When many people of the 21st century think of communist authoritarianism, they probably tend to think of the horrific genocidal regimes of dictators like Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot.  Their approaches to political dissidents and Marxist theory were blunt, and done in a quick fashion, so as to hasten the revolution and bring about their fictitious "utopia" much more quickly than non-authoritarian states.  Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, for instance, wasted no time in initiating the revolution, because as soon as the regime gained power in Cambodia, it went straight to work purging the cities and forcing its inhabitants into the country to work on agricultural projects, and then proceeded to summarily execute between 1 and 3 million Cambodians, including the most disfavored group: the intellectuals, whom those in power were able to recognize because they "wore glasses," in what became known as "the killing fields of Cambodia." 

Similarly, about a half century before, the Bolshevik regime, under V.A. Lenin, initiated what was known as the "Red Terror" against their political and class enemies, a campaign of murder against non-Bolsheviks (known as "the Whites") that resulted in up to 1.3 million deaths between 1918 and 1921.  This approach was simple, to the point, and expedient, but it left a trail of death and destruction that some future communists, particularly communists in Western nations, sought to steer clear of.

In the race between the Tortoise and the Hare, Lenin and Pol Pot were the Hare.  What modern Marxists have come to realize, however, is that the Tortoise, the one who took the "slow and steady" approach to the race, ultimately won.  That is why the current slow-rolling communist revolution going on in the United States today will not, and does not, involve mass murder, Gulags, and manufactured famines. 

See, the Marxists of the 21st century have learned their lessons from the revolutions of the 20th century.  The Marxist revolutionaries of today are taking the Tortoise's approach to the race toward revolution and communist "utopia."  They are, and have been since the 1960s, doing a "long march through the institutions," where they hope to fundamentally and radically transform society over a long period of time through the culture.  After all, politics, the politics of the revolution, is downstream of culture.

At present, the left has successfully captured nearly every major institution of society.  Instead of sending political dissidents to Gulags or re-education camps, they instead send themselves and the champions of the cultural revolution to, say, Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity training seminars, where they engage in Maoist-style "struggle sessions" between and among the various races of employees.

They have all the employees "of color" air their grievances against the white employees, or all the white employees "admit" their "racist" attitudes or beliefs to the "people of color," all of whom they are trying to indoctrinate as "oppressed" and "oppressor."  According to critical race theorists, who view all human interactions and structures of society through a lens of power dynamics and systems of oppression (just as Karl Marx did, except through the lens of class and economics), white people "dominate" society and the institutions of it, and have "cultural hegemony," which results in the various "people of color" being "oppressed" by them.

Modern Marxists believe that if passive-aggressive activities like this are done long enough, with enough intensity and commitment, then indoctrination will result, and a revolution will not have to be forced onto society.  The revolution will instead occur naturally because an eager and brainwashed populace wants it to happen, and has been taught that it must happen. 

Not a single shot will have to be fired to achieve this revolution, because the culture, after a long enough period of time, will embrace the ideology of the revolution and bring about its goals of its own accord.  The left is playing the long game.  That is why leftists are teaching Critical Race Theory and Comprehensive Sexuality Education and using Social-Emotional Learning strategies in schools, all of which are rooted in neo-Marxist critical theory.

The left knows that it will take but one generation of students indoctrinated into Marxist dogma to foment a cultural revolution.  The revolution, necessarily, in this case, would not be violent, or even contentious, because once an entire generation is uniform in thought and has no opposition to speak of, they can implement their agenda with complete impunity.  The left is not betting on a turbulent revolution in the present; it is betting on a gradual and peaceful revolution in the future. 

You may dismiss out of hand, for instance, the fact that R.L. Stine's children's book series Goosebumps is currently being edited, without his permission and while he is still alive, to remove "problematic" or potentially "offensive" language.  You may view it as just another example of excessive leftist political correctness or wokeness, which it is.  However, this seemingly trivial matter is also part of the long-term game plan of the leftist cultural revolution.  If the left can control what children think in something as simple as an entertaining book, and can teach them that certain ideas are off-limits, some thoughts are good and others evil, then how much easier will it be to control them once they get into high school...or once they become adults?  If the children were themselves censored when they were in school, then naturally they would continue the cycle of censorship of "bad" or "dangerous" ideas in the future.  And the best part, for them, is that any dissidents who may exist won't have to be massacred in a rice field or tortured to death in a Gulag.  They can simply silence them forever by not giving them a voice in society, or not hiring them to a job, in the name of "equity."

This is also the kind of thinking behind Environmental, Social, and Governance metrics.  The leftist revolutionaries don't need to blow up oil pipelines or force people into cities the way Pol Pot forced city-dwellers into the countryside.  All they need to do is set up a framework in the institutions that makes it impossible for people to live any other way than the "sustainable" way.  All the left has to do is get a compliant puppet like Joe Biden elected to the presidency, where leftists can advise him to shut down an oil pipeline in Alaska and two more in the Gulf of Mexico, and then claim that the reason they did it was a "'lack of industry interest in leasing in the area.'"  Why might the industry have a "lack of interest" in the project?  Could it be because banks refuse to loan money because the project doesn't align with the "Environmental" ESG goals?  The left knows that all it has to do to further its "climate change" crusade and holy mission is to extort, bully, and intimidate the private sector into making anything that the left deems "harmful" impossible to achieve or the federal government into making it illegal.

No, the left does not have to be the Hare anymore.  It knows that it can achieve its revolution by going "slow and steady," like the Tortoise.  It was the Tortoise who ultimately won the race.

Image via Flickr, public domain.