I read this article the other day: Pete Seeger sings out against Stalin
The 88-year-old folk singer, who claims to have left the Communist Party around 1950, has finally gotten around to writing a song decrying the cruelty of the late Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. All I could think was, "Wow, what a gutsy thing to do! Writing a song criticizing a despot who's been dead for more than fifty years, and who was the leader of a country that's been out of business for fifteen years. How edgy!"
If Mr. Seeger really wanted to do something edgy, he could write a song criticizing current Russian leader Vladimir Putin. I wouldn't recommend it unless his insurance premiums are paid up, though. Maybe he could criticize the human rights abuses of Fidel Castro. Maybe he could write a song about how awful the kleptocratic regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe is.
But walking into the mausoleum and thumbing his nose at Stalin's moldering bones? Too little, and much, much, too late. When you've been on the wrong side of history your entire life, there's no "come to Jesus" moment that's big enough to fix it.
