History and Theory | Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the...

Alternate Title: How to De-Program a Liberal Arts Graduate | Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning | Jonah Goldberg

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	• Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning Jonah Goldberg Doubleday, 2008 - 496 pages average customer review:based on 340 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Over the Target

This may be a little cliche, but this book is a quintessential example of, "When you draw a lot of flak, you know you're over the target". A good indicator of a great book is the number of 5-Star AND 1-Star ratings. If you look at the 1-Star ratings, the comments are mostly shallow, contain a lot of name-calling, and they seldom contain any examples to back up their flames. Either they haven't read the book or they've only read the introduction. The book itself is a well-documented history of Marxism / Socialism and its consequences. Goldberg convincingly argues that Fascism is leftist (Marxist, socialist). Corporations seldom backed Fascist leaders prior to their rise to power (remember, corporations are mostly amoral, profit is their primary goal).

Up until I read this book, I thought that the term "progressive" was simply a euphemism for spending a lot of money on bad ideas. I never realized that it went back to the very beginnings of Marxism.

Marxism is a vision of a utopia that can never be realized on earth. Marx developed his theories in the isolation of libraries, and were never tested in the real-world prior to publishing. The primary fallacy of Marxism is its neglect of the flaws of human nature. All utopias rely on the false hope of the emergence of a "New Man" where humans evolve to a higher level of behavior. The reality is that humanity will always fall short: humans are a greedy, self-centered, immoral, lazy, and ungrateful bunch of louts. When is the last time you heard someone say, "Thank You" after getting a government handout?

The academics who are Marx's greatest cheerleaders are a sweet bunch of well-intentioned fools - or as Lenin put even better, "useful idiots". Brilliant fools are still fools. Academics have the great privilege of spending their entire lives living in Marxist Utopias paid for by capitalists. They live in an insular culture where they only associate with those who have beliefs similar to their own. The worth of their labor is judged solely by their peers. This leads to an increasingly abstracted set of ideas and beliefs that steadily diverge from reality.

Marxism has slaughtered more people than any movement in history. Now they are saying, "let's give it one more try". And these are the same people who want to "save the polar bears" based on an abstract theory called "global warming". Well, that's another story.

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History and Theory

The title of this review pretty much says it all. Goldberg begins the book with an examination of fascist theory that gets to its true roots. Communism, fascism, totalitarianism, and other isms are reviewed in a historical context along with the misuse of the word fascist in contemporary American society. Goldberg writes from a noticeably conservative stance but supports his arguments with historical facts, documents, etc. Conservatives will love it while liberals will probably hate it, although Goldberg gives liberals credit where credit is due, and he argues his point in mostly an objective and factual manner rather than from a political/partisan point-of-view.

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Alternate Title: How to De-Program a Liberal Arts Graduate

I suspect that the ivory tower elites will despise this book. University acadamia and the media always equate conservative governments such as the USA under Dubya and Canada under Prime Minister Harper as being the equivalent to Nazis Germany under Hitler. Jonah Goldberg deftly exposes the fact the the Liberal Left have more in common with the National Socialists than just the term "socialist".
It all boils down to individual rights ie the true conservative view that each person is of infinite value vs the socialist view that the worth of the individual must be sacrificed for the "good" of the State. Which is a paradox unto itself, considering that Liberalism/Socialism does not recognize the concepts of good and evil, only moral equivalence.

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Two Sides Of The Same Coin

The truth of the matter is that in terms of ideology the differences between Communism and Fascism are very, very small. Fascists are often mislabeled as "right-wing" because during the rise of Stalin all ideology that deviated from the Moscow approved line of Communism was dubbed "right-wing". Leon Trotsky, who was by no means a Nazi or right-wing conservative, was accused of trying to stage a Nazi coup and was labeled a "right-winger" by Stalin after his fall from favor. While in Germany the term "right-wing" usually referred to the different elements of the Weimar Republic of the time. An example of Fascist programs enacted by the Nazi party and Fascisti in Italy were: guaranteed employment for all citizens, confiscation of WWI profits, shared profits of labor, expanded old age pensions, communalization of department stores, outlawing of child labor, universal health care, and anti-smoking programs to name just a few. None of these programs can be called "right-wing" or Anti-Communist. Communism is an international struggle and as Karl Marx put it: "Working men have no country." Fascists believed that the dreams of Communism can be made INSIDE a country, and did not need to be part of an international struggle or subservient to Moscow.

Fascism has strong corporatist elements without completely subjugating industry under state ownership. While Communism, on the other hand, advocates the collective ownership of property and the organization of labor for the common advantage of all members. Fascist governments do maintain a significant control over private enterprise, but do not entirely co-opt it (as in, say, Communism). The German NAZI party, for example, considered themselves a "Third Way" between laissez-faire capitalism and socialism, in that rather than completely nationalizing industry and taking over the means of production, the government had a very powerful influence over it. That was the principle difference, as all Communist regimes have embraced corporatism in some aspect in their history. Hitler and Mussolini both wanted to create Volksgemeinschaft or "peoples (workers) communities." Communism and Fascism are two sides of the same coin, extreme but separate visions of the same ideology, with Fascism not being as controlling to private business as Communism but still very totalitarian. Keep in mind the Nazi (NSDAP) party was called the National SOCIALIST party, if that is any indication of their true leanings.

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Historical Reminders Apparently Needed

Americans, you need to read this book and consider the pattern in politics that Goldberg's laid out for you with his fine research! You might find yourself as shocked as I was to realize that we haven't been as independent, individualistic and non-European as we may have thought (I did). Beginning with Woodrow Wilson, our leaders and intellectuals SHARED ALOT of ideas with the likes of Hitler (Socialism) and Mussolini (Italian Fascism)! The scary tactics of the French Revolution, the ideas of Hegel, Nietzsche, Bismarck and others - American leaders bought into them too. (Even W.E.B. DuBois was fascinated by Hitlerism.) A desire for CONTROL and UTOPIA fed our politicians just as much as many dictators in the past. As I read this book and watched our Presidential campaigning, I recognized some of the tactics/beliefs from the past are still present! Goldberg is right - coercion remains present, but with a smile and nicer manners! Elites who think they know what's "best" for the "masses" remain in play. I guess if you "trust" that "security" and "regulation of enterprise" are good trade-offs; that humans require "experts" and "herders" to guide them in proper living and attitudes, then you will continue in your rose-tinted "hope" and choose to avoid this book. But like the layers of an onion, or the rings seen in a cut tree stump (as my 19-yr-old son offered as another analogy) we must look back to the past and be CONSCIOUS of HOW WE GOT HERE to this present time in our history, and acknowledge that the battle has been ongoing for decades - between those in America who believe in laissez-faire economic policies, individuality (WE the PEOPLE) and free market innovation/problem-solving VERSUS statism and social behavior engineering and redistribution of wealth and elitism. Wilson and both Roosevelts and Kennedy and Johnson - made a lot of mistakes based on similar beliefs to people we claim to loathe! And those same IDEAS still motivate today's politicians. All the EXPERIMENTATION - with no stopping to think whether it's flawed - continues to be encouraged - Just keep on trying to make a Utopia, till you get it right! When we really need to admit mistaken paths taken, and admit we "listened to" the wrong ideas, and say ENOUGH! Aren't we on the brink of REAL destruction in America? If our leaders would return to the wisdom of our Founding Fathers - who saw civil duty as a SHORT-TERM obligation and the Best Interest of ALL Americans as the goal instead of self-aggrandizement, power-hunger, and CONTROL, maybe we could restore our country to the Shining Example to the rest of the world we once were. We need OUR PEOPLE to take responsibility once again for their own self-education and stop being so TRUSTING and GULLIBLE before it's too late! READ THIS BOOK!

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