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Five Sept. 11 Suspects to Face Trial in New York

The Obama administration has announced it will try 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9-11 Gitmo detainees in a civilian federal court in New York, allowing them the protections of the U.S. Constitution even though they are not U.S. citizens.

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Four Radical Chinese Muslims Transferred to Bermuda

Four Chinese Uighers (radical Chinese Muslims) were recently transferred to Bermuda. Do you think it's a good idea to release Gitmo detainees to idyllic vacation retreats?

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January 7, 2009

Who Appointed Greek Anarchists to Run Greece?

Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman

One consequence of providing all students with free college education (a source of pride in Europe) can be seen on the streets of Athens today. These students do not have enough to do, do not have to worry about money, and suffer from a combination of poisons: adolescent hormones and the well- known phenomenon of student arrogance (a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing).

This is the picture of Athens at Christmas, 2008: “Masked men wielding clubs guard the entrance to the Athens Polytechnic University, keeping watch over the graffiti-covered walls on campus. Nearby streets are barricaded with the carcasses of burnt cars, and a huge black banner proclaims ‘MURDERERS – the rallying cry that has brought Greece’s youths to the streets.” (Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 15, 2008.)

And what is the Greek government doing about it? Nothing – because Greek law keeps police away from universities, ostensibly to protect free speech. Instead, it is being used to harbor bastions of violence. Even a leftist, sympathetic professor, George Bergeles, at the notorious Polytechnic University, is alarmed that university asylum is for freedom of movement of ideas, not commitment of criminal actions. His concern comes too late.

Meanwhile, the demonstrations are spreading across Europe, where other students looking for a fun rumble are emulating their Greek colleagues. But Europe isn’t alone in this. In my own university town of Santa Cruz, California, well known for its radical tastes, anarchists vandalized ATM machines and banks downtown on December 14th. These self-identified “anarchists” posted a web site justifying their vandalism “because the uprising of our comrades in Greece, England, Moscow and elsewhere will not go without a response.”

Somehow, these half-educated and overly hopped-up students believe that they are doing the great work of social activism. Of course they are delusional in thinking that their destructive behavior will change “corruption, nepotism, a failing education system, and poor economic prospects.” The 25% unemployment rate among young people is largely due to their unfitness for work needed by their societies. There are too many university degrees and too few mechanics, and they are too full of themselves to soil their hands with the infrastructure work so needed by all of our societies. They have no problem relegating this work to their “little brown brothers” from poorer places in the world – even coming illegally.

We could well have the same violence in the U.S., although we really do not have a history, as does Europe, of university rumbles as a rite of passage. Many students – those who are not immersed in their studies but instead take “Demonstrations 101” – are easily led. Mobs are notoriously mindless and violence is easily provoked. Anarchists (undoubtedly not young students) are organizing these mobs in “teach-ins,” where they offer a skewed version of history to eager and empty minds.

Marxists have long been masters of this process; now it is anarchists, who offer even less by way of solutions to social problems. A good professor would ask them: “How would YOU fix these social problems?” But nobody is really looking for solutions, arrived at through critical thinking, compromise, and lawful governance. These young people are not getting critical thinking; they are getting (quite unknown to them) mob manipulators and future dictators who will take away all their freedoms.

Anarchists are very good at burning stores, cars, and hurling petrol bombs and rocks at riot police, who are constrained from hurting them. In Greece, the Retailers Association said riots caused an estimated $135 million in damage to stores and was likely to cost businesses $2 billion in lost revenue. Dozens of people were injured in the rioting, while hundreds of stores were looted and more than 200 people arrested.

The protesters have been further emboldened to demand that riot police be pulled off the streets and disarmed. Let’s see whether Greece, the rest of Europe, and my own university town have the backbone to put a stop to this.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman is an historian, lecturer, and author who also writes for the Santa Cruz Sentinel. You may contact her at Lfarhat102@aol.com or http://www.globalthink.net/.

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