Posted by
Dennis Pemberton on Monday, March 09, 2009 5:27:10 PM
One of the hallmarks of autocratic regimes is the way they rewrite history. Ernst Rohm was one of Hitler's ablest lieutenants, effusively praised, until he became inconvenient and was erased (both figuratively and literally). And Kremlin watchers from the Cold War and before remember the Communists' use of the airbrush as a political weapon. One minute, Molotov; a little airbrush and Molotove no more!
The NCAA's recent actions confirmed what Jonah Goldberg has written about in Liberal Fascism. Since Woodrow Wilson, the University has been a hotbed of Fascistic Socialism- the belief that one group of people, because of their progressivist intellect, are entitled to tell the rest of us what to do. And, because they are so enlightened, the apex of human intelligence, they are to a large extent exempt from old fashioned concepts like morality. Or history. So when the NCAA, made up of University Presidents who no doubt despise athletics even as it dumps millions into their coffers, decided this weekend to strip Florida State of victories already won, it was acting according to form and inclination. "Progressives" like nothing better than altering history, from FDR making the Depression longer than it had to be, to JFK being a civil rights martyr, to Barack Obama's leftist affiliations. So, by taking the airbrush to Florida State's victories, the NCAA is indulging in the fetishistic hobby of the elite- making our past disappear, so they can tell us what was, what is, and what will be.
And before you Gators chime in, remember... "First they came for the Seminoles, and I said nothing, for I was not a Seminole..."