Demonic
The stabbed-in-the-back theory was easy to implant because when World War I ended, there were no foreign troops on German soil. Having no firsthand experience of the devastation of war, Germans weren’t particularly averse to it. (In that sense, they were like modern liberals who have no idea what it’s like to be physically attacked, and are therefore not particularly exercised when it happens to conservatives.)
A contrary theory was tried on the Germans in World War II, when the Allies announced that they would accept nothing but “unconditional surrender” from the Axis powers. By the time Germany surrendered, Allied troops had seized control of every part of the country.
This time, they got the message. Germany has been as peaceful as a lamb since then—other than during World Cup soccer season. It’s always a liberating moment when you realize some timeworn shibboleth was just a cockamamie liberal idea that’s been repeated so often even you believed it.
Japanese kamikazes were pretty fanatical, too. Who would have imagined the architects of the Pearl Harbor attack were governable? Two well-placed nuclear bombs put an end to the legendary Japanese belligerence.
Similarly, Russian tsars are criticized for overreacting to peaceful protests in 1905 by firing on the crowd—which historians claim led immediately to the revolution of 1910 (leaving the question of how “immediate” it was with a five-year time lapse). Another view is that the tsars shut down the mobs quite effectively in 1905 but compromised with the mobs when they rose again in 1910, and that it was the appeasement the second time around—not what had happened five years earlier—that was ineffective.
By the time Nixon became president of the United States, it was almost too late for this country. But the mob knew Nixon wouldn’t tolerate riots. Even after the butterfingered Weathermen blew up some of their own, they kept setting bombs. That didn’t stop them. But the shooting at Kent State shut down campus riots pretty quickly.
The same was true for New York City when Rudy Giuliani was elected mayor. In a city that had been a criminal bacchanal, he enforced a “zero tolerance” policy toward crime, arresting every turnstile jumper—to the evident displeasure of the New York Times. Within a few years, the “ungovernable city” was the safest big city in the country and property values went through the roof.
Napoleon said that if only King Louis XVI had shown any force against the revolutionaries, “victory would have been his.”14 Would you worry more about someone who hates your guts, or someone who hates your guts and has just had the crap beaten out of him? With liberals, as with Muslim terrorists, it’s more important that they fear you than they like you.
It is the rare individual who does not succumb to horrendous physical pain. Unfortunately, benign and advanced civilizations generally lack the will to apply it.
Tranquil, law-based societies are the most vulnerable to attack because those with an interest in defending it are calmly following the law. They don’t like disorder even in defense of order. But as Evelyn Waugh said, barbarism “is never finally defeated.” And if our present society falls, he warned, “we shall see not merely the dissolution of a few joint-stock corporations, but of the spiritual and material achievements of our history.”15
Republicans are the party of peaceful order; Democrats are the party of noisy, violent mobs. Republicans would do well to remember that George Washington sent troops to crush the Whiskey Rebellion. Abraham Lincoln used the U.S. military to squash racist—and Democrat-led—riots in New York City. This nation’s heroes knew what Louis XVI did not: A mob cannot be calmly reasoned with; it can only be smashed.
When faced with a mob, civilized society’s motto should be: Overreact!
APPENDIX
Prosecutor Elizabeth Lederer (Q): Where did you go?
McCray (A): We went to Central Park.
Q: Where did you go in Central Park?
A: We went, um, we went to 110th Street.
Q: And what did you do when you got to 110th Street?
A: We got to 110th Street, we went up the hill in Central Park, you know? We was on the road.
Q: What happened next?
A: We was walking, then we seen a bum.
Q: You saw a bum?
A: Yeah.
Q: What did you do when you saw the bum?
A: We let him pass by, and then this kid with three gold caps grabbed him, threw him on the ground.
Q: How did he grab him?
A: By the, by the shirt.
Q: He grabbed him and threw him on the ground?
A: Yes.
Q: And what did everybody else do?
A: Everybody started kicking him and hitting him.
Q: Did you start kicking him and hitting him?
A: I hit him.
Q: Where?
A: In the chest.
Q: With your hand?
A: My hand.
Q: So you hit him with your hand in the chest. Was he already on the ground when you hit him?
A: I hit him like once, twice.
Q: What happened when you got to the tennis court?
A: We was at the tennis court and then we seen this lady, jogging lady, she had on blue shorts and a white shirt, she was jogging and everything, we was gonna let her go but then we just grabbed her.
Q: Where did you wait?
A: Behind the trees, on the grass, a couple of us.
Q: Right next to the path around the reservoir?
A: Yes.
Q: And everybody sort of hid?
A: Yeah.
Q: What happened as she came closer?
A: That’s when we all charged her.
Q: Did you charge her?
A: Yes.
Q: What happened when you charged her?
A: We charged her, we got her on the ground, everybody started hitting her and stuff, she was on the ground, everybody stompin’ and everything. Then we got each, I grabbed one arm, some other kid grabbed one arm and we grabbed her legs and stuff. Then we all took turns getting on her, getting on top of her.
Q: Did you hit her?
A: Yes, kicked her.
Q: Where did you kick her?
A: I don’t know, just kicked her, I felt it, just kicked her, it was like a whole bunch of us.
Q: Who else kicked her?
A: Um, um, Kevin [Richardson, another defendant], um, all of us.
Q: That tall thin black guy I was asking you about, did you see him hit her in the ribs?
A: I heard it. I heard it.
Q: What did you hear?
A: It sounded like when you get hit in your chest. Sounded like that.
Q: Was she screaming, is that how you could tell she was being hit?
A: She wasn’t screaming. She was hurt, though. She wasn’t screaming.
Q: How could you tell she was hurt?
A: ’Cause she was lying there.
Q: First you knocked her down, then you started hitting. Did anybody have a weapon?
A: Yeah, a black pipe [indicates it was more than a foot long].
Q: A little less than two feet?
A: About two feet, I guess.
Q: And was it a stick or a pipe?
A: A pipe.
Q: Who had that pipe?
A: At first, I don’t really know but I think the tall black kid had the pipe. I don’t know.
Q: Did you see what he did with the pipe?
A: No, I just heard it. He got off of her and she got hit again with the pipe in the head, then …
Q: Was she standing up?
A: No, she was on the ground and then we left.
Q: Well, let’s go back for a second, when she was on the ground and you said that you kicked her. Were other people also kicking and hitting her?
A: Yes.
Q: How many times did you kick her?
A: I kicked her like twice.
Q: When you were kicking her, were other people kicking and hitting her?
A: Um-hum.
Q: Was that before or after she was hit with th
e pipe?
A: Before.
Q: Was she still moving at that point?
A: She was just turning her head, stuff like that, she was moving.
Q: How many times was she hit with the pipe?
A: Twice, in the side and in the head.
Q: You heard her?
A: I heard her get hit in the ribs.
Q: Did you see her get hit in the head?
A: I heard it, not only, I seen it.
Q: Who did it?
A: The tall, black kid.
Q: After she was hit in the head with the pipe, did somebody take her clothes off?
A: Yeah.
Q: Who took her clothes off?
A: One of us, not one of us, I let her arms go?
Q: Were you holding her arms?
A: Yeah.
Q: Were you holding them over her head or to the side?
A: I had her like this.
Q: Was she trying to pull her hand away?
A: Um-hum.
Q: Was somebody holding her other hand? Who?
A: This kid, Puerto Rican kid.
Q: Was somebody holding her feet?
A: Yeah.
Q: Who?
A: I don’t know.
Q: Did somebody take her clothes off?
A: Yes.
Q: What was she wearing?
A: I think a white T-shirt, something like that.
Q: Who took off her shirt?
A: The tall black kid.
Q: Who took off her pants?
A: I think it was him.
Q: Did somebody have sex with her?
A: Yeah.
Q: Did a lot of people have sex with her?
A: Yeah.
Q: Who was the first person to get on top of her?
A: The tall black guy.
Q: Did he take his pants off or just open his fly? What did he do?
A: He didn’t take down his pants.
Q: By this point, though, she wasn’t dressed anymore, right? Her pants were off?
A: Yeah.
Q: Did you touch her breasts?
A: No.
Q: Did somebody else get on top of her then?
A: He grabbed one of her arms, this other kid got on top of her.
Q: Who was that?
A: This Puerto Rican guy.
Q: Did you have your fly open?
A: Yeah, but my penis wasn’t in her.
Q: What happened?
A: I just like, my penis wasn’t in her. I didn’t do nothing to her.
Q: When you got on top of her, you got on top of her so you could have sex with her, right?
A: Not really, I was just doing it so everybody, so … I didn’t do anything.
Q: You said you were doing it so everybody what?
A: Everybody would just like, would know I did it.
Q: When you got on top of her, you had your penis out of your pants?
A: Yes.
Q: And it was between her legs?
A: No.
Q: It was against her?
A: Yeah.
Q: Did you rub against her?
A: Yeah.
Q: Did you have an erection?
A: No.
Q: How long did you do that for?
A: I don’t know, a couple of minutes.
Q: What happened after Kevin was done?
A: Then we left her then, then this guy hit her in the head. Then we left.
Q: Who hit her?
A: I don’t know. I just, the pipe, I think the tall skinny kid.
Q: After you were all done, somebody still hit her in the head?
A: Yeah.
Q: She wasn’t moving anymore by this time, was she?
A: No.
Q: What did you do then?
A: We all left.
Q: Where did you go?
A: We was walking down, down to the reservoir and then we seen a jogger.
Q: Who was that?
A: He had on a green army jacket, some pants and he had on a Walkman.
Q: And he was running?
A: Um-hum.
Q: What happened when you saw him?
A: We was gonna let him go ’cause we thought he was a cop, he was jogging kind of slow. We was gonna let him go.
Q: Did you catch him?
A: Yeah.
Q: When you saw him, what happened?
A: We thought it was a police officer, so we were gonna let him go, he said something smart.
Q: You said you were going to let him go, did somebody grab him first?
A: Nah, we was gonna let him pass by and he said something smart.
Q: What did he say?
A: I don’t know. I know he said something smart, though.
Q: When he said whatever he said, what did it mean to you?
A: He was acting like he was bad.
Q: So that pissed you off?
A: No.
Q: Somebody else?
A: Yeah, and then when we let him go and he said something.
Q: OK, so he goes by and he says something to try and sound bad, what did you guys do then?
A: We came, and this kid with a pullover, goose-down jacket, he grabbed him and threw him down, and that’s when we all started charging him.
Q: What were you all doing to him?
A: Kicking, punching him.
Q: Did you kick him?
A: Yes.
Q: Did anybody have a weapon?
A: That pipe.
Q: The tall black guy, did he hit him with the pipe?
A: Yeah, we didn’t hit him in the head.
Q: Where did he hit him?
A: The back and the legs and then, like, it kinda slipped out, right? And I hit him in the leg, and I think somebody was hitting him with a piece of wood over the head, ’cause it hit Steve in the leg, and he got hurt.
Q: Where did it hit him in the leg?
A: I don’t know, like down here, like on the shin or something.
Q: And what did you do when you got home?
A: I told my mother we was playing tag and that’s why I was so dirty.
Q: When you guys went into the park, what were you going into the park for?
A: Just to have fun.
Q: Did you have a good time?
A: Nah, not when we was getting chased.
Q: Before you got chased?
A: Not when we was hitting that man, and everything wasn’t fun then.*
*“Emily Sachar Jogger Jury Sees a Confession,” Newsday (New York), July 19, 1990.
NOTES
ONE. THE LIBERAL MOB
1. Erik Durschmied, The Blood of Revolution: From the Reign of Terror to the Rise of Khomeini (Arcade Publishing, 2002), 30.
2. George Monbiot, “Why the Police Provoke Crowds,” The Guardian (London), June 20, 1996.
3. “Hay Festival: George Monbiot Calls for Citizen’s Arrest of John Bolton,” Guardian Unlimited, May 25, 2008.
4. Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (Dover, 2002) (1895), 69.
5. Ibid., 74.
6. Ibid., 77–78.
7. Ibid., 21–22.
8. Live With Cenk Uygur, MSNBC, February 22, 2011.
9. Live With Cenk Uygur, MSNBC, February 23, 2011.
10. See, e.g., Baird Helgeson, “In Pension and Benefits, Wisconsin Tops Minnesota,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, February 24, 2011.
11. See, e.g., Jake Tapper, “Obama Says Republicans Cannot Have the Keys Back to the Car: ‘No! You Can’t Drive,’ ” ABC News’s Political Punch, May 13, 2010.
12. Kenneth P. Vogel, “Wall Street Invested Heavily in Obama,” Politico, January 20, 2009.
13. Barack Obama (D): “Top Contributors,” OpenSecrets.org, available at http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid 00009638.
14. Carl Hulse, “The Blackout: Legislation,” New York Times, August 16, 2003.
15. Paul Krugman, “Clueless in Crawford,” New York Times, August 13, 2002.
16.
Paul Krugman, “The Ascent of E-Man R.I.P.: The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,” Fortune, May 24, 1999, available at http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/05/24/
260257/index.htm (“the company’s pride and joy is a room filled with hundreds of casually dressed men and women staring at computer screens and barking into telephones, where cubic feet and megawatts are traded and packaged as if they were financial derivatives”).
17. Le Bon, 30–31.
18. Ibid., 26.
19. Ibid., 26.
20. Al Gore, Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (paperback) (Rodale Books, 2006), 325–26. (“[I]t ought to be possible to establish a coordinated global program to accomplish the strategic goal of completely eliminating the internal combustion engine over, say, a twenty-five-year period.”)
21. See generally, Michael Fumento, “Why the Media Miss the Stem-Cell Story,” Citizen Magazine, May 2005, available at http://www.fumento.com/biotech/stem-cell-story.html.
22. Matthew 27; Luke 23.
TWO. AMERICAN IDOLS: THE MOB’S COMPULSION TO CREATE MESSIAHS
1. Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (Dover, 2002) (1895), 38.
2. Ibid., 21–22.
3. Ibid., 30–31.
4. Ibid., 30.
5. Lance Morrow, “Why Is This Man So Popular?,” Time, July 7, 1986 (quoted in Brent Baker, Tim Graham, Rich Noyes, and Jessica Anderson, “Ronald Reagan: The 40th President and the Press: The Record,” Media Research Center, June 14, 2004, available at http://www.mediaresearch.org/specialreports/2004/report0604_p1.asp).
6. Eleanor Clift on The McLaughlin Group, July 12, 1992; on Inside Politics, CNN, July 10, 1992; and on The McLaughlin Group, July 4, 1992 (quoted in “Newsweek Removes Noted Clinton Sycophant from the White House Beat,” MediaWatch, Media Research Center, October 1994).
7. “Gregory Craig Urges Country to Move Beyond Juanita Broaddrick Allegation,” Larry King Live, CNN, March 10, 1999.
8. Jonathan Alter, “President Best Friend,” Newsweek, November 16, 1992.
9. Howard Fineman, “The New Age President,” Newsweek, January 25, 1993.
10. “Media’s Friends of Bill,” Notable Quotables, Media Research Center, August 3, 1992 (quoting Peter Jennings during ABC convention coverage, July 15, 1992).