At present, America is a cesspool of hedonism, post-modernist thought, violence, hypocrisy, totally inauthentic virtue-signalling, and narcissism. A few weeks ago I wrapped up Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment", and was startled by the character "Lebezniatnikov", who is a carbon-copy of today's Millenial college student!
And when I say "carbon copy", I mean it in very specific ways-- so specific that it's like ticking through a list of Cultural Marxist talking points, as if somehow Dostoevsky traveled forward in time to 2019 America, watched for a few days, then went back to his own time-- 1860's Russia!-- and reproduced the dysfunction in his novel.
My next step is to figure out what was happening in Russia at that time, and what came after. I know that the Bolsheviks rolled into town and started the country's eighty or ninety year reign of abject Socialist terrorism-- but that wasn't until thirty or forty years after "Crime and Punishment" was published; what happened in between?
In any event lest you, dear reader, think I'm exaggerating the similarities of the times, I've reproduced a selection of passages, which form a conversation the Antifa BLM fellow was having with his friend, who was rightfully mocking him regarding his views. All bold emphasis is mine:
"He found him incredibly inattentive and irritable, though he, Andrey Semyonovitch, began enlarging on his favorite subject, the foundation of a new special 'commune'... but the 'humane' Andrey Semyonovitch ascribed Pyotr Petrovitch's ill-humor to his recent breach with Dounia and he was burning with impatience to discourse on that theme. He had something progressive to say on the subject which might console his worthy friend and 'could not fail' to promote his development."
Right from the get-go we see that Andrey Semyonovitch Lebezniatnikov is a radical, hardcore Socialist. Sounding familiar already? His job in the world as he sees it is to "promote" the "development" of those around him. Leftist in-your-face preaching? Who'd have thunk it. Let's continue with him talking:
"You don't understand; I used to think indeed, that if women are equal to men in all respects, even in strength (as is maintained now), there ought to be equality in that, too. Of course, I reflected afterward that such a question ought not really to arise, for there ought not to be fighting and in the future society fighting is unthinkable... and that it would be a queer thing to seek for equality in fighting. I am not so stupid... though, of course there is fighting... there won't be later, but at present there is... confound it! How muddled one gets with you!"
A familiar theme indeed: that women and men are totally identical, and that all differences in outcome are due to "societal fighting" and "inequality". And that in some kind of "future world", no one will fight, even as the character himself is doing so. The cognitive dissonance is hitting him so hard even as he speaks, that he becomes flabbergasted. Very familiar! Let's resume:
"Certainly not insult, but protest. I should do it with a good object. I might indirectly assist the cause of enlightenment and propaganda. It's a duty of every man to work for enlightenment and propaganda... I might drop a seed, an idea... and something might grow up from that seed... they might be offended at first, but afterward they'd see I'd done them a service."
Does this sound like CNN's Jim Acosta, or what? It's the mainstream media's job-- no, duty!-- to use propaganda to "enlighten" the people. Same with people who make movies, TV shows, or video games. And to what end? Why, radical Leftism of course: no family unit, no countries (open borders!), no privacy (we'll get to that), but behind closed doors it's all Harvey Weinstein:
"You know, Terebyeva (who is in the community now) was blamed when she left her family and... devoted... herself, she wrote to her father and mother that she wouldn't go on living conventionally and was entering on a free marriage and it was said that that was too harsh... I think that's all nonsense and there's no need of softness; on the contrary, what's wanted is protest."
A thot abandons her family and children because she wants to ride the cock carousel? Why was she blamed? It's society's fault, not hers! More:
"Varents had been married seven years, she abandoned her two children, she told her husband straight out in a letter: 'I have realized that I cannot be happy with you. I can never forgive you that you have deceived me by concealing from me that there is another organization of society by means of communities.'... That's how letters like that ought to be written!"
Boy is this one familiar: "I cheated, but it's my man's fault that I did it." The other character in the conversation engages in some ribbing:
"Is that Terebyeva the one you said had made a third free marriage?"
Our social justice warrior becomes flustered again, even going so far as to herald prostitution as a noble act, even though it's by definition a strong independent womyn who don't need no man slutting herself out in the most disgusting, degrading, personal way possible for a few rubles:
"No, it's only the second, really! But what if it were the fourth, what if it were the fifteenth, that's all nonsense!
As to Sofya Semyonovna personally, I regard her action as a vigorous protest against the organization of society, and I respect her deeply for it; I rejoice indeed when I look at her!"
As to Sofya Semyonovna personally, I regard her action as a vigorous protest against the organization of society, and I respect her deeply for it; I rejoice indeed when I look at her!"
His opponent is having none of it, ribbing once again:
"I was told that you got her turned out of these lodgings."
Admits it, but tries to explain it away:
"Lebezniatnikov was enraged. 'That's another slander... I was simply developing her, entirely disinterestedly, trying to rouse her to protest... and Sofya Semyonovna could not have remained here anyway!'"
His opponent hits the nail on the head: he was grooming her for sex!
"And you, of course, are developing her... he-he! Trying to prove to her that all that modesty is nonsense?"
A hilarious "defense":
"Not at all, not at all... setting aside the general question of chastity and modesty as useless in themselves and indeed prejudices, I fully accept her chastity with me, because that's for her to decide. Of course, if she were to tell me herself that she wanted me, I should think myself very lucky..."
Hah, "of course if she did happen to want to sleep with me because I'd been brainwashing her, who would I be to say no?" On to another one... deep state much?
"Now I am explaining [to Sofya] the question of coming into the room in the future society."
A sardonic response:
"And what's that, pray?"
No right to privacy:
"We had a debate lately on the question: Has a member of the community the right to enter into another member's room, whether man or woman, at any time... and we decided that he has!"
Oh! Just decided that! That's all it takes! And I guess it's his duty to engage in propaganda to "enlighten" others that what's theirs is his-- even their most intimate moments, like Google and Amazon spying on people having sex with those 1984-like, always-on in-home speaker systems?
But we're not done yet: what about kids? Any of this sound familiar?
"Children? You referred to children. Children are a social question and a question of first importance, I agree; but the question of children has another solution. Some refuse to have children altogether, because they suggest the institution of the family..."
As Hitlery would say, "it takes a village. And holy buckets does the "not having kids" point hit close to home-- straight out of any of America's present-day college campuses or "progressive" web sites. And to top things off, how is this for Leftist logic?
"When the deception is open, as in a free marriage, then it does not exist... I mean if I were to marry, legally or not, it's just the same, I should present my wife with a lover if she had not found one for herself if she had not found one for herself. 'My dear', I should say, 'I love you, but even more than that I desire you to respect me. See!' Am I not right?"
"If we 'decriminalize' crossing the border illegally, then there will be no more illegal immigrants! Hurr durr." And what about the unbelievable parallel with the cucking! It reminds me of this.
There is also another scene in the novel where the enlightened, women-loving Lebezniatnikov beats up his own land lady in a dispute-- but I haven't reproduced that in this post. I bring that up to illustrate the the parallels don't end with the above.