"What happened was a catastrophic revolution that really ate its own bright people. The very people who were behind the revolution were the ones who were its victims." – Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie on the Marxist 1974 revolution that overthrew his grandfather, Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie
I had the opportunity to interview Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie, president of the Crown Council of Ethiopia, and the grandson of Ras Tafari, Emperor Haile Selassie. In my discussion, I saw a first-hand account of the dangers of populations adopting socialism that we should carefully consider in our own country.
Watch my exclusive interview with Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie here.
Emperor Haile Selassie was a pivotal figure for Ethiopia and all of Africa. He was renowned for his defense of his people from Italian fascist imperialism. In 1963, his creation of the Organization of African Unity sowed the seeds for liberation of African nations from colonialism.
In a time when corporate media act as gatekeepers of African history, it is telling that so few young Americans are informed of Emperor Selassie's out-sized role in defeating fascism and colonialism in Africa. The answer lies in the fact that Emperor Selassie was a staunch defender of Christianity and was murdered by socialists promising democracy.
In a now-deleted statement of beliefs page on blacklivesmatter.com, the press-lauded organization declared: "We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families ..."
Emperor Selassie was a symbol of fatherhood in Africa. Like all radical groups driven by hatred for boundaries, the Marxists who murdered an elderly Emperor Selassie in 1974 were simply living up to their global creed: kill strong fathers first, loot the rest of the people.
This was nothing new. The Soviets who backed the overthrow of anti-colonialist Emperor Selassie were operating the same twisted religious playbook they used to gain power in their own country. Financed by western corporatists, the Bolsheviks used the disaster of World War I as the animus to murder Tsar Nicholas II's family and take over Russia. Everything the revolutionaries complained about under the monarch — lack of food, stolen land, violent prisons, police abuse — they did tenfold in their never-ending transition to utopia.
In my interview with Prince Ermias Selassie, he recounts a similar scenario for the revolutionaries in Ethiopia: "They closed all the churches, executions were very rampant, and it didn't fare well for the Marxists. I mean, they never got the support of the people."
Today, left-wing corporatists and their press organs continue to sell a whitewashed view of African history that diminishes the voices of African heroes like Emperor Selassie. They amplify voices that celebrate the same anti-market, anti-freedom, anti-family sentiments that fueled the murder of Emperor Selassie.
The corporate press does all this under the guise of social justice. Meanwhile, they openly campaign for a candidate like former Vice President Joe Biden, who led the butchering of another independent African country, Libya, and yawn at the unleashing of a modern slave trade in that country. Indeed, The New York Times used its pages to push the public for the Libyan war. As they did in Syria. Millions of people of color have been displaced and killed as a result.
Historically, the problem with the press and their violent revolutionary foot soldiers is that they suffer the same delusion that Jesus confronted in his own time in radicals:
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous. And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'"
Media elites act as if they care about vulnerable lives. But the record of history shows they cover up the voices that get in the way of their religious devotion to socialism. Just like Jesus was sacrificed by a leader named Caiaphas who proclaimed, "It is better that one man die than the whole nation perish," socialist revolutionaries and their media myth-makers believe it is better that Emperor Haile Selassie die, and the truth of his impact with him, than the whole global project of socialism perish.
They truly believe it is OK to sacrifice some, including millions in the poor and middle class, who stand in the way of their god — the all-encompassing, all-seeing, all-knowing, all-caring, cradle-to-grave state.
To those who have been drawn to America's socialists, heed Prince Selassie's warning about Marxism: "I would say to them that it's very interesting to read and understand concepts, but when you live and experience it you realize how complex it is and it's not such a black-and-white issue. Idealism, I think, leads to a lot of fanaticism; it's your way or the highway. That has led to a lot of problems: a lot of blind hatred, a lot of blind murders."
The Marxists who killed Emperor Selassie failed. Ethiopia's churches and markets are open again and healing. The revolutionaries attempting to overthrow family and faith in America will fail, too. The question will we learn from the lessons of the past and reject sacrificial revolution at its infancy or take the long, sad path of ignorant repetition?
David Gornoski is a film producer, writer, and radio host of the syndicated program "A Neighbor's Choice." He also hosts the anthropological current events podcast "Things Hidden." His media hub is aneighborschoice.com. Email him here. Read David Gornoski's Reports — More Here.