In his 1973 opus "The Gulag Archipelago," Russian novelist and historian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn relayed a story from a Soviet party conference during the rule of Joseph Stalin, noted dictator and late-night cinema enthusiast. The Communist leader had just given a rousing speech -- or at least I assume it was rousing, given what happened next:
"For three minutes, four minutes, five minutes, the stormy applause, rising to an ovation, continued. But palms were getting sore and raised arms were already aching," wrote Solzhenitsyn. "After all, the (secret police) were standing in the hall applauding and watching to see who would quit first!"
The story, and the applause, went on like that for 11 full minutes, until the owner of a local paper mill finally bit the bullet and took his seat, followed promptly by everyone else in the room. It was always wise to bring hand lotion any time Comrade Stalin was planning to take the podium.
I was reminded of Solzhenitsyn's yarn recently when all of cable TV was overtaken by the story of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, who found himself suspended indefinitely from football after a video surfaced showing him cold-cocking his fiancee in an Atlantic City elevator. No one, of course, lodged any sort of cogent defense of the player's actions, which is kind of where they get that word "indefensible."
But you would never have known it from watching the news coverage. On channel after channel, program after program, pundits were figuratively falling over each other to condemn spousal abuse more severely than the last guy. The conversation escalated from "Suspend Ray Rice!" to "Kick him out of the league for good!" to "Fire the commissioner!" to "If you enjoy watching football, you're basically a wife-beater."
A group of female senators even wrote a letter urging the NFL to adopt a "real zero-tolerance policy," which I can only assume involves a noose and McGruff the Extrajudicial Crime Dog in a white hood.
It was an echo chamber in which everyone kept shouting louder and more outlandish things for fear they'd be deemed soft on inter-sex assault if someone out-hyperboled them. And sure enough, that's exactly what happened. Fools who stopped clapping and kept their condemnation of Rice merely cursory were shamed across social media and respected journalism alike.
A man striking a woman is obviously wrong, both morally and legally. But once that's been stipulated, why shout at each other in agreement, escalating things until the bad guy is foisted upon a metaphorical pyre? Just because a witch-hunt is aimed at a real, actual witch doesn't necessarily make it righteous.
The undercurrent here is the same undercurrent behind Joe Stalin's 11-minute standing-O, and I would argue it's increasingly the same undercurrent behind much political thinking on the left. Many of those in the media believe it's no longer allowable to disagree with any tenant of liberal thought, not even in shades. It's why you can't doubt climate change without being a "denier," can't have your heart break over abortion statistics without being "anti-women," and can't express religious disagreement over gay marriage without being a "bigot."
There is but One, True Belief System, so all that's left to argue over is who can believe it the loudest.
At the conclusion of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's story, there is no happy ending, but that's par-for-the-course in a Communist country. The paper baron who had the gall to stop clapping was arrested shortly after the speech and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor. Right after he signed his interrogation-induced confession, the man's torturer told him, "Don't ever be the first to stop applauding."
Advice for the cold train to the Gulag.
"That was how they discovered who the independent people were," said Solzhenitsyn. "And that was how they went about eliminating them."
NATE STRAUCH IS A REPORTER AND COLUMNIST FOR THE SHERMAN-DENISON HERALD DEMOCRAT. HE WRITES A COLUMN FOR STEPHENS MEDIA.
Commentary on 09/19/2014