If “imitation is the best form of flattery,” then I hope what follows is perceived as my deepest respect and support for Holocaust remembrance in 2023. Halogaist is a new word to describe the atrocities committed under Socialism/Communism (S/C) in the last century. The word comes from the Welsh language and it means something close to corrupt, perverse, or defiled – fitting for S/C ideology. By coining the concept of Halogaist we double down on “never forget,” to teach the common roots of the twin evils of the 20th century and work to prevent them from happening again.
Holocaust and Halogaist are rooted in the same diabolical attempt to design a new human and a new utopia. Hitler wanted to create a new super race by assembling and preserving “the most valuable racial elements.” [1] Lenin and his S/C revolution proposed to create the “new Soviet man” [2] as the basis of a new society. The specifics of the Holocaust and Halogaist are unlikely to be repeated in the same way, but it is important to learn the subtle patterns by which tyranny replaces freedom and self-determination. We seek to learn, “how do people lose their freedom?”
At Memento Park in Budapest, Hungary, there is a S/C era statue of “the perfect ideology;” a perfect sphere held up by two cupped hands. The trouble is the sphere and the hands holding it are rusted and falling apart. A fitting metaphor, I think, for the failure of the ideology that produced it. In lieu of a perfect or universal philosophy, we’d do well to remember the line from Hamlet: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your/our philosophy.” The pretense of a perfect ideology is the root number one of both the Nazi and the S/C tyrannies of the last century.
The S/C and Nazi ideologies have been proven beyond vapid, they have proved to be downright evil by their outcomes. The numbers are staggering! About 25 million deaths are attributed to the Nazi regime and 85-100 million deaths to the combined S/C regimes in Russia, China, and their sphere of dominance. [3] This is roughly one-third the population of the US today. Imagine the creativity, the progress, the care, and the human potential lost; not to mention the misery – it is incalculable.
Some wish us to forget, but we must not. When I brought up the idea of a Halogaist Video Archive (HAVA) to some relatives they laughed at me. “Why are we worrying about these people who are dead,” I was told. Others replied: “At least we all had jobs.” This is spoken by refugees, from people who have suffered and fled across borders to escape S/C. Today, they want to forget. This, I cannot stand. I have been inspired by Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation project, to capture the stories of dissidents and regular people who have suffered under S/C for 70 years. The idea started in 2017, and the Ukraine war provided the spark to start collecting the stories. Forgetting is the second enabler of tyranny.
A third enabler is a preoccupation with “minding my business,” or “why get involved?” This ethos is sometimes also summarized as: “don’t stand out,” or, “a bent head, the sword does not cut,” or “am I my brother’s keeper?” I have empathy for these positions, after all, good people just want to live and let live. They want to get by and take care of their families. They are not militant revolutionaries. It is not just fear, persecution, and imprisonment that keep us quiet, but comfort.
Dissidents I’ve interviewed saw the flaws in the prevailing ideology, remembered history, got involved, and eventually came to the point of losing their “fear of death.” Several Christian pastors (Iosif Ton, Iosif Sarac, etc.), wrote critiques of how churches were treated in S/C Romania in the ’60s and ’70s. Then, they wrote about fines for praying in homes, denied job promotions, and threats to students looking to go to university. Because they did not succumb to the general fear apparatus, they were beaten, interrogated, or sentenced to hard labor. Others, like Richard Wurmbrand and Ferenc Visky Sr., suffered prolonged prison sentences and deportations.
I, for one, am starting to lose my fears as well. More specifically and more immediately, I’m losing the fear of losing my job, the fear of losing my health insurance, and the fear of being ridiculed for speaking my mind. I will not bow down to group think, to uni-mind, or mob mentality. I’ve cowered in fear for half a lifetime – it’s time to stand up. Stand up to the useful idiots, the peddlers of folly, and the complacent and the comfortable.
America is struggling because it is flirting with the vapid and dangerous ideologies of the last century. We look to an almighty government to save us from every real and perceived threat. We busy ourselves with virtue signaling, self-loathing, canceling, outrage, entitlement, class warfare, counting other people’s money, quixotic pursuits, and the politicization of absolutely everything. Like much of 20th-century Europe, we are drunk on a cocktail of fear, pleasure or comfort, and success.
One striking solution from a formerly deported dissident goes like this: “Speaking of the love of God, the grace of God is the most anticommunist sentiment in existence.” Take that sobering cold shower for our inebriated state! The love and grace of God appear in the humble struggle between harsh reality and comforting nurture, between peace and truth, and between happiness and duty. If anybody promises one without the other, they are selling something.
This Holocaust Remembrance Day let’s commit to being discerning. Let’s pray for strength and wisdom from God to overcome personal pain and root out institutional corruption. Let’s be skeptical of idealogues who promise brighter futures, pleasure, comfort, and success if we just follow them. Let’s “nobly save, …, the last best hope of earth.”
Never forget!!!