sexual freedom,” et cetera. By breaking down bonds of kinship, sexual anarchy reduces the individual to a mere unit of the state.
I saw immediately what Shafarevich meant. His words applied not only to doctrinaire socialists and overt Communists, but to all those liberals whose efforts constantly (though implicitly) tend toward a socialist order. Liberalism, I saw, was the retail version of the society of which Communism was the wholesale version. Liberals don’t speak (or think, as a rule) of outright revolution; they move one step at a time, always edging toward the socialist model of an egalitarian centralized state, always nibbling at the family (in the name of sexual freedom), property rights (in the name of social justice), and religion (in the name of the separation of church and state). Like bees, they swarm against enemies of (or perceived threats to) their Hive. Joe McCarthy, Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and Kenneth Starr are just a few of the many targets of Hive attacks over the years.
The Hive especially hates anti-Communism and traditional Christianity. Though only a few bees espouse Communism, all of them at least feel some sympathy for it. Like American liberals, Soviet Communism strove to “build a new society” — that is, to destroy all tradition. Liberalism’s ad hoc style is only superficially different from that of Communism. At bottom, it wants the same things, without being fully aware of it.
“Civil rights,” feminism, environmentalism, national health care, gun control, and abortion on demand may not seem intrinsically related, but they all extend the authority and power of the centralized state over private relations. The Hive intuits this with almost infallible accuracy, so the liberal bees support and promote such causes at every turn.
Liberalism, unlike Communism, adopts the pose of pragmatism, scorning “ideology,” so liberal bees consistently pretend that they favor this or that measure for purely practical reasons. But the pattern is clear. What they really favor is a state that is both limitless and godless.
The Hive has had to make concessions to reality. Communism has collapsed; the market has shown that it will assert itself against any attempt to control it from above. But since liberals profess to be nonideological, they have been able to adapt to these facts of life, giving lip service to the free market. Yet they continue to favor more centralized government, more state economic power, higher taxes, and limitations on property rights whenever possible.
By using pragmatic language for its agenda, the Hive misleads the general public about its ultimate goals. It gains power as ordinary people adopt its language without grasping the implications. After all, who could oppose such worthy causes as “civil rights,” “a woman’s right to choose,” “protecting our children,” and “saving the environment”? The news media use the buzzwords of the Hive so habitually that they have become virtual organs of the Hive. The typical bee isn’t a fanatical Marxist-Leninist; it’s Dan Rather or Katie Couric.
I’ll say more about the workings of the Hive in future issues.
Though they are the highest of fools they fail to recognize that we too will fall under our own weight, given enough time.
The bee buzzing you hear is just a side effect.
Thanks.
Do you think the symbol of the hive could also apply to the Catholic Church and its leftist drift of the last thirty years?
Unfortunately, the hive affects the deepest aspects of American way of life. As you see, things are not exactly the same anymore. People like you and me are in the minority. The hive does not brainwash us, but for most Americans we can see the effects including lack of morals, collapse of American family, and other ills in soceity.
You can see, there are liberal priests in the Catholic Church, yes, but I'm still a Catholic because there are many things that the Church is correct about such as abortion. Also, I appreciate that the Catholic Church does not preach free love, and marriage by same-sex.
It's hard to believe that many things today are generally accepted today which would be thought as impossible just decades ago. C'mon, gay parades at Disney World? What's up with that crap? It's a park for kids.
Never heard of it. So what is it about? Can you give me the link so I may read it?
Thanks. This article by Sobran really cleared things up about the left for me. I can see the big picture now.
How so?
The bee buzzing you hear is just a side effect.
Can you be more specific please?
You are correct. Many Republicans do not realize that the real war is the culture war. And we're losing ground rapidly. There is not much left to defend. We must not yield one more inch!
Patrick Buchanan was correct in his book, The Death of the West.
Even though I do not agree with him on many things, he's dead on issues relating to the culture war and immigration. If Republicans had similiar views as him, the country would not be in this such state today.
If we want to reclaim America, we must recapture the culture from freaks such as Alec Baldwin in Hollyweird.
What I think will happen is that more and more Americans will lose interest in our country in general. Heck, there was an article about high school seniors not knowing our basic American history. (If somone can give me a link to that article, it would be great. Thanks)
So what may happen is that 80% of Americans would be filled with apathy and not bother to vote at all. However, 20% of the Americans are either rabid "left wingers" or "right wingers". We just have to hope with decreasing turnout in elections will ultimately favor us. (Although we cannot forget about voter fraud)
It would be just awesome if RINOs decided to stay at home, and people like us will be able to vote for the candidates that we really want. Then perhaps, the country might change. Really, it is up to the minority (that's us) for things to change. Remember the American Revolution was led by the elite such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin just to name a few.
bump into the latter half of the decade
Whoa how did you find this article just out of the blue?
I just clicked on your name and then clicked “links”.
You're right: This is an oldie. And it is certainly a goodie.
The Hive analogy works for liberalism. And so does the liberalism-is-a-religion analogy.
They are both effective ways to understand liberals and their thought processes.
The most striking thing about the Hive analogy is the rigid programming involved. No independent thought can be allowed; no bee can wander off the reservation. Just as socialism is inherently totalitarian, there is also an innately inhuman aspect to it.
Oh that’s right, I’ve forgotten about that. Haven’t updated my links in ages......
Liberals/Socialists/Culutral Marxists are all part of the Hive and that’s why Ann Coulter is calling out on them. She sees that it is pointless to try to negotiate with them. Too bad not enough Conservatives are aware of this. I believe that this is a required reading for all those who wants to stop Hillary. At this point, she’s the queen bee and she has worker bees in the media covering her rear end.
And a bee in the Hive has turned against her, openly challenging her superiority. She is very upset.
This will provide interesting viewing...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.