The Eyes are the Windows of the Soul

Observing the plague of virulent Socialism and Marxism infecting America, I am reminded of my own youth in England and of a particular incident when I was but seventeen years of age, which both changed my life and my political outlook.

As we know, young people have always been – and certainly are today – filled with idealistic notions. That is good and is part of growing up. I certainly was idealistic and, not surprisingly, had automatically wished to assert my own ideas in opposition to those of my father. I loved him greatly, but he was a staunch member of the British Conservative party and so I foolishly chose – to his dismay – to join the left-wing and radically Socialist opposition Labour Party.

Now my father’s relatives being mostly working-class folks were all automatically wedded to Britain’s Labour Party that claimed to be for the workers. In fact, Communist ideas were front and center among so many Brits in the 1950’s and 60’s. The old Socialist song, “We’ll keep the Red flag flying here” was often sung along with the parading of the slogan; “Workers of the World Unite.”

Back now to that incident when I was about seventeen. I was getting off a double decker bus in my hometown. An elderly man was boarding the bus and he saw a lapel badge I was wearing. He asked what was written on it and I proudly and naively said, “Oh, it shows I’m a member of the Young Socialists.”

It was what I saw in the eyes of that elderly stranger that so profoundly shook me. The look was one of weary, even ageless despair, and I could not stop thinking about it. I later learned how many older people shared that same anguished look when similarly confronted by youthful ignorance and naivety. I also later learned of the horrific history of worldwide Marxist, Communist and Socialist state control and the vast numbers of hapless people who had died horribly under their heartless regimes.

I soon left the Young Socialists, outraged at what I had read. It was then that I grew up. I was comforted by Winston Churchill’s allegedly famous quote: “If a man is not a socialist when he is 20, he has no heart; If he is not a conservative by the time he is 40, he has no brain.” Of course, Churchill famously went on to also say the following:

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” Perhaps the greatest conservative successor to Winston Churchill in Britain was Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the daughter of a grocer, known as the iron lady and of whom it was said, ironically, that she was the only man in the Cabinet. She had pointed out that, “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

Here in our American towns and cities the Socialist youth today now go by names such as Antifa or Black Lives Matter. Unwittingly they are now the violent and very fascist heirs to Hitler’s thugs. even though they falsely preach with utter idiocy that they are anti-fascists.

Traditional temples of free thought, our Universities and Colleges, have now become academic gulags where only so-called progressive (aka regressive) speech is permitted. Watching them howl at any conservative speaker, should one show up to speak, and you will see the extent of the leftwing rot.

Of course, Communism in America never died. It simply changed its name. We now hear leftists calling themselves progressives when they are the “regressive” political plague of the 21st century.

In the nation’s universities or, what Michael Savage once called, “the universities of lower learning,” those rioting youth of the sixties are now ensconced as aged leftwing and Socialist tenured professors, spewing corrosive Marxist twaddle to the current crop of idealistic youth. The generations come and go, but students are now political fodder on an ever-fateful Socialist conveyor belt which works tirelessly to bring empty headed youth to unknowingly enable a Marxist revolution in America.

The left is divisive. Socialism separates people by class and by race. This is its powerful weapon of choice, along with its manufactured support of multi-gender identities as we march towards what may well be a most fateful coming general election in America’s history.

Conservatism eschews and disdains class, race or multiple gender identities. It prefers values of character, individuality, personal freedom, a love of America and its wondrous Constitution and the enduring bedrock of Judeo-Christian civilization.

I think back now with gratitude to that older man who long ago boarded that bus and whose eyes told me all I needed to know.

© 2023 Victor Sharpe. All rights reserved.

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