During 1940 or 1941, Ayn Rand wrote a hard-hitting open letter that was to be read by a conservative organization entitled To All Innocent Fifth Columinsts. In it she issued a warning to people about the scourge of collectivism that was consuming the United States in form of Fascism and Communism that would come later. Today, that threat is from the totalitarian Left. The essay said (in part):

Totalitarianism has already won a complete victory in many American minds and conquered all of our intellectual life. You have helped it to win.

Perhaps it is your right to destroy civilization and bring dictatorship to America, but not unless you understand fully what you are doing.

If that is what you want to do, say so openly, at least to your own conscience, and we who believe in freedom will fight you openly.

But the tragedy of today is that you—who are responsible for the coming Totalitarian dictatorship of America—you do not know your own responsibility. You would be the first to deny the active part you’re playing and proclaim your belief in freedom, in civilization, in the American way of life. You are the most dangerous kind of Fifth Columnist—an innocent, subconscious Fifth Columnist. Of such as you is the Kingdom of Hitler and of Stalin.

You do not believe this? Check up on yourself. Take the test we offer you here.

1) Are you the kind who considers ten minutes of his time too valuable to read this and give it some thought?

2) Are you the kind who sits at home and moans over the state of the world—but does nothing about it?

3) Are you the kind who says that the future is predestined by something or other, something he can’t quite name or explain and isn’t very clear about, but the world is doomed to dictatorship and there’s nothing anyone can do about it?

4) Are you the kind who says that he wishes he could do something, he’d be so eager to do something—but what can one man do?

5) Are you the kind who are so devoted to your own career, your family, your home or your children that you will let the most unspeakable horrors be brought about to destroy your career, your family, your home and your children—because you are too busy now to prevent them?

Which one of the above are you? A little of each?

But are you really too busy to think?

Who “determines” the future? You’re very muddled on that, aren’t you? What exactly is “mankind”? Is it a mystical entity with a will of its own? Or is it you, and I, and the sum of all of us together? What force is there to make history—except men, other men just like you? If there are enough men who believe in a better future and are willing to work for it, the future will be what they want it to be. You doubt this? Why then, if the world is doomed to dictatorship, do the dictators spend so much money and effort on propaganda? If history is predestined in their favor, why don’t Hitler and Stalin just ride the wave into the future without any trouble? Doesn’t it seem more probable that history will be what the minds of men want it to be, and the dictators are smart enough to prepare these minds in the way they want them, while we talk of destiny and do nothing?

You can read the rest of the essay here. The nihilistic, political Left has been attacking Western Civilization through key institutions intellectually, through movements such as environmentalism and they are actively attacking industrial production necessary for our civilization to function, if not exist.

Since the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States, the Left has encouraged a violent, revolutionary wave and it may get worse as the years go by. The wisdom encompassed in Ms. Rand’s essay is as relevant now as it was almost 80 years ago. Civilized people must no longer be confused about or downplay what the Left is truly about along with understanding their philosophy. The Left must be defeated in order for our civilization to survive and for human beings to continue to not only live but also flourish.

Please participate in or head efforts to defeat the Left. When they are defeated they can no longer morally or ethically justify the causes they champion, like environmentalism. Civilization is very fragile and if it isn’t defended, it can be lost very quickly.