Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning by Jonah Goldberg Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning
Book Review: Libertarian Screed
Summary: 5 Stars
It's a cheap shot to call your opponents fascist - the word doesn't mean much anymore. Nevertheless, I like Jonah's columns, and I'll read this book when it comes out - my local Barnes & Noble doesn't have it in stock yet.
Anyway, my own libertarian screed probably isn't as good, but I bet it's more entertaining. While waiting for Jonah's book to hit the shelves, you might want to try Naked in Haiti: A sexy morality tale about tourists, prostitutes & politicians.
Book Review: Merely Historical Fact!
Summary: 5 Stars
We are constantly besieged with this insistance that leftists are "kind and tolerant", that a secular leftist government is so much more "benign" and "humane".
In fact, we are told that the greatest threat to freedom ...is Christianity, ...and Capitalism!
Some would have us believe Judeo-Christian philosophy, indeed all of traditional Western culture, is "dangerous" and "racist" and "sexist" and "violent" and "intolerant"!
...Is it as dangerous , violent, and intolerant as such "humane and benign" SECULAR LEFTIST governments as the U.S.S.R., The "Peoples' Republic" of China, Cambodia (under Pol Pot), Veitnam, North Korea, Laos, Cuba, ...and Nazi Germany?
You will never hear a leftist shriek so hysterically as when you point out THE HISTORICAL AND IDEOLOGICAL FACT THAT NAZIISM AND COMMUNISM ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME SOCIALIST COIN.
I have thoroughly studied history for 22 years, and I realized this basic fact long ago. I have been searching for a book that specifically clarifies this issue, and this is it!
Mr. Goldberg gives us a thorough disection of the leftist poitical philosophy of the 20th century and its influence upon the contemporary liberal entities. The history is there, in most libraries, for anyone to read. Go to the library and see for yourself. As for informed debate on the matter, I find that the "well-read" liberal, has read a quantity of "liberal literature" ...and little else. They simply can't be troubled to study anything outside of their agenda-driven propaganda.
The world really is more complex than the perspective of Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Mao, Guevara, and Margaret Sanger!
To the properly indoctrinated leftist, the ideology is FAR MORE IMPORTANT. The FACTS, if contrary ...are irrelevant!
Mr. Goldberg's book will be predictably reviled and denounced by all classes of leftist. But when confronted with skeptical rebuttal, the primary question will be: "Did you actually READ the book?"
Let us consider this:
The leftist can exist freely and openly under a Western capitalist government, and voice opposition to it.
If you voice opposition to a leftist secular government, you wind up in a concentration-camp ...and leave through the chimney.
Book Review: Author mistakenly equates all authoritarianism with fascism
Summary: 2 Stars
The primary problem I had with this book is not so much the author's associating American liberalism/progressivism with European fascism but with his attempt to say that all authoritarianism and idealization of the State is by definition, his definition, fascism. He goes so far as to say Lenin, Stalin, and Castro are fascists. This is absurd. They were, or are in the case of Castro, certainly authoritarian, but to call them fascist it to miss the clear differences in their economic policies from people like Hitler or Mussolini who were economic centrists--a Third Way between capitalism and socialism.
If one takes into consideration all of the various political ideologies present in western democracies during the 19th through the early 21st centuries and places them on a Cartesian plane with economic issues on the x-axis (left/right) and social issues on the y-axis (authoritarian/libertarian) one can more easily distinguish the differences between various points of view. Authoritarian rightists like the American Republican and Democratic Parties would be in the upper right, authoritarian leftists like Castro and Lenin would be on the upper left, libertarian leftists like Gandhi and Nelson Mandela would be on the lower left, and libertarian rightists such as Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand would be on the lower right.
Given a model of political philosophy such as above fascists are close to the center of the economic axis, though historically they leaned to the economic right, not the left as Goldberg asserts. Where Goldberg is correct is in associating fascism and American liberalism on economic issues. The Democratic Leadership Council, modern UK Labour, and the German Social Democrats under Schroder (all of whom are representative of economic centrism) have even openly embraced the term the term Third Way to represent their politics. However it must be clearly emphasized that all of these groups are certainly more socially libertarian than any historical or contemporary fascist parties.
Apart from their economic centrism - once again centrism being a center between advocates of neo-liberal capitalism and economic policy as advocated by authoritarian Marxist-Leninists or libertarian socialists - historical and contemporary fascists, like the British National Party or the French National Front, openly embrace a law and order social policy that seeks to empower the police and military while promoting race and nationalism as paramount values. American liberals, on the other had, do not advocate for these things or at least not nearly as much as the BNP or the Front national.
In general Goldberg states an interesting case for associating American liberalism with European fascism but he makes some pretty big mistakes by calling all authoritarianism fascism and calling it part of the economic left. The latter can be partially forgive as, in the American context that he is writing, the economic views that liberals and fascists share are the far left to some someone as far to the right economically as Goldberg.
Book Review: Pleasantly Surprised
Summary: 5 Stars
I did go in biased - not thinking I'd find much new given that the title already makes perfect sense (to me). I am surprised at just how enlightening it was re: the roots of the "new" oppressive left. What a great stroke of timing Mr. Goldberg has had with this book, as publisher Ezra Levant begins his odyssey through a leftist, Albertan Kangaroo court for thought crime. This is a serious book that I hope fosters a conversation regarding its thesis in areas more widely spread than the typical conservative corners in which it would find no disagreement.Book Review: Serious yet eminently Goldbergian - Worth the Wait!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was purchased for me as a gift for Christmas 2006. It was definitely worth the wait!
Jonah Goldberg has put together a serious and very accessible work that lays bare the silly name calling games of the left. Unfortunately, the nature of debate within the American left often finds it genesis in emotion rather than fact. As such, I am not sure those who really need to read this book will ever do much more than stomp their feet and shout pejoratives.
In my home state of CA the government is moving to take control of all home thermostats for the collective good. Whether it is politically correct speech, hate crime legislation, automobile cell phone bans, motorcycle helmet laws, trans-fat bans, limiting soda in schools, yadda-yadda-yadda... The forces of "Good" have their roots in a very dark part of the left side of the political spectrum.
Of course in the end we will cede many of our freedoms "for the children" or "for the environment" or for whatever de jour heartstring-pulling claptrap comes down the pike. It is a sad site to behold.
As we continue this uneducated stampede toward nannystateism, it is important to deeply and profoundly ponder the truism that those who are willing to have a master certainly deserve one.
Freedom deserves a hearty defense and only serious minded people armed with facts will be able to defend our most precious possession. Do yourself a favor: Buy this book - Read this book - Share this book!