Subsequent to the release of the St. Louis County grand jury report the Monday before Thanksgiving 2014 which exonerated officer Darren Wilson from any criminal intent in the shooting death of the “Gentle Giant” Michael Brown, there were widespread and in many cases well-planned “spontaneous” demonstrations around the country. Consider my eye-witness account from the streets of Boston in early December:
While walking down Tremont Street in Boston next to the Granary Burial Ground on Saturday, I noticed a large contingent of Boston Police, and in the distance what looked like something possibly menacing filling the space normally taken by automobiles and the occasional darting pedestrian.
However, in seconds it became clear that I was witnessing the front end of a parade of sorts. A large banner stating “Black Lives Matter”, followed by a mass of people – predominately white – of all ages. As they passed the spot where I stood, I began to hear chants, and what was really amazing to me was the reproducible, fine quality of the expressions. I had just come out of a music rehearsal, and these marchers likewise seemed to have done their rehearsing! Some phrases were at a higher pitch than others, and as they moved on, a second cohort appeared, chanting in identical fashion.
I wish I had a recording of the event, because only two or three phrases remain in my memory. One was “This is democracy”; then something like “..tear this [?] down..”; I can’t remember exactly, except that the word “anarchy” formed in my brain. However, the most emphasized phrase was the “Hands up, don’t shoot”, performed in antiphonal fashion.
This demonstration was classic Alinsky/Marxism. The “Hands up, don’t shoot” (HUDS) phrase reveals a great deal. By the end of November 2014, there couldn’t be doubt in a thinking person’s mind that HUDS was referring to a fictitious anecdote: it clearly never happened. But if that is the case, then why repeat it from coast to coast in all the “spontaneous” demonstrations? The obvious answer is to maintain the necessary narrative of victimhood which is essential to the left’s hold on the black community. Truth? No, but it IS Hork-logic: something is “true” if it advances the agenda, and false if it does not. Black conservative author Shelby Steele refers to this as “poetic truth”. Consider his definition:
“…“poetic truth” disregards the actual truth in order to assert a larger essential truth that supports one’s ideological position. It makes the actual truth seem secondary or irrelevant. Poetic truths defend the sovereignty of one’s ideological identity by taking license with reality and fact. They work by moral intimidation rather than by reason, so that even to question them is heresy.”
Thus the BLM demonstrators justify chanting an objective lie. What other conclusion can be drawn? And it’s not an innocent lie either; it deceives vulnerable people, and defames others.
The movement labeled “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) is equally problematic. Apparently to those in this nationwide movement, the only black lives that matter are the ones assaulted by white people. There is no evidence that I know of that this movement has any concern for black-on-black violence, the frequency of which far exceeds white-on-black. And what of black-on-white violence? Also, no consideration for BLM. The reason? The Marxist oppressor/oppressed model must be maintained at all cost, including any unrest and violence aided and abetted by this movement. And in the case of white law enforcement violence vs. blacks, the BLM solution advocates less stringent enforcement, resulting in more deaths of blacks from black-on-black violence. Andrew Klavan sums up BLM illogic in a brief video.
While participation by blacks in BLM is understandable, if sad — because the left has no viable solutions for the problems of the black underclass — this movement also maintains a hold on the gullible white youth and some naïve “liberal” adults who have been fed a steady diet of leftist propaganda for most of their lives from academia, the mainstream media, Hollywood, and essentially half of the government; how can they resist the message? Further, and unfortunately, the left’s “poetic truth” creates the temptation to indulge in a sense of moral superiority, but is it actually moral?
Consider the following. Unceasingly repeating assertions that are not only demonstrably untrue, but clearly detrimental to the party supposedly being supported (i.e., blacks are perpetual victims) and demonizing those (i.e., law enforcement personnel) who are constantly placed in difficult, even life-threatening positions to protect the population, and which are bullied into restraining or eliminating techniques which might save people from harm and even death; this is hardly moral behavior. And what of an ideology which successfully enslaves via government entitlements the very population it purports to benefit? After fifty years of political control of urban black communities, the massive deterioration in family structure directly attributable to leftist policy and ideology can hardly be considered “moral”.
Billionaire George Soros reportedly spent $30 million to support the BLM movement around the country dealing with the Ferguson event, which undoubtedly provided more support to help with the unrest related to the 2015 Baltimore event. For example, in Ferguson, Organization for Black Struggle (OBS) and Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE) are also two of the many similar organizations funded by Mr. Soros. The point being that the groups involved in protests which sometimes devolve into riots are heavily funded by powerful leftists.
Furthermore, remember in the eyewitness account above, one of the repeated chants advocated anarchy. In reviewing videos of various BLM demonstrations, it is clear that Boston was not the only location where this kind of sentiment was expressed. It is evident that anarchy is one of the tools that elites like George Soros want to have in their arsenal. In other BLM demonstrations the chant “There is only one solution: revolution, revolution”, or sometimes “…communist revolution” were used. Is that what our culture wants or needs? Communist revolutions have been generally rather untidy, and invariably result in totalitarian, repressive governmental regimes. That may be what Mr. Soros and his ilk desire, but is that really the best our culture can come up with? It seems telling that Front Page Magazine recently described the BLM movement as essentially a reincarnation of the Black Panther movement, and “profoundly racist.”
So when you encounter BLM or HUDS, remember that it is an incredibly self-defeating mantra (“you are a victim”) for the black community, aided by often well-meaning but naïve people who have been blinded by the propaganda of a skillful and determined cadre of leftist elites.
This is not to say that police and other authority figures are without blame in cross-racial encounters that result in violence. But nothing good is going to happen until Marxist ideology is exposed and rejected. Then we might find marches involving all ethnicities into the deepest ghettos to protest not just white-on-black violence or black-on-black violence, but all violence. And that would also result in the current black leadership being replaced by those (such as black conservatives) who have not fallen prey to the victim mentality, and who are zealots for pro-family, limited government and personal responsibility emphases.
The obvious antidote to all this ideological illogic is profoundly simple: to embrace the truth that each life matters. After all, we are all made in the image of God.
Note to pastors. In Matthew 7:16, Jesus asks, “You shall know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?” And in 1 John 4, instruction is given to “…test the spirits…”. Since the modern left movement is based upon cultural Marxism, and its fruit in our society has been virulently anti-Christian, and since the policies implemented by the left when they have been in power have consistently made matters worse, especially for minority communities, is there any rationale whereby they can be looked at as worthy of support? In fact, should not they be resisted and opposed with great focus and determination? We are really in an Ephesians 6:12 situation, dealing with “..spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places..” As you are well aware, churches and schools are on a fast track to be persecuted by the left through loss of tax exemption, and it may not be long before reading certain Biblical passages in public will be a criminal offense. What will it take for Christians to cease supporting their persecutors?