On honesty, Stalin’s killings, and Western intellectuals (anecdote)

Hollywood screenwriter Anna Louise Strong was basically a Communist propagandist. When in 1956 Khrushchev “revealed” Stalin’s crimes, Strong suffered a mental breakdown over the “betrayal.” Later she confessed:

“We knew all these things for twenty-five years, and I kept silent for the cause of socialism. What am I supposed to say?”

(Which I connect to next-generation Richard Rorty, who was a 25-year-old Leftist when Khrushchev gave his speech. Later Rorty would say: “I think that a good Left is a party that always thinks about the future and doesn’t care much about our past sins.”)

Not only Leftists rationalize dishonesty and forgetfulness in the face of evil, but theirs is a terrible track record.

Sources:

Tracy B. Strong and Helene Keyssar, Right in Her Soul: The Life of Anna Louise Strong, Random House, 1983, pp. 204, 283.

“A Conversation with Richard Rorty.” The Atlantic, 1998.

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