Based on feedback, my last column — "Why is George Soros still allowed in this country?” — is my most popular to date. Because of this, I began thinking about other aspects related to Soros, particularly the recent campus protests and the events of Jan. 6th.
What’s the connection?
Many Republicans, conservatives and traditionalists look at the governmental and media reactions to Jan. 6, comparing them to media reactions surrounding the recent campus protests. They read stories about Soros giving money to these campus protest groups, recall how much money he’s given to President Joe Biden – as well as the number of times he’s visited the White House — and are left, at the very least, confused, but in more extreme cases, outraged.
“How can it be?” they ask, “that one group is held up for national ridicule, while the other, at least in the case of Soros, is regarded as something of a progressive saint, oft defended by high-profile media concerns, and presumably treated to exquisite state dinners and graced with our country’s most eminent presences?”
I don’t have an answer to these questions. However, I do think that such questions desperately need answering if our country is to survive in any form resembling that to which it’s been accustomed for its 248-year history.
I suspect that a defense of the above by a person of the left would go something like this: While George Soros might have given money (via his organizations, not him!) to some of the groups known to have destroyed property during the campus protests, he did not actually pay them to destroy the property, but likely gave them money for the purpose of supporting their broader agenda, which, at least ostensibly, did not include the destruction of property. Thus, Soros did not give money directly for the destruction of property. The Jan. 6 protesters, on the other hand, have no such legal deniability inherent in their actions. One can imagine leftist defenders folding their arms and smiling in satisfaction.
Yet this defense of Soros and the campus protests fails, particularly because it relies on complex legal maneuvering in a situation that is much more political than legal.
William of Occam, a 14th-century philosopher, had something to say about this. Known to history for his emphasis on simple argumentation, Occam thought that, when given the choice between long, wordy, complicated theories, overburdened with numerous points and counterpoints, and simpler, more elegant theories, the simpler arguments ought to be granted higher merit. Occam recognized that, given enough time and word space, a person could, in the words of Jim Garrison in the movie JFK, “prove that an elephant can hang off a cliff with its tail tied to a daisy.”
Yes, a clever wordsmith could prove this verbally, but in the end, hearts and minds wouldn’t be left changed so much as dizzy and confused. In sum, if too much time and wording is needed, the theory isn’t worth much. Put another way: the simplest explanation is usually the best.
I believe that any explanation mounted in defense of Soros is doomed to the kind of failure mentioned above. If it’s wrong for one political class to destroy public and private property, then it ought to be wrong for all political classes to do so. Hiding behind the legal system doesn’t make it right; it only means that the system isn’t working the way it should. Democracy is supposed to mean rule by the common man; if it is no longer understandable by the common man, then it is no longer democracy.
Soros is a nuisance, and it’s an abomination to free thought that he has managed to portray himself otherwise. For, if we know anything, it’s that the birth of the Open Society means the death of the existing one – through violent means, if necessary — and this alone is reason enough for me to say, once again, that Soros should not be allowed to operate politically in this country.
Along with his father, Allen Keller runs a lumber business in Stevenson, Alabama. He has a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Florida State University and an MBA from University of Virginia. He can be reached for comment at allen@kellerlumber.net.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News.
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