A Look in My Mirror

Back on topic

Another aspect of the movement Durden-Smith discusses is the extreme paranoia the members felt because of the rumors that spies had been planted in the movement.  Also, there had been several prosecutions were members had turned states evidence against a conspirator.  Several people in the movement had disappeared mysteriously, some obviously murdered and some either left to avoid consequences of spying or left because they didn’t feel they could trust the members of the movement.

The whole thing reminds me of the stories you heard in communist countries.  Members of “freedom movements” have never been able to be assured they are not being spied on.  You never knew if your neighbor was secret police or a radical, either that may kill you or turn you in depending on how they viewed your actions.  Secret police worked for the state and the radicals worked for the overthrow of the state.  If it was viewed that you supported radical thought you were in danger from the state and if you seemed to support the state too fervently you had to worry about radicals trying to eliminate someone they viewed as an obstacle.  Both seemed to be happening in California.  Durden-Smith was not from the movement.  He was an outsider who sympathized but was not known to the insiders.  He felt his life was in danger constantly.  He began to do things, like buy a gun, that he never thought he would do when he was just an ideologue in England.  It wasn’t until he got into the movement he began to be paranoid.

This seems to be the lesson.  Radical movements tend to breed paranoia amongst themselves.  Trust is never guaranteed.  A similar theme runs through Herbert Philbricks autobiography I Led Three Lives about a man who infiltrated the communist movement in New England during the forties.  Again paranoia reigns supreme.  Paranoia will tear apart any movement because trust is gone.  Only mutual trust amongst the participants will keep a movement strong because then you can be open about your objectives.  If you can’t trust the person beside you to fervently agree with your objectives you will never be able to truly move forward because you don’t know if the person beside you will move with you.  And as the old saying goes, united we stand, divided we fall.