Suppressing Thought, Speech and Science

                                                             

                                                        Our Book in Russian

I recently read about Trofim Lysenko, the guy who headed the Soviet Agriculture Department. My Russian friends told me about him many years ago because he was an example of Politically Correct Ideas. He is one of the most famous/infamous Soviets in the Russian mind because he devastated their agriculture and caused widespread starvation. Ideas have consequences!

 He implemented the Socialist philosophy in a ruthless manner, denying basic biological science  and suppressing facts about the failures of Socialism. That led to the failure of Collective Farms to produce needed food. As a result millions of people starved. 

I had never heard of him until I started going to Russia in 1992. Scientists who followed Mendel's scientific research were called "Deniers" and drummed out of the government agencies. Most lost their jobs. They were ridiculed and haunted and even imprisoned. 

Lenin coined the term "Politically Incorrect" to describe the "Deniers" and the Soviet press like Pravda, banned them for life because they refused to follow the Party Line. The KGB investigated them, snooped on them and found fake ways to put them in the gulags.

The person who heads our treatment and recovery training centers in Moscow has a strong distaste for Lysenko and Lenin, Stalin, etc. she was not allowed to study Counseling skills as a Therapist because it was not consistent with Politically Correct ideas. Only medicine was allowed for any emotional issue., She was shocked when visiting our Cincinnati  Peer Training Center to see lay people using good interpersonal skills in our classes and lay counseling centers.

Now she teaches Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Priests, Pastors and Peers how to help people, especially addicts.  Much of their work is aimed at healing the family tree devastated by the purges carried out by the USSR. Almost every family had a generation wiped out by those purges against Politically Incorrect people.

I am glad to see that Lysenko is getting some press here as well in Russia. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Is America repeating the Lysenko pattern with all of our PC pressure to conform?

Read our book How to Be Me in My Family Tree for notes on healing your family tree.