The fantasy version of Soviet life seemed as plausible to him as the Daily Worker’s assertions that the U.S. was run by a gang of greedy plutocrats intent on exploiting the workers. The plight of unemployed men like his father seemed to verify this explanation.
Barr’s family and those of his friends rarely traveled beyond New York’s five boroughs and adjacent areas of New Jersey. Intellectually and emotionally they were more closely connected with Moscow and Kiev than with Minneapolis or Oklahoma City. The communist literary figure Lionel Abel reflected the mood when he wrote that in the 1930s “ New York became the most interesting part of the Soviet Union.” Barr was ignorant of how the vast majority of Americans lived, of their values and traditions, but he was aware of the discrimination that religious and racial minorities experienced. No difference now: Substitute NY Times and Washington Post for Pravada, the lies pushed daily by ABBCNNBCBS for Communist's films, and the propaganda pushed in the schools (against business, against capitalism and pro-eco-radicals). The liberal elite are now in NY, Boston, Washington and LA - and THEY control the visible culture on TV, in print, and in the movies.
