A rioting revival is occurring in the wake of Jacob Blake’s shooting in Kenosha. Despite Blake’s mother offering a very calm, reasoned plea to stop the riots – those in her son’s name and any others – violence increases against both people and property.

After weeks of promoting “peaceful protests,” it seems like major media outlets are finally waking up to the problem of these riots. In a recent clip from CNN, Don Lemon expounds on the riots, noting how troublesome they’ve become and observing that Joe Biden may be afraid to address them.  

Either way, Lemon declares, Joe Biden must take a stand and say that the rioting must end.

I would agree. Yet while all political candidates should speak out against such riots and violence, this problem is not something that can be simply fixed by a speech from Joe Biden, nor by one from Donald Trump.

No, the roots of this chaos and despair run far deeper, a fact referenced in a recent Chronicles article by Taki Theodoracopulos. The article takes a look at the recent spate of violence and statue desecrations in America from the perspective of a resident of Greece, a land filled with statues of people, many of whom – ironically – were ancient slaveholders.

Theodoracopulos wonders what it would be like if American protesters came and tried to demolish these statues:

Walking around the Acropolis’ ancient ruins makes the mind reel at the disposability of American culture. Nothing is sacred and everything is replaceable. The consensus among my Greek companions is that America is sick, its leaders groveling to the lowest dregs and denominator, its future a nonstarter.

Those of Greek heritage, Theodoracopulos asserts, would never interact with their ancient statues in the way that Americans behave towards theirs, for one very good reason:

I was among good men, successful and civilized, and until now very pro-American. They are all Greeks, with Greek values and beliefs based on a shared ethnicity and religion—unlike in America, where values are supposed to be based on a shared story. Because we are Greek, it would be unthinkable for us to turn against our heroes to burn down our neighbors’ homes and businesses, as Americans are now doing.

And there, perhaps, is one of the biggest clues about where America has gone wrong.

America, as we all know, has long been a melting pot of cultures. We have prided ourselves on being the land that welcomes the “poor… huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” As such, individuals from all lands and backgrounds have come here, ready to shed their pasts and embrace a shared American culture. In a sense, they shed their former ethnicities and became “American.”

Yet in recent years, the quest to become “American” is no longer embraced proudly, if at all. Multiculturalism is the name of the game, Western civilization and the Judeo-Christian values upon which America was founded are condemned, and hence we live in a melting pot that will no longer mix, pitting neighbors and races and religions against each other instead of all of us coming together as Americans.

This path of multiculturalism is one which our schools, businesses, and politicians have promoted in recent years. Ironically, it’s also the one which comes directly from an old communist playbook.

The 1958 edition of The Naked Communist lays out a number of communist goals from that time. Among them are several points which aim at undermining the American bond of culture, including, “Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression,” “Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity,” and perhaps most importantly, “Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of ‘the big picture.’”

Sounds like what we see happening today and have been seeing for some time, doesn’t it?

So yes, Don Lemon is right. Joe Biden does need to speak out against the riots and violence. Donald Trump needs to do the same. But speaking out isn’t going to solve our problem of rioting and violence. That problem must be solved by revisiting our nation’s history, embracing the values and culture that made Americans one united people, and rejecting anything that tries to sell us on an opposite game plan.

And that, my friends, is something we each need to follow in order to overcome the violence overtaking our country.

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