HT Rogan Hazard I think its very instructive to examine the true history, the history that is being ignored or glossed over by the mainstream press, of Pete Seeger. While he is being lauded in death as some sort of idealist, the truth is that the man was an advocate of totalitarianism, the ultimate political evil. Why is this so hard for some people to face? Why do some people persist in wanting to ascribe benevolence to someone who was unremittingly evil? Thats a rhetorical question, because the answer is obvious to anyone not actively evading reality. From the article: Roche vividly recalled how American Stalinists suddenly flipped on the issue of Nazi Germany after the Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939 brought the two former adversaries together. “Stalinists acclaimed this treaty as the high point of 20th century diplomacy,” Roche wrote in 1979. He vividly recalled “the laudatory speech” that the future congresswoman Bella Abzug gave in support of the pact at Hunter College in 1940. The next year, Pete Seeger, a member of the Young Communist League, lent his support for the effort to stop America from going to war to fight the Nazis. The Communist-party line at the time was that the war between Britain and Germany was “phony” and a mere pretext for big American corporations to get Hitler to attack Soviet Russia. The album Seeger and his fellow Almanac Singers, an early folk-music group, released was called “Songs for John Doe.” Its songs opposed the military draft and other policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Franklin D, listen to me, You ain’t a-gonna send me ’cross the sea. You may say it’s for defense That kinda talk ain’t got no sense. Just one month after the album was released, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. The album was quickly withdrawn from circulation, and Seeger and his buddies immediately did a 180-degree turn and came up with new songs: Now, Mr. President You’re commander-in-chief of our armed forces The ships and the planes and the tanks and the horses I guess you know best just where I can fight . . . So what I want is you to give me a gun So we can hurry up and get the job done!
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 15:30:15 +0000
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