One of the most chilling scenes in the anti-communist 1965 film "Dr. Zhivago" shows the doctor returning to his Moscow home after forced duty in the Red Army.
The Bolsheviks had overthrown the czar and taken power in Russia in the October Revolution of 1917.
As his wife Tonya gives him a hug and a silent warning, Yuri looks around and sees dozens of people unrelated to him. What was once the Zhivagos' home – a magnificent, multi-room house – is now a sordid commune crammed with state-sponsored squatters.
A grim man in a visored cap with a red star walks toward them, and Tonya introduces him as "our local delegate."
After Yuri says, "How do you do, welcome!" in a friendly way, a mean-faced woman in uniform barks, "It is not for you to welcome us, comrade."
The two communists badger Yuri for a bit, and then he and Tonya mount the stairs. As they reach the landing, the nasty woman calls out in an accusatory tone, "There was living space for 13 families in this one house."
Sensing the danger, Yuri nods and says, "Yes, yes, this a better arrangement – more just."
I couldn't help thinking about that scene when reading a Washington Post article this past week that lauds the rise of "Boommates."
These are Boomer generation people who share their homes with other, unrelated families – sometimes several – and mostly out of financial need.
Post reporter Michael J. Coren thinks it's a great idea.
"Several generations living under one roof would help ease the housing crunch and the loneliness epidemic affecting half of U.S. adults," he writes.
Given Bidenomics, inflation, overregulation, high mortgage rates, tax hikes and 10 million illegal aliens on President Joe Biden's watch, it's no wonder we have a "housing crunch" and that people are cramming into high-density residences.
Mr. Coren says this has all sorts of silver linings and suggests that more people should live this way. For instance, older people just love living cheek-by-jowl with dozens of other people's children.
Who cares about family ties? It's a small world after all.
However, here's the tell: "It would also cut global warming emissions," Mr. Coren exudes. "Denser living is almost always greener: fewer homes, less energy and more efficiency overall."
By this reasoning, slums where people are packed in like sardines offer the best way of living, at least for the planet's sake.
So is getting rid of gas-powered cars and trucks and forcing more people to rely on public transit.
This is all part of the Left's war on the American Dream. They hate independence. It doesn't jibe with their vision of collectivist global governance by ruling elites.
One way they pursue this is by distorting civil rights laws into brutal instruments of conformity to their bizarre notions of gender and sexuality. It's all about control.
Liberal-dominated pop culture is full of rebukes of people who cling to the "old" ways.
Episode three of "The Acolyte," the new Star Wars streaming show on the Disney+ network, "features what the LGBTQ publication Them described as a 'coven of lesbian space witches' who appear to use the Force to conceive the twins Mae and Osha without any male involvement," according to the Washington Times' Valerie Richardson.
Cutting fathers out is part of the agenda, especially during Pride month. How dare you object?
Washington Post advice columnist Carolyn Hax wrote a recent piece titled, "Husband is a 'secret bigot,' and I'm the only one who sees that side of him."
A wife tells Ms. Hax that her husband is a hater because he confides only to her in "a rant … about how he's not going to call a trans kid we've known forever by the kid's chosen name and will use his deadname if he feels like it."
This means he won't pretend the girl is a boy. She adds that he doesn't support same-sex marriage and that "there should be no exceptions for outlawing abortion."
The woman says, "His views sicken me … BUT – he's nothing but gracious and warm to our LGBTQIA friends. … Our kids and friends think he's a super-friendly guy."
This man believes, as people have for thousands of years around the world, that marriage is between a man and a woman. He is also pro-life. And he is nice to everybody. He doesn't force his views on others the way woke leftists do.
Ms. Hax urges the woman to help her husband "see the light about bigotry" so he will stop saying "dehumanizing things."
If you're a faithful Christian or an observant Jew and you observe the Golden Rule, you are a "secret bigot."
What's to be done about people like you?
I know. Let's cram everyone together and make sure they all mouth what we tell them to believe. That's the Left's ultimate aim.
But more and more people are on to them, especially their shocking abuse of the legal system to target former President Trump and other opponents. Pushback is well underway.
Champion swimmer Riley Gaines is rallying people against the insanity of men invading women's sports. And this past week, Louisiana enacted a law requiring that the Ten Commandments be posted in school classrooms.
That will drive the liberals crazy, especially the ACLU. They don't like any pushback and are liable to get even nastier. Fasten your seatbelts as we speed toward the November election.
It's good to remember that God is still in His heaven, and that a bumpy ride is better than submission to the "local delegate" in the red-starred hat.
This column was first published at the Washington Times.
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