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The Persistence of the Left
Why an ideology so graphically repudiated by history – and so bloody in its application – continues to endure.
by Bruce Thornton, FPM
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 sparked a wave of optimism and triumphalism across the West. Our nuclear-armed rival and ideological enemy had suddenly disappeared, taking with it the shadow of nuclear apocalypse. But for the Left, since 1917 the Soviet Union had been the locus of the hopes and dreams of leftist collectivism. Now history, understood as an ideological game of thrones, had ended, dashing that hope. Liberal democracy, private property, and free-market capitalism had prevailed, and no credible alternative remained.
This optimism was expressed by George H.W. Bush in 1991, when he celebrated this “new world order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind––peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law.” Yet the demise of the USSR did not mean the end of various Marxist ideals like collectivism and the “command economy,” which haven’t just survived, but in recent decades have grown stronger under progressivist rule.
How is it that an ideology so graphically repudiated by history and so bloody in its application, has managed to endure, especially in the West, which has provided the greatest and most widespread prosperity, political equality, and freedom in human history?
The survival of the Left has nothing to do with the intellectual coherence or truth of its ideas. Leftism is predicated on dubious, if not wildly absurd, assumptions and ideas about human nature and motivation: secularism, philosophical materialism, determinism, and the technocratic fallacy that “science” can discover and exploit the timeless forces and laws of human progress and social improvement. The latter claim in particular has been repudiated by Marxism’s ghastly toll of 100 million dead, and millions more enslaved in gulags and forced-labor camps like the ones we see today in Communist China’s Xinjiang western region, where more than a million Muslim Uighurs are being subjected to forced labor and brutal “re-education.”
One obvious reason for Leftism’s survival in the West is its successful “long march” through our educational institutions. It started in the universities, where tenure, unions, and a lack of accountability to voters or the market ensured that bad ideas could flourish, then trickle down into K-12 schools through higher education’s monopoly on teacher-training.
Just track how widespread transgenderism, the unscientific notion that biological sex can be chosen, has become. From its beginnings in universities and the work of intellectual farceurs like Michelle Foucault, these pernicious ideas now are shaping grammar school curricula and activities, government regulations, and corporate C-Suites and boardrooms, including the U.S. military.
As transgenderism also shows, this form of Leftism has evolved away from Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy, or the ruthless, dangerous work of making a revolution or organizing on the factory floor. The failure of the Marxist libretto to achieve the predicted eventual triumph of collective ownership of the means of production, and the “withering away of the state,” has made Cultural Marxism much more comfortable and profitable.
This sort of Marxism also has other attractions more suited for the affluent cognitive elites. The decline of faith in a justifying, transcendent narrative does not mean that the need for such assurance and solace disappears. Communism has long been defined as a “political religion,” one based on faith rather than reason and empirical evidence, on many points corresponding to Christianity.
Historian Michael Burleigh has catalogued the similarities between Marxism and the Judeo-Christian heritage:
““consciousness” (soul), “comrades” (faithful), “capitalists (sinner), “devil” (counter-revolutionary), “proletariat” (chosen people), “classless society” (paradise). The ruling classes were going to face a “Last Judgement” . . . . But there were far deeper unacknowledged correspondences, including nostalgia for a lost oneness and the beliefs that time was linear . . . , that the achievement of higher consciousness brought salvation, and that history was progressing with its meaning and purpose evident to the discerning knowledgeable vanguard.”
Moreover, these correspondences fit as well the master narrative of the modern West, particularly the idea that knowledge of the material world is sufficient for understanding and improving the human world, and this progress is inevitable, if only the ignorant and superstitious who “cling to their guns and religion” could be converted––and the anachronistic Constitution be replaced with a technocracy of cognitive elites.
The gratification Marxism provides from knowing one is part of that elite is another reason Marxism or progressivism, Marxism Lite, has maintained its hold on our culture. In other words, pure snobbery, the sense that one is better than everybody else. By espousing, usually in word rather than deed, the “liberation” of the “oppressed victims of capitalism,” the Marxiste snob can show off his superiority to the vulgar entrepreneurs, manufacturers of low-brow products, and commercial hucksters who generate all the wealth, while also stiring bitter resentment in many “brights,” especially academics who chronically whine that they’re underpaid and unjustly ignored.
The Leftist confection of “false consciousness” also conveniently allows the snob to champion the masses afflicted by this malady at the same time he sneers at “smelly Wal-Mart shoppers.” The snob thinks he’s superior because he knows what’s really politically true, just as he knows which films or novels or restaurants or music or fashion is superior. Leftist ideas, then, are like designer labels, emblems of class superiority. Only the vulgar rich and bourgeois parvenus vote Republican.
Another modification of Leftism is its therapeutic thrust: its sentimental privileging of the suffering masses and victims of American global depredations; and its smug displays of “conspicuous compassion,” as Allan Bloom called it. Hence the therapeutic Leftist opposes free-market capitalism because it creates winners and losers and so hurts people’s feelings, not to mention besmirching the environment. He feels bad about all the unjust suffering in the world, but he practices what Charles Dickens called “telescopic philanthropy,” the conspicuous display of sensitivity to suffering, but from a safe distance.
Endorsing Marxist or progressive illusions about the perfectibility of human life, the sentimentalist chafes at tragic limits and human corruption, seeing these as distortions of a fundamentally good and cooperative human nature. And Marxiste politics is the political program that will sweep away the economic and political impediments to this authentic human nature, one warped by traditional superstitions like free will and responsibility for one’s bad choices––which are in fact determined by an unjust political order.
Finally, “woke” identity politics, a species of parochial particularism––which, like nationalism, real Marxists would have contemptuously dismissed––has added being Left to the “woke” suite of identity markers. Hence the popularity of socialism among the young, who endorse it as a hip token of identity like being trans or gay. Indeed, as Robert Spencer reported,
“Eric Kaufmann, a Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology research fellow, says that this expansion correlates with the students’ identification with the Left: ‘The trend toward LGBT identification among young people, which has seen a threefold expansion since 2008, encompasses both university and non-university young people, white as well as minority. That said, those who identify as ‘very liberal’ are substantially more likely to say they are LGBT and white left-wing activists are extremely likely to do so, with some 70% of very liberal women who support shouting down offensive speakers identifying as LGBT.’”
Being a leftist, like being gay, is now a brand in the intersectionality of identity fashion.
In short, human weakness and frailty––its susceptibility to “black-market” religions, as Chantal del Sol defines political religions; its thirst for status and superiority, and its indulgence of showy feelings that signal one’s superior virtue and compassion––have kept Leftism alive despite its manifold bloody failures, and has helped it to persist by making it immune to empirical evidence and rational argument.
Unfortunately, the rest of us are paying for this reliance on bloody nonsense to secure status, a sense of superiority, and, of course, the acquisition of a fat income, social power, and political leverage. We will likely soon see that the cost is too high.
Bruce S. Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, an emeritus professor of classics and humanities at California State University, Fresno, and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. His latest book is Democracy’s Dangers and Discontents: The Tyranny of the Majority from the Greeks to Obama.
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Every once in a while items I previously post are worth repeating.
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America Is Stronger Than Biden’s Foreign Policy
Like his predecessors, he hasn’t inspired much confidence in U.S. leadership.
By Walter Russell Mead
As President Biden’s first term nears its halfway mark, many in the administration feel reasonably good about America’s position in the world. True, hopes of sidelining Russia so that the U.S. could focus on China undisturbed haven’t come to fruition. The expectation that relations with Iran would stabilize with a new administration willing to return to the nuclear deal proved equally wrong. And the president’s signature move—the withdrawal from Afghanistan that Mr. Biden forced through—was executed so poorly that it left a permanent mark on the team’s reputation.
Relations with allies and partners across the Indo-Pacific also look strong. Japan is doubling its defense spending. The Quad (the U.S., India, Australia and Japan) continues to develop. For the first time ever, a South Korean president attended the NATO summit last June. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Philippines seems to value a deeper defense relationship with Washington.
The world’s democracies may be muddling along in their usual half-satisfactory way, but it looks a lot better than the car crashes that authoritarian regimes in Russia, China and Iran have been facing lately. Mr. Putin’s war, China’s economic and pandemic troubles, and Iran’s thuggish assault on its own people have taken the shine off the authoritarian model.
Neither American democracy nor the world capitalist order crashed in 2022. The usual chorus of voices predicting the imminent collapse of both has proved, yet again, to be premature. But the Biden administration would be ill-advised to pat itself on the back. If things are looking up for America, it isn’t because Team Biden is getting most things right. Things are looking good for America because our international power rests on such sturdy foundations that, within limits, other countries step up when America fumbles.
The global maritime system of commerce and security—built by the British in the 18th century, led by America since World War II and still dominant today—is a lot tougher and more resilient than it looks. When the hegemon grows weary, other powers that benefit from the system step in to support it—as the U.S. did for Britain in the world wars. As China and Russia become more threatening, their neighbors are eager to build coalitions to offset them. That makes countries such as Finland, India and Japan interested in deepening their relations with the U.S.
Bidenites high-fiving each other and claiming, “Diplomacy is back!” need to understand that America’s allies are becoming more active because they fear American decline. Given the inconstancy of 21st-century American presidential leadership (George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden), few of our allies are confident about where we’re headed. Japan is stepping up defense spending because the American foreign-policy establishment, during two decades of passive incompetence, failed to anticipate, counter or deter China’s massive military buildup. Germany’s Zeitenwende, or turning point, resulted from the Biden administration’s failure to deter a weakened Russia in Ukraine. The Abraham Accords in the Middle East are best understood as a regional vote of no confidence in American leadership and reliability.
While the surge of military activism and strategic engagement by powers such as India, Germany and Japan helps balance the scales against Russia and China, the multipolar world emerging from the remains of the Pax Americana will create as many problems as it solves. After World War II, Americans sought to reduce great-power rivalries by maintaining an overwhelming military power that deterred adversaries, reassured allies and prevented the destabilizing arms races and economic rivalries that in the past had often led to major international conflicts. The kind of multipolar arms race now emerging in the Indo-Pacific is exactly what past American presidents sought to prevent, not encourage.
Meanwhile, shortsighted economic policies here and abroad are undermining the integrated world economy that underpins both American prosperity and global peace. A perverse synthesis of Trumpian trade policy, half-baked green-energy initiatives and knee-jerk progressive regulatory overreach won’t make the world a better or safer place.
Two years into the Biden era, the report card is mixed. To the frustration of our rivals, the inherent strengths of the Anglo-American strategic approach to world affairs continue to bolster American power and support American interests. Yet confidence in America’s leadership continues to decline, and the political and economic foundations of the Pax Americana continue to erode.
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Another Biden foreign policy disaster .
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China’s Deal with Saudi Arabia is a Disaster for Biden
By Con Coughlin, GATESTONE
Nothing better illustrates the utter ineptitude of the Biden administration’s dealings with the Middle East than Saudi Arabia’s decision to forge a strategic alliance with China.
Biden set the tone for his strained relationship with the Saudi royal family during the 2020 presidential election contest when he denounced the kingdom as a “pariah” state over its involvement in the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018, although there has never any audible distress from the Biden administration over Iran’s 2007 abduction and presumed death of ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson.
By any standard, the deepening military cooperation between Russia and Iran should serve as a wake-up call to the Biden administration to redouble its efforts to reaffirm its commitment to key allies in the region such as the Saudis, who are committed to resisting any attempt by Tehran to expand its malign influence in the region.
That Riyadh is now moving away from its traditional alliance with the US and strengthening its ties with Beijing is a strategic disaster of epic proportions, and serves as a damning indictment of the Biden administration’s careless treatment of the Saudis, for which the president is personally to blame.
That Saudi Arabia is now moving away from its traditional alliance with the US and strengthening its ties with China is a strategic disaster of epic proportions, and serves as a damning indictment of the Biden administration’s careless treatment of the Saudis.
Nothing better illustrates the utter ineptitude of the Biden administration’s dealings with the Middle East than Saudi Arabia’s decision to forge a strategic alliance with China.
This is a time when Washington should be working overtime to strengthen its ties with long-standing allies like the Saudis to combat the mounting threat Iran poses to the region’s security.
Apart from the deeply alarming progress the ayatollahs are said to be making with their efforts to produce nuclear weapons,
The new “axis of evil” that has been formed between Moscow and Tehran in recent months means Iran will soon be taking delivery of state-of-the-art Russian warplanes to add to its military arsenal.
In what both the White House and Downing Street described as “sordid deals” between the two countries, Iran is due to take delivery of Russian Su-35 fighter jets next year as well as other advanced military equipment and components, including helicopters and air defence systems. In return Iran is providing Russia with hundreds of its Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 so-called kamikaze drones, which self-destruct on hitting their target.
As US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby explained at a briefing in Washington, Moscow has “offered Iran an unprecedented level of military and technical support”, which “transforms their relationship into a full defense partnership”.
Biden administration officials added that Iranian pilots were already being trained in Russia on how to fly the Su-35 fighter.
By any standard, the deepening military cooperation between Russia and Iran should serve as a wake-up call to the Biden administration to redouble its efforts to reaffirm its commitment to key allies in the region such as the Saudis, who are committed to resisting any attempt by Tehran to expand its malign influence in the region.
Riyadh’s determination to resist Iran’s aggressive conduct was reflected in recent comments made by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud who warned that “all bets are off” if Iran succeeds in its goal of acquiring an operational nuclear weapon.
“We are in a very dangerous space in the region… you can expect that regional states will certainly look towards how they can ensure their own security,” he said.
Riyadh’s robust approach to Iran’s bellicose conduct is exactly the sort of response Washington needs to see from its allies as it faces up to the Iranian threat. Yet, thanks to the Biden administration’s wilful neglect of its relations with the Saudis, Riyadh is instead looking to build a partnership with Beijing, as was evident from the lavish reception given to Chinese President Xi Jinping during his state visit to the kingdom this month.
Rarely has a visiting leader been the recipient of such lavish state pageantry as Xi after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spared no effort to afford the Chinese leader a warm welcome, which included a jet escort on his arrival.
During his three-day visit, Xi held extensive talks with the Crown Prince, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, as well as other senior Saudi officials and signed a strategic partnership agreement that will deepen ties between Riyadh and Beijing on a range of issues, from defence to technology.
One particularly eye-catching aspect of the agreement was a deal with the Chinese tech giant Huawei to supply the Saudis with cloud computing services and allow “high-tech” complexes to be built in Saudi cities, according to Saudi officials.
Huawei has been designated a potential security threat by the US, with intelligence officials claiming that the company has close links to China’s ruling Communist Party and could be used to conduct spying operations.
That Riyadh is now moving away from its traditional alliance with the US and strengthening its ties with Beijing is a strategic disaster of epic proportions, and serves as a damning indictment of the Biden administration’s careless treatment of the Saudis, for which the president is personally to blame.
Biden set the tone for his strained relationship with the Saudi royal family during the 2020 presidential election contest when he denounced the kingdom as a “pariah” state over its involvement in the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018, although there has never any audible distress from the Biden administration over Iran’s 2007 abduction and presumed death of ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though, forced Biden to rethink his attitude towards the Saudis when it suddenly dawned on him that he needed the Saudis to increase oil supplies to ease the pressure on global prices.
His efforts achieved little: the Saudis were apparently unimpressed with Biden greeting the Crown Prince with a fist-bump when he visited the kingdom in the summer, and he came away empty-handed, with the Saudis and other Gulf states ignoring his plea to increase oil production.
Apart from being dismayed about Biden’s obsession with reviving the controversial nuclear deal with Tehran, which they regard as a flawed agreement — it allows the Iranian regime soon to build as many nuclear weapons as it likes as well, as the ballistic missiles to deliver them — the Saudis and other Gulf leaders are unhappy with the lack of support they have received from Washington over the constant threat they face from Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, whom Secretary of State Antony Blinken removed from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations just a few weeks into Biden’s term, and who since then regularly fired Iranian-made missiles and drones into Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Now, thanks to Biden’s incompetent management of the US-Saudi relationship, Riyadh is looking to China to protect its interests, a move that confirms the alarming decline in US influence in the region that has taken place under the vacuum in Biden’s leadership.
Con Coughlin is the Telegraph‘s Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
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From a very dear friend and fellow memo reader:
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Merry Christmas
Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the land
"Sleepy Joe" was still President
Aw shit " Come -on Man".
The stockings were hung
By the fireplace with care
With hopes that inflation
Wouldn't leave them all bare.
The border's wide open
For all to walk in
What Biden has done
Is beyond just a Sin.
Inflation is high
Gas prices too
Groceries are Outrageous
We're all getting screwed.
Trump has been pilloried
For all to see
Let's hear it for Pelosi
And the Jan. 6th Committee.
Yet here we are
Looking forward to a new year
Republicans took the House
That's something to Cheer.
With Hunter, Afghanistan, Covid,
Illegal Immigration and Crime
Who knows if House Investigations
Will have enough time.
Thank God for Musk
He opened up Twitter
To expose the Dems and FBI
For putting the Election in the Shitter
On Hannity, on Carlson
On Ingraham and Levine
Go Bongino, Waters
Guttfield and Kilmead
Hail McCarthy, Scalise Jordan and Kennedy
Perhaps Tim Scott, Greg Abbott
Rand Paul and Ron DeSantis
Can be the Remedy
This Political banter
Has been quite a Hoot
The Woke left and Socialists
Can kiss my pitoot.
But I still believe
In God we do Trust
Conservatives Must save this Country
Or the Budget we'll Bust.
So I say to you all
As we celebrate this New Year
Let's hope that 2023
Will bring us some Cheer.
To all of our Family and Friends
I hope this tongue-in-cheek poem
Will not offend
For it's written with Love
Thought and Reason
To wish all of you
A HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON!!!!!!
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