Take for college credit as independent study / directed research!
The Spider and the Fly: The False Allure of Communism
Social justice. Equality. A perfect future. These ideals have attracted followers since antiquity, but the game irrevocably changed with the publication of the Communist Manifesto in 1848. The propagation of these ideals was no longer left to chance. Instead, they were placed in the service of organized efforts to establish communist dictatorships in Soviet Russia and elsewhere, efforts that persist to this day (come closer, said the spider to the fly). The enduring ability to sell communism is really quite remarkable in light of the historical record (100 million corpses in 100 years). This applied history, psychology, and communications course provides a brief overview of communist ideology and history, then explores the ingenious methods by which communists continue to win popular support and gain political power. The course finishes with personal storytelling by survivors of communism, transporting students right to the heart of what it really means to live under a system so completely foreign - and inferior in every way - to their own.
Spinning the Web
Snatching Flies
* Gulags and Laogai (e.g., Kolyma gold mines a death sentence)
* Totalitarian Government (e.g., engineered famines killing tens of millions)
The Spider and the Fly: The False Allure of Communism
Social justice. Equality. A perfect future. These ideals have attracted followers since antiquity, but the game irrevocably changed with the publication of the Communist Manifesto in 1848. The propagation of these ideals was no longer left to chance. Instead, they were placed in the service of organized efforts to establish communist dictatorships in Soviet Russia and elsewhere, efforts that persist to this day (come closer, said the spider to the fly). The enduring ability to sell communism is really quite remarkable in light of the historical record (100 million corpses in 100 years). This applied history, psychology, and communications course provides a brief overview of communist ideology and history, then explores the ingenious methods by which communists continue to win popular support and gain political power. The course finishes with personal storytelling by survivors of communism, transporting students right to the heart of what it really means to live under a system so completely foreign - and inferior in every way - to their own.
Spinning the Web
- Strategy Documents (KGB demoralization techniques, Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, etc.)
- Utopia (empty promises about the future)
- Class Warfare (e.g., social justice and “useful idiots”)
- Thought Control (propaganda, language, indoctrination, revisionist history, etc.)
- Transformation of Societal Constructs (God, ethnicity, family, morality, etc.)
- Balkanization of Society (pitting groups against each other)
Snatching Flies
- Utopia Through Terror
(When Manipulation Fails: The Calculated Use of Intimidation and Violence)
* Gulags and Laogai (e.g., Kolyma gold mines a death sentence)
* Totalitarian Government (e.g., engineered famines killing tens of millions)
- Everyday Life in a Police State (e.g., neighbor informing on neighbor)
- Student and Working Life (e.g., working under incompetent political appointees)
- Family Life (e.g., children denouncing their parents)
- Standard of Living (e.g., queuing up for staples in a state store)
- Systemic Corruption (e.g., bribing surgeons for anesthesia)
- Religious Persecution (e.g., Falun Gong)
- New Inequality (e.g., separate stores, currency, healthcare, & dachas for party officials)
- The Role of Women (how many served in the Politburo or as generals?)
- The Data (side-by-side comparison of the Soviet Union and the United States)
- Communism Today
- Life Under Communism (Survivors and Stories)