“It is true. I did tell the Americans about the plans to destroy her; plans I have known about for twenty years or more; plans that existed even before I knew about them. I did so because I believe that a surprise attack on America, which is what we are talking about here after all, is a foolish plan, and a murderous idea.
“It is the governments of America and of the Soviet Union that have been at war throughout this last century, and not the peoples of those two countries. Ideologies are at war, and not individuals. But ideologies do not suffer and die in wars. People do. And I have learned, because I have been on both sides, I have lived in both worlds. I have lived in both worlds and have been accepted in both worlds and have been rejected by both worlds, but mostly I have found a home. Like here, among you.”
Lev Volkhov paused to let the crowd bathe in that thought. Clay knew that Alyona was still speaking into his ear and translating the old man’s words, but that reality faded and another, higher, reality emerged and he heard the man speak and as his mouth moved, Clay understood him and heard his voice and it was as if Alyona disappeared as Volkhov spoke directly to him.
“…But there are no differences between the sides. We are talking here about a Cold War grown hot that most of the rest of the world has already forgotten. They’ve just forgotten it existed. America has never been at war with the Soviet Union, except by proxy… in Vietnam, and Afghanistan, and Nicaragua, and Korea, and a hundred other places around the world. Everyone is trained to think of these opposing forces as two sides, good and evil, light and darkness, right and wrong. However, as an old man I have learned that there are actually three sides. One side is always pitted against another, so that the third side wins.
“Did you hear that? The third side always wins.
“How do you know which is the third side? The third side is always made known by what actually happens. We are dealing with the age-old dialectic that everyone knows about and no one heeds and all of you were my students, and you should all know who you are…”
He waved his cane at the crowd. They watched him.
“… and what that means.”
Silence.
“In America, as we speak, Republicans and Democrats are at war, and neither side will ever win because they want the same things, only at different speeds and with different details. The third side will win, because there is not a dime’s worth of difference between Republicans and Democrats. Both sides will accept annihilation and totalitarianism because neither side truly wants freedom.
“They are all statists. Do you know the meaning of this word? Yes, those of you who were my students…
“I have learned this, so listen to me. The Russian and American people do not want war, but they will have it. Why? Because the third side wants it! The third side always wins!
“I will give you a most poignant example. Black separatist Malcolm X and white separatists heading the KKK were both controlled by the CIA in the 1960’s.”
Stomp.
“Malcolm X admitted this in his autobiography! Why? Because democratic socialists in the government and around the world did not want fascism or communism, they wanted Martin Luther King.”
Cough.
“And if you want Martin Luther King—who would never have even been received by Americans willfully—you use The Nation of Islam and the KKK to frighten people into embracing MLK.”
Wheeze.
Aaahhrrggh. Clay felt as if he was going over. He felt himself dipping. He was sitting watching this old man seem to draw strength from the crowd and he began to feel as though the man drew even his own vital energy. He was growing woozy.
“If you want democratic socialism in America, you do not just propose democratic socialism! You produce a far left Democrat party and a far right Republican party who both want statism regardless of what they say!
“Do you know the word? Do you know that word? Statism?” He stuck out his chest and rose to the crowd. An angel floating over head at just that moment might have seen a giant magnet in the center of a box with a million tiny metal marbles spread around the walls of the box, just vibrating, ready to make their break. To run to the man. To freedom.
Clay wondered how, if they did, if the crowd did surge forward toward Volkhov, he might swim through the crowd, through the chaos, to the door to the valley and make a break of his own.
The man continued, but in a quiet, more reasoning tone, “They are all statists, only with different winners.
“And the people will embrace democratic socialism! All of them will. Both sides. They already have. But you can never tell the people that, can you, because you see their lusts and their drive for comforts… you see… all of them are statists.”
He let the word sink in.
“They are all against real freedom.”
He let that sink in.
“Your political pundits, your crazy activists, your radio show hosts are all successful precisely because they do not uncover the real and simple truth. Do you hear me? The truth. As long as they stay away from the truth, and play their audience into the hands of the dialectic, then the money flows and they get to keep their seats in the game.
“But the truth, perhaps that is too big to swallow entire. Let’s begin with a bite.
“Every false conflict is precipitated. Think about it… Every false dialectic is put forth by someone… someone…”
He let the statement hang in the air.
“… because the third side wants something that the people will not freely give. If people wanted freedom, they’d turn off their televisions and move from the cities and grow their own food and just say ‘NO.’”
“Did you hear that? No.”
The crowd sat in silence.
“No, to everything that is contrary to their freedom. No. Simply… Not marching, or petitions, or voting, or organizing, or gathering signatures… Just No.
“It is hard to believe, but sometimes just saying ‘No’ is a revolutionary act.”
Absolute silence.
“But they do not want freedom. The crowd. They want peace and safety and comforts without cost.
“In America tonight people are fighting one another in the streets, and people are burning down businesses, and people are shooting one another at the gas pumps, and the economy has plummeted into the abyss. Why? I will tell you why. Because in the last century or more, so-called ‘patriots’ and so-called ‘communists’ have whipped the people into a frenzy and given them the false idea that ‘voting’ is the only arbiter and guarantee of their peace.
“And now… now… now some of them believe that ‘voting’ has been taken from them. Their only hope. Their great ‘god’.”
Clay wondered at the oddness of the talk for a moment. He was beginning to come back to his senses after the fainting spell and he was listening to the man enough to have picked up that many of the things he said sounded familiar, but in a far off kind of way.
“We all only have one inalienable right. Only one! It is not the vote. It is not. It is, instead, the right to say ‘NO’ to all of this manipulation.
“And then we must be prepared to accept the consequences of that singular, valorous, and revolutionary act.
“But that is the one thing that modern people just will not do.”
He let that word sink in. Will.
“We are enslaved by our possessions, and imprisoned by our wants.