Better dead than red

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

"Better dead than red" and the reverse "better red than dead" are dueling slogans regarding communism, and generally socialism, the former anti-communist slogan ('rather dead than a communist') and the latter pro-communist slogan ('rather a communist than dead').

The slogans are interlingual with a variety of variants amongst them.

Etymology

Red is the

vice versa
.

History

The slogans became widespread during the Cold War, first gaining currency in the United States during the late 1950s, amid debates about anti-communism and nuclear disarmament.

The first phrase, "better red than dead", is often credited to British philosopher Bertrand Russell, but in his 1961 Has Man a Future? he attributes it to "West German friends of peace".[1] In any event, Russell agreed with the sentiment, having written in 1958 that if "no alternatives remain except Communist domination or extinction of the human race, the former alternative is the lesser of two evils", and the slogan was adopted by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which he helped found.[2]

The first known English-language use of either term came in 1930, long before their widespread popularity. In an editorial criticizing John Edgerton, a Tennessee businessman who had mandated morning prayers in his factories to help keep out "dangerous ideas", The Nation sarcastically wrote:

It is high time in any case that the workers learned to live by faith, not work. As for those weaklings who may fall by the wayside and starve to death, let the country bury them under the epitaph: Better Dead than Red.[3]

The first known use of "better red than dead" came in August 1958, when the

Permanent Representative of the Soviet Union to the United Nations in 1980 when a dissident Marxist group threw red paint on him and US ambassador William vanden Heuvel in the United Nations Security Council
chamber.

With the end of the Cold War, the phrases have increasingly been repurposed as their original meanings have waned. For example, "better dead than red" is sometimes used as a schoolyard taunt aimed at

Chinese American children.[6][7] Some American alt-right groups such as Patriot Front have also used the phrase in their propaganda,[8] in particular against Chinese Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.[9]

Other languages

The phrases may have been invented or inspired by Germans. Folklorist Mac E. Barrick linked it to Lewwer duad üs Slaav ("better dead than a slave"), a phrase used by Prussian poet Detlev von Liliencron in his ballad Pidder Lüng [de]. Later, in Nazi Germany, Slav replaced Slaav, giving the anti-Slavic "better dead than a Slav".[10]

Also during the Nazi period, lieber tot als rot ("better dead than red") was used as a slogan. It is unclear whether it was the inspiration for either of the English phrases.[6] The opposite slogan, lieber rot als tot ("better red than dead"), was popular among German speakers during the Cold War as well.[11]

In the strong pacifist movement in France in 1937, Jean Giono, a leading spokesman, asked, "What's the worst that can happen if Germany invades France? Become Germans? For my part, I prefer being a living German to being a dead Frenchman."[12]

Another version of the phrase took hold in Francoist Spain, adapted to Antes roja que rota ("better red than broken"), in reference to the threat posed by separatist groups in the regions of Catalonia and the Basque Country.

During Romanian revolt of 1990 a song Imnul golanilor by Cristian Pațurcă was written, that has become an anthem of the revolt. It contains the words Mai bine mort, decat comunist, which means Better dead than communist.

See also

References

  1. LCCN 2011051982
    . Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  2. LCCN 2007033114
    .
  3. ^ "Work and Pray". The Nation. Vol. 131, no. 3392. 9 July 1930. p. 32. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
  4. ^ "red, adj. and n. (and adv.)". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  5. LCCN 97039933
    .
  6. ^
    LCCN 2011051982
    . Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  7. JSTOR 1500196
    .
  8. ^ "White Supremacists Continue to Spread Hate on American Campuses". Anti-Defamation League. 27 June 2019. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
  9. ^ Riley, Theresa (27 April 2020). "How to Stop Anti-Asian Hate and Violence During the Covid Crisis". Not In Our Town. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
  10. EBSCOhost
    .
  11. LCCN 2013008962
    .
  12. ISBN 978-0-393-31479-3
    .
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