The more things change, the more they don’t.

I started the morning, with my Thursday breakfast group, listening to a presentation about Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, from The Republic. The gist of the story, by analogy, is that people, no matter where they live, live in a cave, and that the confines of that cave limit the ability of its residents to see truths, to get the full picture. All you know is what is in the cave, and shadows projected on the walls of the cave.

I ended the day at the Capital Jewish Museum, at a program co-sponsored by the Museum and by the Haberman Institute, on Clay Risen’s book, Red Scare, with a presentation by the author, moderated by Judge David Tatel. It was being presented in conjunction with the Museum’s current temporary exhibit, titled “Blacklisted: an American Story”. Both the program and the exhibit deal with the campaign against Communists, alleged Communists, and perceived Communists in America during the 1940s and 1950s, the heydays of the HUAC and the McCarthy Era.

Plato wrote The Republic almost 2500 years ago. Yet still today we live in a cave, seeing only what we see. In fact, with everyone addicted to their computers and smart phones, and through the miracle of modern algorithms, it may be we are living deeper in that cave than ever before. Not the cave that is always there, a resultcof one living in a community. That cave  can not be avoided. But our cave has other facets,  additional limitations that have been purposely created to prey upon and increase the polarity of our vary polarized society.

Similarly, the Red Scare and the consequent blacklisting (ensuring that people who were alleged to be Communists could not be employed on the basis of “national security’) of the 1940s and 1950s may be over, but this is just one result of people fearing those who they believe to be “other”, and to ascribing to them not only evil intentions but potentially uncontrollable power. Today, we may not be worried about Communists in America, but various of us are worried about Muslims, Jews, Fascists, Leftists, what have you. It was cancel culture then. It is cancel culture now.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  And you can quote me on that.

Clay Risen has undoubtedly written an important book on HUAC and the McCarthy Era. His conversation last night touched not only on those topics, but on the roles played (good or bad) by Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower, the execution of the Rosenbergs, and the place that antisemitism did or did not play. The Blacklisted exhibit concentrates on the Hollywood Ten, and others in the film industry. It is a good exhibit, although the signage is a little wordy and somewhat redundant.

I was reminded of two things. One of the victims of the blacklisting was actor Morris Carnovsky, a name you may not even know, butcyouvcan Google him. Morris Carnovsky’s son Steven was a classmate and friend of mine during my Harvard undergraduate years. I have not seen him since our 40th college reunion (and that was 20 years ago).

Morris Carnovsky was born in 1897 (in St. Louis, but that is irrelevant for this story). He went to Washington University, and then moved to New York where he went firstcinto the Yiddish Theater, and then moved to the American stage and film, where his career started off quite well. He was, I guess, a member of the Communist Party at one time, and was one of those listed as Communists by Elia Kazan during his Congressional testimony where he famously named names. He was blacklisted, and the entire family was turned upside down and made very bitter. Although some years later, Carnovsky did get somewhatbresurrect his career, it is clear that his his life was terribly affected. And it certainly created bitter feelings throughout his family.

Digression: Tony Hiss, Alger’s son, was also at Harvard when I was there. He was also an extraordinary bitter (and clearly very bright) fellow, who spent much energy proclaiming and proving his father’s 100% innocence as a spy for the Soviets. We later (and I am surevTony) discovered that he was wrong, that Alger Hiss was a spy. I was surprised. I am sure Tony was shocked.

Moving on…

There has been a lot of news about Dubai recently in light of some Iranian drone strikes there. I had never been to Dubai until last night when I dreamed I was there. The city and its high rises were visible in the distance, but I was staying at a nice b and b in the country, and decided to take a walk along the highway leading to the city. There were no sidewalks, unsurprisingly, but the land was flat and easy to walk on, and pleasant enough, and the traffic only moderate. I never got to the city (that would have taken more time than my dream had) but did get to a spot where I could get on the Metro to go into the city. The Metro was spacious and attractive (all in shades of tan and beige) and very clean. I asked someone how much it cost (I knew nothing about Dubai’s money) and he told me that if I used American dollars (he said you could use American money anywhere in Dubai), all Metro rides were $22 each, whether the ride was long or short. I told him I thought that was a lot of money for a Metro ride and he told me: “This is Dubai; we can afford anything.”

That’s all I remember about Dubai. But I also remember last night being in a group home (sort of) with a bunch of my real life friends. We were happy that one of them was there because we hadn’t known where he was for a long time, but he seemed happy and fine. Then, he disappeared. Just vanished. We called his three kids, thinking he would have said something to them, but he hadn’t. They were surprised, too. He had no money.

Finally, last night, I seem to have been enamored by the charismatic young governor of Tennessee, who was running for reelection. I told him that I wanted to go to Tennessee to help him with his reelection. He told me that I shouldn’t do that because I was a journalist and couldn’t get involved in political activity. But I attended a big meeting with his supporters. One of the people there was a lawyer that I used to work with, now in his late 80s, who I know has slowed down a lot mentally. He raised his hand and said that he wanted to go campaign in Israel. He said he had been to Israel once before and thought there were a lot of voters there. I told him that there was a war going on and this was not the time to go to campaign there for the governor of Tennessee. He was adamant. He was not, by the way, Jewish. But he was determined.

That’s about when I woke up.