Hoover's Secrets and the Integrity of Law in a Time of Social Upheaval

http://retroreport.org/stealing-j-edgar-hoovers-secrets/

I found this to be a very interesting little video (13mins) dealing with the activists who took pretty desperate measures to counter Hoover's FBI.

They certainly broke the law but in doing so exposed the massive and quite illegal Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) the FBI was running. Massive amounts of public money were being used for political purposes to suppress free speech and collect data on people who had not broken the law. The FBI was also engaged in sabotage, provocation, and in some cases illegal execution... which the rest of us would call murder.

The conclusion of World War II unleashed massive social upheaval across the world and many nations and societies were forced to pause and look in the mirror. Many European states had ugly imperial histories, legacies of racism and the world reeled as society was destroyed and suddenly thrust into a new paradigm...the Nuclear Age with its threat of annihilation. Was militarism the answer, the necessary safeguard? Many people felt there had to be different answers. Pandora's Box had been opened.

As Christians we ought to be able to see both the positive and negative aspects of these upheavals. Only if we are invested in Establishment power would we have a stake in the game. The moral forces unleashed by two centuries of secularism are in many ways to be lamented but ethics derived from imperialism and racism hardly represent the application of the Gospel.

Questions needed to be asked. The paradigm needed to be challenged. The question is...was the answer worse than the problem?

Was J. Edgar Hoover right to think the social upheaval meant the nation was at war? Was the Federal Government justified in using so-called war powers and actions which led to the suspension of basic constitutional rights and protections? Does the maintenance of political union and social consensus justify any means in order to sustain it? Can the value-system which creates and justifies social liberty be set aside in order to protect it?

Many thought so, but others were outraged over an America that not only perpetuated its historical racism but had an ever expanding military-industrial complex that was leading to death and destruction all around the world. Up to that point most Americans were complacent and even basked in America's monopolistic post-war prosperity. But after a series of assassinations, several years of social upheaval generated by the demand for civil rights and finally the deaths of draftees began to hit the heartland...the youth took to the streets.

Did they change the world? Yes... and no. It's interesting remembering the television shows in the 1980's where ex-hippie characters had to reckon with their capitulations and compromises. Many in the end joined the mainstream of society and in their adult lives betrayed many of the values they once held dear. Indeed they shook the pillars of the Establishment, but I think it can be questioned as to whether or not sixties activism really changed the fundamental nature and foundational paradigm of American power.

Some things changed and are still changing. Contrary to the conservative narrative, they didn't start the fire. Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Playboy, Rosa Parks and the Pill all antedated the 1960's. And before the sixties was the twenties and before that there was the Gay Nineties....the 1890's.

Modernism and especially 1914 changed the world but as far as the political goals and aspirations the protestors of the 1960's were fighting for... in my estimation they largely failed. It's a fascinating and very emotive era but I don't think it came out of the blue. I see it as an amplified episode but organically connected with already existing social currents. You could almost say that American society was a powder keg. The pressure had been growing for decades from many quarters of society. So many issues from previous generations were unresolved. There were tensions as people and powers wanted to move the United States in very different directions. All it needed was a spark. It came when Kennedy was assassinated and Johnson decided to escalate American involvement in Indochina. That war ignited the powder keg and unleashed a host of already existing but largely latent social pressures.

1968 was a critical year. The assassinations of King and Robert Kennedy destroyed the ability to form an electoral coalition. By the time of the Democratic convention there was blood in the streets and before the year had ended Richard Nixon had captured the presidency. It was a stunning reversal.

They were fighting to keep the perceived domestic gains made under Kennedy and Johnson. They were also consciously rejecting an Imperialist foreign policy and the economic system that fed it, which after 1945 had embarked America on a militarist path and had fundamentally changed the structure of society. These changes only exacerbated existing problems.

Leftists today would argue many of the social gains have been undermined and the foreign policy while conducted differently is as bad as ever.

And as far as a state that tramples the rights of its citizens... no change whatsoever. In fact technology has made the state more powerful than ever. It's hard to even imagine what the likes of J. Edgar Hoover would have done in the computer age.

While the Left-wing activists were traitors in the eyes of the Establishment they viewed themselves as patriotic defenders of American ideals and principles. To the SDS and other groups it was men like Hoover and all that he represented that was a betrayal of American ideals.

A fascinating chapter to be sure. Leftist politics have failed to live up to their ideals... as all man-made systems will. We cannot join with them and yet as we seek peace and stability in Babylon we must remember that Nationalism and Militarism are incompatible with Christian values. That would mean we're joining with Babylon in its Babel project or even worse confusing it with the Kingdom of God.

We're not Leftists per se, but we can never in any way associate with Right Wing political values and maintain any kind of credible Christian witness in the world. At that point we have wantonly substituted Christ's Kingdom for idols and are guilty of calling evil good.

We ought to resist all consolidations of power. And when I say resist, I don't mean with violence. I mean we need to examine and guard our hearts. We need first and foremost to keep power mongering (politics) out of the Church. We need to denounce those who in a heretical manner pervert the Word of God to undergird these notions and exploit the people of God. We need to expose and call to account the powers of the world who seek to build their Babel-empires. If people will not listen to their lies and buy into their ideas it's very difficult for them to accomplish their goals.

In this world they will always to some degree win. But if they can be weakened and it affords humanity (even sinful humanity) greater liberty... that is the best venue for the Gospel and certainly the best we can hope for in this fallen world.

While we cannot support the Left's political goals, their challenge to power consolidation on the part of Militant Nationalists and economic elites is something that we can (to a degree) appreciate.

Empowered Left-Wing Christianity is not a problem in the United States. We need to be wary of Left-Wing Constantinianism which certainly exists but has no clout. In Britain or Germany there may be (or at least was) a need to challenge their political assumptions as well. While the Christian Democratic parties and the Labour movements are preferable to Right-Wing Nationalism... when cast in terms of Biblical categories they can be just as harmful to a correct understanding of the Kingdom.

Those that simply denounce progressive politics or the social upheavals of the 1960's have learned nothing about how society functions. Not understanding how the fallen world works they are quickly fooled by pagan systems masquerading as truth and claiming to possess moral integrity. They are blind to the dangers and pitfalls of power and become malleable tools in the hands of sinister architects proffering lies and idolatrous seductions.