Communist Chic

I remember once causing a ruckus at a Harvard lunchtable by getting up and moving when someone sat down next to me wearing a Chairman Mao t-shirt. If someone feels that’s a fashion statement, I don’t want to associate with them. I’m still amazed that people use the symbols of communist totalitarianism – CCCP t-shirts, Che Guevara ballcaps, and so on – as if they were just cultural bric-a-brac. If someone had worn a swastika to lunch, others would have moved too, no? Jeff Jacoby, it appears, has noticed the same thing. On May Day, the evil of communism needs to be remembered; and its millions of victims mourned and recalled.