Zinn a "peace professor?"

By Charles A. Morse
web posted November 26, 2001

The Boston Herald (11/20) refers to Boston University
Professor and leftist historian Howard Zinn as a "peace
professor" in reporting on a speech he delivered to Newton
North High School in Newton, Mass. But what sort of "peace"
does Howard Zinn believe in? Given the record of communism in
the twentieth century, with over 100 million people liquidated,
and given Zinn's lengthy record of support for communist causes,
it's quite clear that when Zinn speaks of peace he can only mean
the peace of the grave. It really should be viewed as quite
astonishing that the likes of Howard Zinn and his ilk would be
considered as representatives of peace. The fact that they are
speaks volumes regarding how much our society has lost its way.

In his speech to the impressionable teenagers of Newton, Zinn
equated U.S. military action in Afghanistan to the Sept. 11
terrorist attack. He stated that "The terrorists of Sept. 11 did a
horrible thing to us, so we do terrible things to the people of
Afghanistan. That is immoral and puts us on the same level as a
terrorist."

In an earlier essay by Zinn, published in "The Progressive"
entitled "Respecting the Holocaust," he pulled the same trick
when he equated the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews to U.S.
support for freedom fighters in Central America. Using this same
line of reasoning it could be argued that the allied landing on the
beaches of Normandy, where no doubt civilian casualties
occurred, would be morally equivalent to the Nazi Holocaust as
well.

Zinn represents a materialist outlook, which is the belief that only
matter exists and that there is no such thing as a spiritual or
supernatural dimension. The materialist, as a result, rejects the
idea of objective morality, which is a spiritual concept. For
example, to the materialist, a rapist who murders his victim
could, under certain circumstances, be viewed as morally
equivalent to a rape victim who kills the rapist in self-defense. In
both cases someone has been killed, hence, from a materialist
perspective, both situations could be viewed as morally
equivalent.

Morality, for the materialist, is not a matter of right or wrong but
what is perceived to be good for the cause. This is why leftists
have supported communist movements who have killed 100
million human beings. These killings were done, they believe, for
the sake of "progress" and are therefore permissible. If a
perceived enemy of "progress" like, for example, capitalist
America is involved in someone's death this is viewed as an
atrocity to be amplified as much as possible.

The left uses the dialectic as a method of implementing their
agenda. This method calls for two opposing elements to collide
in order to create a new situation or a synthesis. This is why the
"work" of the left is to fan the flames of political and social
conflict, the dialectic, in order to bring about the desired clash.
Thus the left seeks to intensify race, class, gender, and other
conflicts in order to usher in the synthesis, which is socialism.
Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels came up with this strategy.

Socialism is nothing more than the re-marketing of the ancient,
moth-eaten, aristocratic idea that a society should be controlled
by an enlightened oligarchy. This is why true believing leftists like
Howard Zinn loathe America with its self-rule, individual rights,
sovereignty, property, private industry and family. These natural
institutions lend themselves to liberty and self-reliance rather than
fealty to an elite. They portray America, therefore, as immoral
while authoritarian communism as moral. Like the Islamic
extremists who blew up the World Trade Center, the leftist
views America as the greatest obstacle toward the achievement
of his faith. Both of these political faiths view America as the
great Satan and for essentially the same reason. Unlike Zinn,
most American leftists are camp followers, in it for the social
benefits, and have no idea what the left is really all about.

America is by no means perfect nor do we claim to be. Unlike
the utopian-minded left, we recognize the imperfect nature of
human beings and of our own society. We consider the best way
to insure a more moral society is to honor the G-d given rights of
each individual. This is why, unlike the societies that follow the
philosophy of Howard Zinn and his ilk, America is the most
moral, prosperous, and genuinely peaceful society in history.

At the end of World War II, many former Nazi's explained away
the Holocaust against the Jews by equating it with the bombing
of Hiroshima or the firebombing of Dresden. When Zinn equates
the terror attack on the World Trade Center with the American
military response, he is worse than the former Nazi because at
least the former Nazi was trying, however wrongly, to defend his
own country.

Chuck Morse (http://www.chuckmorse.com/) is the author of
the recently released Why I'm a Right-Wing Extremist which is
available at http://www.1stbooks.com/bookview/7510.

Enter Stage Right - http://www.enterstageright.com