Published Monday, June 30, 2025 | | SEND THIS NEWSLETTER TO A FRIEND HERE. | | | BOB LINN AN AMERICAN CITY'S CULTURAL AMNESIA | | New York City's Mayoral elections have just unveiled the impact of cultural ignorance. Citizens own the reins of government and are tasked with building a future for their children. Having forgotten (or, perhaps never having known) the devastation of Karl Marx and the very bloody 20th Century, it appears the home of Liberty's Statue may fall into the hands of political insurgents.
This week, Dr. Everett Piper weighs in on the important role that knowledge of world history plays in the life of a people hoping to navigate the waters of political progress. | | From Dr. Piper's Washington Times Article:
COLLECTIVIZATION OF NEW YORK
In 1924, G.K. Chesterton wrote:
Why is it that for the last two or three centuries, the educated have been generally wrong and the uneducated relatively right? What the educated man has generally done was to ram down everybody's throat some premature and priggish theory which he himself afterward discovered to be wrong; so wrong that he himself generally recoiled from it and went staggering to the opposite extreme.
It seems that we can hardly watch anything coming out of the Democrat Party these days without concluding that Chesterton, the man dubbed the "Prince of Paradox," was also a modern-day prophet. | Whether it be the science-denying misogyny of transgender sports, the historical dishonesty of Nikole Hannah-Jones, the constitutional ignorance of Representative Jasmine Crocket, the borderline criminality of Dr. Anthony Fauci, or the unmitigated dopiness of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, we see it over and over again: The left simply can't help itself. There seems to be no "priggish theory" that is too dumb for these people to parrot in their quest for power. | | Consider this week's poster child of such hubris: Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old failed rapper and trust-fund child who just won the Democratic primary to become the next mayor of New York City.
Mr. Mamdani coasted to victory in this past Tuesday's primary by promising government-run community grocery stores and mandating that all landlords and property owners freeze rent. He also offered an endless menu of government goodies like free childcare and free public transportation. In other words, Zohran Mamdani is an unapologetic communist. | | And herein lies the prescience of G.K. Chesterton.
By all measures, Mr. Mamdani's worldview is a failed ideology. Despite its promises of happiness for all and the brotherhood of man, communism always implodes upon itself with corruption, greed, and endless human suffering. | | Or, in the words of Art Carden, writing for the Daily Economy:
Experiments with communism have a distressing tendency to descend into mass murder.
Why? Because the very nature of communism not only seeks to redefine economics but to redefine man.
Mr. Carden cites Lord Acton's seminal thesis that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." This, says Carden, explains the endemic failures of communism. "People [may have] meant well when they got started," he says, "but having so much power derails them." Or, to paraphrase Friedrich Hayek: "The worst always seems to rise to the top." | | In other words, power attracts, and power corrupts. People crave it, and as a result, evil men end up in positions of power, and hence, you have the horrors of the Killing Fields and Holodomor.
Mr. Carden goes on. "Communist regimes [always] move quickly into oppression and mass murder [because] communism is "born bad" and "ultimately cannot be attained without imposing its "ideal of totalitarianism."
Thus, the one indisputable lesson of history is that the bad idea of communism always ends badly. | | The Soviet Union, for example, was the world's first official communist state, and it failed miserably. In the end, at least 20 million people died at the hands of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, who, through collectivization, centralized control, and wealth redistribution, plunged their nation into stagnation, failure, and famine.
Maoist China is another example. Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward was a catastrophic disaster. His march against capitalism and traditional values resulted in unimaginable suffering for the Chinese people. Businessmen, teachers, and perceived political enemies were targeted and purged. Social chaos and economic disruption ensued. At least 70 million people were killed under his banner of social justice and free stuff for all. | | Then, we have the modern-day case study of North Korea, which represents one of the most extreme examples of the horrific consequences of centralized planning and government overreach. Kim Jong Un's control of all aspects of business and private life has resulted in devastating food shortages, lack of basic infrastructure, and widespread poverty across the nation.
The examples could go on and on - Cuba, Cambodia, Venezuela, Vietnam - the failures of every communist movement ever tried highlight the consequences of implementing a system that only leads to economic inefficiency, political repression, and human suffering. While the ideology promises equity, lack of want, and imaginations of John Lennon's utopia, the practical outcomes are always decline, despair, dystopia, and death.
King Solomon once said,:
As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly.
The political philosopher George Santayana echoed the same when he wrote:
He who doesn't learn the lessons of history is doomed to repeat them. | The voters of New York are about to learn the hard way that Solomon, Santayana, and Chesterton were all right if they actually vote for Zohran Mandani to be their mayor in November. | | __________
Follow Dr. Piper on his podcast here. Follow Dr. Everett Piper weekly in The Washington Times here | | IN CASE YOU MISSED READING ABOUT OUR SUMMER BREAK:
We were all pleased with our spring finale with Governor Stitt and a number of luminaries. Video clips are below.
For some time, I have needed a sabbatical to catch up on my reading, to reflect, and to think more seriously about my writing. For that reason, we are taking an extended summer break and will resume September 17 at the Oklahoma History Center.
We now have an event team who will assist in our meetings which will oversee the September 17 meeting with Our Oklahoma Supreme Court Chief Justice. Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft will be our guest in November.
In 2026, we will conduct weekly meetings in the spring, from February to May, in an effort to provide meaningful content for our legislators.
See the full details under my picture below: | | SEND THIS NEWSLETTER TO A FRIEND HERE. | | MAY 21 MEETING: GOVERNOR KEVIN STITT | | Kevin Stitt's Full Presentation here
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THE ARIA SINGERS Sing God Bless America | | ARIA here
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JESSE LEON RODGERS CITY ELDERS | | Jesse Rodgers here
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WADE BURLESON MEMORIAL DAY TRIBUTE
BOB LINN SABBATICAL | | Wade Burleson: Oklahoma and WWII here
Wade Burleson: Summer Sabbatical for Bob Linn here
Full Meeting here ________ | | FOR THE FIRST TIME . . . GOVERNOR KEVIN STITT MEETS THE MAN HE PARDONED: NATHAN GORMLEY | | The first meeting: Governor Stitt & Nathan Gormley here
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BOB LINN ANNOUNCES FALL SCHEDULE 2025 | | SEPTEMBER 17 WEDNESDAY NOON Supreme Court Chief Justice Justin Rowe
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RUSSELL PERRY & DR. SWAIN CLOSE MEETING by ENCOURAGING YOUNG PEOPLE | | Watch the presentation here.
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