There are only five nations whose governments and economies resemble to any degree the communism preached by Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and their disciples.
They are China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam. Encyclopedia Britannica, with perhaps China and Vietnam in mind, notes that “their commitment to abolishing capitalism is debatable.”
That’s underscored clearly enough by the origin-of-product labels in stores in America and around the world.
With the fall of the Soviet Union and liberation of its satellites, communism became yesteryear’s war. Modern Russia is a menace, but it’s of a different sort that harkens to 19th century spheres of influence and imperialism.
Much like the tsars, Vladimir Putin is an authoritarian dictator whose interests lie with wealthy oligarchs rather than the general population.
The threat is authoritarianism
Authoritarianism in the service of oligarchy has replaced communism as a threat to democratic forms of government around the world. The United States is no exception.
But it’s hard to tell that from Florida’s elaborate new curriculum to teach public school students about the “dangers and evils of communism.”
This is educational malpractice, to be blunt.
It’s fighting the last war while ignoring the current one.
The standards, approved unanimously by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ State Board of Education, are shot through with propaganda points calculated to please every right-wing think tank and its corporate sponsors.
Absolute overkill
At the high school level, the Florida standards devote 30 pages to communism, and not nearly so many to any other subject.
One ulterior motive that critics rightly suspected is apparent in this language on page 148: “Identify propaganda and defamation utilized to delegitimize anti-communists and anti-communist movements.”
Examples include “using ‘McCarthyism’ as an insult and shorthand for all anti-communism.” And “slander against anti-communists, such as red-baiter and Red Scare.”
Slander? That’s an intentionally loaded word.
Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin was a reckless demagogue, eventually censured by the Senate in 1954. He cruelly ruined reputations by making false accusations against people without evidence.
“McCarthyism” is a perfectly valid description of people who still do that today. Florida’s standards are an overt whitewash.
The ulterior motive behind the standards is hard to miss in the comments of some of those responsible for it.
Speaking of Red Scare …
Board member Layla Collins — whose husband, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, sponsored the law requiring the standards to be developed and taught when he was a state senator — claimed that socialism and communism are “penetrating every avenue of our life and every aspect of our child’s education.”
That’s paranoid nonsense worthy of McCarthy himself. But it’s echoed in the curiously extensive standards pertaining to communist influences in the United States. You would hardly tell what a colossal failure they were.
We agree with Collins that it’s Florida’s responsibility “to make sure future generations can thrive and they learn how to think, not what to think.”
But page after page of the standards on communism read otherwise.
“Many of these new standards direct what students should think, rather than allowing them to use their critical thinking to understand different cultures, religions, economic philosophies and even countries,” said Carole Guaronskas, vice president of the Florida Education Association, in her comments to the Board of Education.
Many standards deal with Cuba and the Castro dictatorship, as one might expect in a Florida curriculum. They overdo it.
Where they’re weakest is in preparing students to understand how authoritarianism works and why it’s a clear and present danger to the U.S as well as South America and Western Europe.
The real threat
After talking to experts on the subject, the New York Times Editorial Board published 12 “markers” of what an authoritarian dictator does: stifling dissent and speech, persecuting political opponents, bypassing the legislature, using the military for domestic control, defying the courts, declaring national emergencies on false pretenses, vilifying marginalized groups, controlling information and the news media, trying to take over universities, creating a cult of personality, using power for personal profit and manipulating the law to stay in power.
Every one describes something that President Trump has done or is doing.
Yet the word “authoritarianism” appears only twice in the social studies standards while the word “communism” appears 60 times. Fascism and Nazism are hardly mentioned. Racism, which is far more of a problem in the United States, gets four mentions.
The rise of communism and the reasons for its failure to prevail around the world are essential elements of any proper education in history and social studies.
But they are not the whole story, no matter what Florida’s hyped curriculum would have students believe.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
