The duty to remember

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

NICK EICEHR, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

As America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, one group is planning an unusual reminder of what freedom is—and what happens when it disappears. Here is WORLD commentator Cal Thomas.

CAL THOMAS: In the classic film Doctor Zhivago, a revolutionary commander explains that private affections, family loyalties, even personal convictions must yield to the demands of history.

Then he delivers one of the most revealing lines ever spoken in a movie.

COMMANDER: Private life is dead for a man with any manhood.

ZHIVAGO: We saw a sample of your manhood on the way. A place called Mink.

COMMANDER: They’ve been selling horses to the Whites.

ZHIVAGO: No. It seems you burnt the wrong village.

COMMANDER: They always say that. And what does it matter? A village betrays us. A village is burnt. The point’s made.

ZHIVAGO: Your point. Their village.

COMMANDER: Molya!

In other words, the state comes first. The individual comes second.

That wasn’t merely a movie script. It was the governing philosophy of communist regimes throughout the 20th century.

Now, as America approaches its semi-quincentennial, a small organization is planning an anti-communist film festival featuring movies like Doctor Zhivago and Red Dawn. The organizers say their original venue backed away from the project. It appears the screenings will now take place at the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington.

But the larger question remains: Why is there such interest in revisiting these stories in the first place?

Many younger Americans know socialism only as a theory. They never experienced its consequences. These films show what happened when socialism and communism moved from theory to government.

But they show something else, too.

In Red Dawn, a group of American teenagers finds itself resisting a foreign occupation. After a successful attack against enemy forces, one of them shouts a single word:

AUDIO: Wolverines!

It’s a brief moment, but it captures an enduring truth.

If Doctor Zhivago shows the temptation of totalitarianism, Red Dawn shows the refusal to surrender to it.

One film declares that history has killed the personal life.

The other insists that some things are still worth defending: Family, home, freedom.

The story of liberty is not merely the story of bad ideas gaining power. It is the story of ordinary people refusing to yield to them.

Socialism and communism have been tried. The historical record is complete.

The question is whether enough Americans still remember it.

For WORLD, I’m Cal Thomas.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.