What’s fascinating here is that Lane describes President Obama as a “historical materialist” as if it is a good and natural thing, as if it’s the way all people who are rational and pragmatic think and ought to think.
Ronald Reagan went to Moscow State University in 1988. There, under a huge, glowering statue of Vladimir Lenin, Reagan proceeded, most politely, to say that historical materialism is a crock. One might have expected that old historical materialist Lenin himself to pitch face-forward from his pedestal. Soon, very soon, Lenin statues were being dragged down all over the Evil Empire he had created.
Reagan’s point was that in the beginning was the Word. He said that the material basis of industrial society was being supplanted by the computer revolution. The material basis of the computer chip was a substance as plentiful as – sand! It’s why they call it Silicon Valley. But computer chips were not enough for this revolution to succeed. With all this technology, we must have human freedom.
We know that the old USSR could not keep up with the freedom revolution Reagan unleashed in the West. It’s hard to compete when you have to station a KGB officer – a kahgaybeest – next to every computer screen.
While Reagan was making revolution in the heart of the Soviet Union, Barack Obama was sitting in Ivy League classrooms listening to historical materialism as preached by his professors. Too bad. He missed a great show.
Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II changed the world. They were not historical materialists. They understood that human motivation is complex. Yes, people want a better life materially. Yes, they seek to improve the lot of their children.
But why do they want children in the first place? It is the longing to touch eternity. It is the hunger of the soul. It is, as Reagan explained at the Berlin Wall, the higher power of love.
That is something the great leaders understand. If President Obama doesn’t understand it yet, he’d better learn fast. Or he’ll never understand the people he leads.