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Wednesday, January 04, 2006 |
Frank Wilkinson Dies At 91
Frank Wilkinson, an early opponent of the Red Scare and a key figure in the tussle preceding the creation of Dodger Stadium, has died at 91. Though he actually was a Communist, he was only too pleased to use the liberties granted by the American Constitution to shield him from the consequences of his puerile political beliefs. Considering that he favored a totalitarian form of government that surely would have jailed its opponents, I find it not a little ironic that he would hide his activities behind first the Fifth and then the First Amendments. Nonetheless, he deserves a certain, limited, and grudging amount of respect for chasing off the FBI for its spying efforts against him; considering the NSA has decided to engage in wholesale spying without benefit of court approval (even the rubber stamp of the FISA courts), his case is ever more relevant to our own era as we face a similarly power-mad executive branch.
Comments:
I saw the wonderful play "Chavez Ravine" about a year and a half ago at the ahmanson theatre, in which he was a central figure. I was lucky enough to be there the same day Mr Wilkinson attended. He had such a great spirit. Sad to see him go.
I find it not a little ironic that he would hide his activities behind first the Fifth and then the First Amendments.
I find it not at all ironic.
Did Wilkinson actually favor the jailing of opponents?
I don't want to defend or even offer an opinion on communism, but I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that Wilkinson dreamed of a more benign communism that also tolerates the voicing of political dissent, the same way many dream of a benign democracy or benign capitalism or benign whatever that also tolerates the voicing of political dissent.
In other words, just because he's a Communist, why shouldn't he be only too pleased to try to be free from political persecution? If democracy is great, this is why - to let these other voices be heard.
I find it not at all ironic.
Did Wilkinson actually favor the jailing of opponents?
I don't want to defend or even offer an opinion on communism, but I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that Wilkinson dreamed of a more benign communism that also tolerates the voicing of political dissent, the same way many dream of a benign democracy or benign capitalism or benign whatever that also tolerates the voicing of political dissent.
In other words, just because he's a Communist, why shouldn't he be only too pleased to try to be free from political persecution? If democracy is great, this is why - to let these other voices be heard.
Jon, let us not be kidding ourselves here. Whether he personally was in favor of jailing his opponents or not, that was the practice of the communists once they got into power. Or did Wilkinson -- with insane naïvete -- believe that people would simply surrender their property willingly and joyfully to join the collective? Communism is dictatorship -- show me where it is not, and was not at the time Wilkinson was around agitating for this same! At best, his political beliefs qualify him as one of what Lenin was alleged to call the "useful idiots"; at worst, he was willfully disingenuous. Either way, it's hard to take anyone endorsing communism in that era seriously. Evidence of the catastrophic results thereof were available, but too many people refused to believe it.
I'm not in the position of debating you on this, Rob, other than to say I'm fairly certain there were plenty of naive communists out there.
At least Wilkinson believed in something other than "might makes right" and "only the strong survive."
# posted by 
: 1/04/2006 10:08:00 AM
: 1/04/2006 10:08:00 AM
Jon -- that merely makes him a sucker, the same class of men who fall for the kind of cheap sentimentality that demands guys like Mike Edwards should start at third base.
Anon -- As an advocate of communism, I don't see how Wilkinson wasn't an advocate of those principles. He might have been kidding himself otherwise, but the reality on the ground was far different.
Anon -- As an advocate of communism, I don't see how Wilkinson wasn't an advocate of those principles. He might have been kidding himself otherwise, but the reality on the ground was far different.
Evidence of the catastrophic results thereof were available, but too many people refused to believe it.
Sounds familiar, don't it?
I gotta agree with Jon on this one, there's waaaayy too many folks who just don't want to see anything that might be bad about their chosen political belief. You can call 'em naive, or willfully ignorant, or just plain pig headed, but no matter the moniker, they exist. I think Wilkerson thought that most people *would* give up everything, if only someone explained things to them in the right way.
Sounds familiar, don't it?
I gotta agree with Jon on this one, there's waaaayy too many folks who just don't want to see anything that might be bad about their chosen political belief. You can call 'em naive, or willfully ignorant, or just plain pig headed, but no matter the moniker, they exist. I think Wilkerson thought that most people *would* give up everything, if only someone explained things to them in the right way.
Maybe he was. But then, maybe because I've never seen a guy offed by a high-powered rifle at close range, I should be allowed a free pass when I advocate the testing of the hypothesis that such a weapon discharged into a human being will kill said person.
Certainly, because the idealized version of communism is analagous to the idealized version of shooting a human being at close range.
Hey, maybe in my idealized universe, my only contact with guns involves cartoons starring Elmer Fudd.
Don't worry, the first amendment is next!
I'm a proponent of capitalism, but I'm also someone who's not entirely blind of the shortcomings of it. You can make a totalitarianist capitalist society, too.
I don't know enough about Mr. Wilkinson, but I think a lot of the red scare stuff has to do with former communists. And the fact that people who had been communists in the old days were union leaders and civil rights leaders etc. Easy targets who had gone to a couple of legal political meetings in their youth. I think that once upon a time in college I registered to vote communist just to peeve off my parents, and to prove to myself that I could without getting an FBI file, because surely my America wasn't the bad big brother America of old!
Actually I never got a confirmation back that I was registered communist, so I guess the cute commie chick never sent in the paperwork. Lazy communists.
Yeah, if he was still a communist post WWII he was an idiot.
Bruce
I'm a proponent of capitalism, but I'm also someone who's not entirely blind of the shortcomings of it. You can make a totalitarianist capitalist society, too.
I don't know enough about Mr. Wilkinson, but I think a lot of the red scare stuff has to do with former communists. And the fact that people who had been communists in the old days were union leaders and civil rights leaders etc. Easy targets who had gone to a couple of legal political meetings in their youth. I think that once upon a time in college I registered to vote communist just to peeve off my parents, and to prove to myself that I could without getting an FBI file, because surely my America wasn't the bad big brother America of old!
Actually I never got a confirmation back that I was registered communist, so I guess the cute commie chick never sent in the paperwork. Lazy communists.
Yeah, if he was still a communist post WWII he was an idiot.
Bruce
# posted by : 1/04/2006 06:16:00 PM
: 1/04/2006 06:16:00 PM
Rob, have you noticed that folks come to this blog to get away from discussing politics? what purpose does it serve to include the word "puerile" in your post, along with your Ayn Randian characterization of communism? Did you lose too many debates in poli-sci classes in college? I enjoy your blog a great deal and don't want you to feel I'm attacking you, but I'm just curious as to where your venom comes from...
# posted by : 1/05/2006 09:42:00 AM
: 1/05/2006 09:42:00 AM
Hey, Anon, wake me the hell up when free governments go around putting up posters saying, "Eating your children is an act of barbarism". Communism is barbarity; you may wish to think otherwise, and referring to Bruce's comment upthread, such evidence was available after the Russian famines in the 1920's! Randian? Who cares! Examine the evidence for once.
No, more like forty million people and possibly as many as 260 million. I find your tone stupefyingly incomprehensible; communism was one of the great plagues of the earth. I quote Scott Schuele:
The first day of my sophomore year history class the professor announced that we’d be reading The Communist Manifesto, and then he offered: “Stalin is not what Marx intended at all! That murderous tyrant has nothing to do with Communism!” Marx is innocent! And I, young and liberal and curious about Communist ideology, neither vomited nor screamed.
But the answer was clearly shrill and tear-choked: “So what? Marx’ intentions are of no comfort—none at all—to the victims of how many pogroms? How many gulags? How many disappearances and silences and starvations and complete sufferings? Damn his intentions, and damn yours! Look at the results, and then gouge out your eyes at what you’ve seen!”
The first day of my sophomore year history class the professor announced that we’d be reading The Communist Manifesto, and then he offered: “Stalin is not what Marx intended at all! That murderous tyrant has nothing to do with Communism!” Marx is innocent! And I, young and liberal and curious about Communist ideology, neither vomited nor screamed.
But the answer was clearly shrill and tear-choked: “So what? Marx’ intentions are of no comfort—none at all—to the victims of how many pogroms? How many gulags? How many disappearances and silences and starvations and complete sufferings? Damn his intentions, and damn yours! Look at the results, and then gouge out your eyes at what you’ve seen!”
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