Summary: The New York Times, as usual, leads the way into the Crazy Years. They remind us that this is no joke, but a descent into madness – a betrayal of the dreams that motivated so many Americans for two centuries. It is a straw showing a wind blowing us into evil. Do not be deceived by their small steps into belief this is just life as usual.
Six years ago (and many times since) I predicted that we were entering the “Crazy Years”, as predicted by science fiction author Robert Heinlein in 1939 (see below). His start date was fifty years too early, but every day brings new evidence that he was correct – just early. The madness has spread beyond its initial base in academia. Now even the highest echelons of the news media are infected, as we see in this headline to an article by Bonnie Wertheim in yesterday’s New York Times.
“Overlooked No More: Valerie Solanas, Radical Feminist Who Shot Andy Warhol.”
“She made daring arguments in “SCUM Manifesto,” her case for a world without men.
But it was her attack on Warhol that came to define her life.”
Like many violent fanatics, Solanas played the “just kidding” card when caught by outsiders.
“{Shooting Andy Warhol} reduced her to a tabloid headline, but also drew attention to her writing, which is still read in some women and gender studies courses today. Solanas was a radical feminist (though she would say she loathed most feminists), a pioneering queer theorist (at least according to some) and the author of SCUM Manifesto, in which she argued for the wholesale extermination of men. {It} reads as satire, though Solanas defended it as serious. Its opening line is at once absurd and a call to arms for the coalition she was forming, the Society for Cutting Up Men …On the subject of reproduction, she wrote: ‘We should produce only whole, complete beings, not physical defects or deficiencies, including emotional deficiencies, such as maleness.’”
Ms. Wertheim explains that others on the Left admire Solanas and her daring advocacy of sexism, oppression, and mass murder.
“Solanas inspired fictional works, including an episode of “American Horror Story: Cult,” where she is played by Lena Dunham, and a 2019 novel by the Swedish author Sara Stridsberg, Valerie: or, The Faculty of Dreams, which won the Nordic Council Literature Prize and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. By Stridsberg’s account, Solanas was not erratic but measured, not murderous but tender, not insane but idealistic, even admirably so.
“But it was with the 2014 biography Valerie Solanas: The Defiant Life of the Woman Who Wrote SCUM (and Shot Andy Warhol) that a fuller picture of her life came to light. {See the NYT’s glowing interview with the author.} In it, the author, Breanne Fahs, writes about an exchange between Solanas and her friend Jeremiah Newton. Newton asked Solanas if her manifesto was to be taken literally. ‘I don’t want to kill all men,’ she replied. But, using an expletive, she added: ‘I think males should be neutered or castrated so they can’t mess up any more women’s lives.’”
I doubt the NYT’s woke staff would write approvingly of someone advocating these things be done to women or minorities. They have taken to heart to single commandment George Orwell gives in Animal Farm (slightly paraphrased).
All people are equal. But some are more equal than others.
The West has spent generations working to break humanity’s habits of discrimination by race and gender – present in almost every society, everywhere and everywhen. Now the Left has abandoned that, again adopting racism and sexism among their core beliefs – stocking hatred and factionalism. There always have been such people, such as those on the far right. But it has been over three-score years since large numbers marched in the streets advocating such things – with the major news media applauding. I have read the NYT for 30+ years. I canceled my subscription today.
Is this article a big event? No. It is just a staw in the wind, showing the trend of events. Worse will come unless we act. Evil cannot be defeated, only restrained. Now we allow its resurgence. Will we see a newspaper headline like this soon?
“He made daring arguments in Mein Kampf, his case for a world without Jews.
But it was his attack on the nations of Europe that came to define his life.”
Remember that Mein Kamph was not taken seriously in Europe until too late. Surely it was just political rhetoric to gain attention, an emotional reaction to the horrors of Germany’s defeat and the early years of the Weimar Republic. Evil sneaks into our souls during chaotic times.
About the “Crazy Years”
The great science fiction writer Robert Heinlein predicted the Crazy Years. He set the start date 50 years too early.
“The Crazy Years: Considerable technical advance during this period, accompanied by a gradual deterioration of mores, orientation, and social institutions, terminating in mass psychoses in the sixth decade, and the interregnum. …{then there are more phases} followed by the end of human adolescence and the beginning of {the} first mature culture.”
— From Robert Heinlein’s timeline of his future history stories; first published in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1940. This series was published as The Past through Tomorrow.
Crazy years are commonplace in human history. The 14th century were crazy years in Europe, brought about by massive social and political changes, plus natural catastrophes (e.g., plague and the onset of the Little Ice Age). For a vivid account of this time see Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (1978). The French called the 1920s the années folles (crazy years), the aftershock of WWI and massive social and political change. But humanity has experienced such great changes at such a fantastic rate. Of course we have become disoriented.
Contest
I will send a copy of Rome’s Last Citizen (see below) to those who post the best comments to this series of posts. I have ten copies. Only one book per winner. Decisions are purely subjective by the judges, based on the originality and quality of insights, plus supporting facts and analysis, of the comment.