tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5352536197106136774.post911040626002165716..comments2023-10-28T05:08:25.942-05:00Comments on Lunch Break: Esto Vir! Be a Man!John Jansenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08241558776415884637noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5352536197106136774.post-20444075644879904832008-06-26T20:16:00.000-05:002008-06-26T20:16:00.000-05:00You know what? In 1975 there was one group of men...You know what? In 1975 there was one group of men who did talk to each other that way: Communists. I don’t mean New Left types; I mean the old heavy industry and Gulags, Marx/Lenin/Stalin style communists. In my early communist training, comrades would never hesitate to speak of duty, sacrifice, obligation. One was constantly to be on the alert against falling into “Bourgeois Deviations’ (such as loose sex, boozing, consumerism) or into “Petty Bourgeois Individualism” (basically the sin of pride). Refusing to have children (and make cadres for the revolution) was simply sexual consumerism, while abortion was the murder of unborn comrades. It was a keenly felt slight to be called a “slacker.” They may have been on the wrong track, but they were real men.<BR/><BR/>I think this is why I liked communism. My parents’ secularism held nothing for me. It demanded nothing, promised nothing of lasting value, and de-valued everything masculine. As Dr. King once said, “A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.”<BR/><BR/>Some five years ago, my ex-communist, now Catholic, buddy Scott gave a copy of The Way to my son. It became his favorite book and he made me read it.The Dutchmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15634052176803455348noreply@blogger.com