I was originally going to submit this as a diary entry, but I changed my mind when I began to contemplate the seriousness of this topic. This is something that can (potentially) affect us all, and I want to have a frank and (hopefully) productive discussion with Adequacy readers about this situation, and what can be done to rectify it.
This whole thing started when my software development team and I decided to go out for dinner and drinks after work in order to celebrate a recent software release. We had worked hard on it for several months, and I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to have some fun, blow off some steam, and discuss the months ahead. After an excellent meal, almost everybody left. The only people that remained were myself and another developer who has been on the team for several months now. We retired to the lounge, ordered a few beers, and spent an hour or so "shooting the breeze."
With a course of a few minutes, the talk turned to politics. It was then that I learned the horrible and sordid truth about this person. He supports the Social Security, welfare, and unemployment entitlement programs. He voluntarily redistributes a portion of his income to such non-church entities as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the ACLU, and the Red Cross. He has no problem with "gay" people. He supports the rampant federalization of airline security workers, and the general expansion of the United States government. And he voted for Al Gore (!) in the last presidental election.
Through all this, I smiled and nodded politely, though I could have just as easily leaped across the table and strangled him. This country has got servicemen in active duty right now, fighting to protect us from the very "values" that he represents ... yet he has the unmitigated gall to spit on the principles that the nation was founded upon, ruining what was otherwise a pleasant dinner. I looked at my watch, mumbled something about having to get home, and left. On the way to my car, I kicked a trash can approximately 50 feet, spraining three toes in the process.
As I lay in bed with my wife that evening, I pondered an interesting hypothetical. Would it have been better if I had skipped the dinner and never had that conversation with this person, and instead gone to work the next day, continuing to believe that he was a decent and moral individual? I am torn by this. On the one hand, the little illusions that we cling to can help us get through the day intact. I have to admit that this stunning revelation is really hurting my productivity. I'll be busily hacking away on my latest chunk of C code and suddenly something will remind me of this person and I'll become overwhelmed with anger. I think about Stalin and what he did to all of those millions of people, and it makes me mad. Then I realize that one of Josef's devotees is sitting three cubicles down from me, and it's all I can do to prevent myself from slamming my fist into my keyboard in rage. Going outside and smoking a Marlboro seems to be a nice, calming influence .. but in an hour I'm right back outside again, smoking another cigarette.
On the other hand, my rational side tells me that it's better for me to know the truth, no matter how horrible it is. Even if it completely destroys my productivity and work output, it's better that this is out in the open. I was lucky; I found out the truth when we were in a fairly isolated social situation. It could have been worse .. far worse. What if the truth had come out at the company's summer picnic, an event that my wife and children attend with me? What if this person had gotten to my family? I'll be honest with you .. before last night, I would have invited this individual into my home for dinner or drinks without a moment's hesitation. I shudder to think what might have happened if I had gotten up to use the restroom or answer the phone, leaving my family alone with this monster.
All things being equal, I think it's better than I know the truth. However, as the Astute Reader will point out, this is all mental hand-wringing anyway; what's done is done, and it's time to deal with it. Wasting all this time contemplating about how things could have turned out is even less productive than beating the side of your monitor in rage at how Chairman Mao butchered so many of his own people.
In my personal life, where I have a good deal of control over who I allow into my world and who I do not, I don't consort with Communists, and neither should you. It's a matter of principle. At work, however, it's a completely different story. Here, an individual does not have a particularly large amount of control over the people that we see, work, and interact with. The fact that there is a Communist here is bad enough ... the fact that he works on my freaking team is exponentially worse.
I've got some options. The first, I suppose, is to try to avoid him to whatever degree possible. There are many reasons why this will be difficult, not the least of which is that we are both on the same team and a certain amount of interaction is required. If team communication suffers, then productivity suffers, and that will hurt my company's ability to maximize its wealth-creation potential. Still, my productivity is suffering enough as it is, and so maybe avoiding him is not a bad call. If he catches on and starts asking questions, however (and he probably will), then there exists the danger of an altercation that can make things worse off for everybody. If a campaign of avoidance is the answer, it will have to be carefully orchestrated.
The second option is to report this individual to Human Resources. HR types are notorious for going to extreme lengths in order to promote a "healthy workplace", and I could contend to them that such a workplace does not include Marxists. The problem with this is that Human Resources departments typically only care about fabricated leftist issues, such as "sexual harassment." This being the case, they are more likely to sympathize with my bloodthirsty butcher of a co-worker than they are to take action against him. They will ask for concrete examples of his workplace misbehavior, and they will be missing the point. Communists always try to keep things quiet; in the 1950s, it took the combined effort of the United States Congress and the national media to run the Stalinists out of Tinseltown. This being the case, I find it unlikely that a couple of pencil-pushers in HR are going to help me here.
Another option is to try to convert this individual. I could "accidentally" leave copies of magazines such as The Weekly Standard and WorldNet laying around the office in conspicuous locations where he is likely to find them. You never know ... he might pick them up, start reading, and learn the truth about liberals, minorities, etc. I admit that it is more likely that he will take the magazines out to the parking lot and burn them, but it might be worth a shot. Perhaps if I were to anonymously slip books and articles by respected people such as William F. Buckley, George Will, and Phyllis Schlafly into his mailbox, he might see the light. It's a long shot, but the investment is minimal and the payoff is potentially great. Despite what you may think, I really do want to save this person from his enslavement to the collectivist claptrap that he so desperately clings to.
There is another option I'm considering. I am in a position to give feedback for this individual's yearly performance review, and the review period is coming up in a couple of months. Furthermore, as the project leader, my input will carry a lot of weight with our management. I could easily put together a very negative review which portrays this guy as a complete, bumbling boob. The conclusion would be that he is nothing but dead weight and an extreme liability for the firm. Now by all accounts, this guy does excellent work, so there are some real moral and ethical questions that are brought up by this course of action. However, I have to admit that these concerns quickly evaporate when I think of Elian Gonzalez licking the boots of that bearded freak in Havana. "Two wrongs don't make a right," the old saying goes, but whoever came up with that saying was not dealing with the likes of Lyndon LaRouche and Ted Kennedy.
My final option is to quit my job. Ultimately, it's going to have to be either me or him. If I can't convert him or get him to leave, and if I can't convince the firm that it's poor business policy to have Kruschevists on the staff, then I'll have no choice but to remove myself from the equation and seek employment with somebody who places a higher emphasis on traditional values and American decency. This would (obviously) be a last resort; I shouldn't have to quit my job and throw my family into financial uncertainty because of the actions of somebody else. But if decent Americans are not willing to take a principled stand on this, the most important of issues, have we not sold out? If we turn a blind eye to the menace of Communism, how are we any better than the Communists themselves?
I'm interested to hear input from Adequacy readers.
