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Summary: Confessions of a Marxist turned Madisonian
Review: "The tearing down of the Berlin wall marked the end of the modern epoch as surely as the fall of the Bastille marked its beginning two centuries ago." Adherents of ideologies of the left, however, are not as sure as the author herein; and that's the problem as Mr. Horowitz sees it. How many "progressives" in good faith, he waxes, could bring themselves to sign the American Constitution today? The competing claims of the autonomy of the individual and human nature vs. collectivist ends and the inclination to try to remake human beings, unfortunately still exists; notwithstanding the utter failure of the Marxist experiment in dozens of attempts. Mr. Horowitz is not totally surprised, however, defining---as he does---Marxism as a secular faith; a matter not of politics, but of self. One chooses the "left". It's a matter of temperment and, as such, adherents are not easily swayed by factual evidence, however damning. Besides, radicals attitudes do not derive from pragmatic considerations based on experience and/or extrapolation from the past anyway, but on expectations of the future. Leftists thus, by inclination, ensconce themselves in ideological cul-de-sacs; as partisans of a cause that confirms their self-annointed humanity even as it denies humanity to those that oppose them. Such people, the author concludes, are not seeking a new reality, but rather an old illusion; and comfort for their lives, self-exaltation above the fray of a society with which they themselves do not identify. Mr. Horowitz admits that he himself was a victim of this inclinaton, taking on the cause of all the communities of the dispossessed in his youth; inculcated, as he was, into the radical Communist faith by his father. "It was only much later," he adds,"that I came to realize that in becoming part of the Left I had really taken on the cause of no community at all." "This is the socialist delusion," in his view, "the intoxicating fantasy that makes the socially alienated into political saviors." Pertinent herein and what makes this short treatise especially interesting is the author's highly personal (mammoth-lenth) pair of letters explaining to former comrades how he came to accept all of the above. Many books are available which take issue with the "progressive left" in political society, but how many can offer you the insight from the inside, so to speak, of a one-time stalwart believer. That's the benefit of this work and I recommend it (along with "Anti-Americanism" by Jean-Francois Revel and "Of paradise and Power" by Robert Kagan). Cheers!
Rating: 
Summary: A little stilted at times, but....
Review: a good examination of the inherent contradictions of the politics of the modern Left. Horowitz is at times dull and self-absorbed, as when he repeats ad nauseum the story of a failed reconciliation with a childhood Marxist friend, a story documented well enough in *Radical Son*, but at others provides an excellent argument on how the Left cannot see the world as it is due to ideological blinders that allow its adherents only to see the world as they want it to be. The book is at its best in a chapter looking at how the ideological agenda of the leaders of the San Francisco gay community caused them to oppose basic public health interventions in the early 80s, allowing AIDS to spread. Laurie Garrett (*The Coming Plague*) and Randy Shilts (*And the Band Played On...*) both have discussed this elsewhere in greeater detail, but without showing how this relates to the larger, coherent if detached paradigm of left-wing social and political thought.
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Summary: Worthwhile read with unique insights
Review: A great insight into the mind of the left, particularly into the religious nature of ostensibly political beliefs, and the rationalizations and justifications which accompany them. Horowitz succinctly follows the history of the idea and its mutations as it had to contend with the realities which ensued from its application. While a bit more editing would have been helpful, the points made are insightful -- particularly about the reason the left hates private property, the religious parallels in the underlying "theology" of the left and the emotional needs this belief fills, and the proper response conservatives ought to make. Horowitz's odessey has been long and well thought out;this is an effective synopsis of the hard lessons he has learned that we all need to understand.
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Summary: An essential tool to identify the falsehoods of the left
Review: Among the many dozens of books I have read concerning our founders, their philosophies, their dreams and the various other aspects of our Republic and our Republican Form of Government promised in the Constitution. I find this book by David Horowitz to be perhaps one of the most impressive and educational justifications to abandon the liberal philosophy and move more in line with our founders. It is however, also among the three most difficult I have found to read, comprehend and reach the end of in one-piece. For there is on almost every page some interesting, informative and deep seated principle, piece of knowledge and insight that must be underlined or highlighted, slowing down the process considerably. And one must read with care not to miss the wealth of information in all these words of wisdom. Mr. Horowitz has done a superb job of bringing the reader into a better understanding of the failures of the Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler and other philosophies of the extreme left and many of our left wing representives today. And how anyone who follows these failed policies and ideals must find excuses for the devastation and terrible toll they placed and still inflict upon the community of man. There are three main ideas that I perceived from David. First that the core principles of any political philosophies (in our case the right and left, Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals) of the world, when taken to extremes, all converge at a point resulting in, Tyranny, Despotism, Communism and Slavery. And all these things should be shunned and avoided by Americans. Second that our childhood beliefs, which were to some extent in the past simple brainwashing by listening to our parents could be thrown off, once emancipated, if we chose to. Which David did not, until late in his lifetime after finding out some simple truths the hard way. Yet we also find that that condition has been changed now. And in our current society has become a form of government manipulation and brainwashing that continues on for an entire lifetime. Thereby making us slaves to the politically correct, the socialistic social workers and the puppeteers of an aristocratic political establishment that used handouts to enslave the people, and let us not forget the Media Moguls. Television or the visual screen in every home and movie theatre has become mans greatest enemy and will be the instrument of his downfall because our leaders did not regulate it's use and protect our values, character and virtues from it's assassinating effects. Our lack of vigilance has allowed us to become the underdogs in a struggle for true liberty and freedom, and we are loosing badly. And third that all these leftist philosophies lead to Slavery, and those so-called progressives are the architects of that condition. There are four kinds of people that will approach this book. The first will put it down after a few pages and say...boring! The second will put it down after falling asleep several times somewhere in its interior, due to the intensity and level of intellect of Mr. Horowitz insights. The third will read it and fail to get the point, refuse to get the point or rant and rave at him for being a traitor to their liberal causes. And the fourth will find this book invaluable for identifying the beginning and continuing causes for the liberal virus that infest the American Dream and the world. In any case a classic work by David Horowitz that should be on all reading list.
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Summary: right-wing nonsense
Review: an amazingly poor excuse for a book. badly written, badly argued
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Summary: The POLITICS OF BAD FAITH: The Radical Assault on America's
Review: An ineffective diatribe against all things on the left of the political spectrum. Horowitz, president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture and author of numerous works, including The Race Card (1997) and Destructive Generation (1996), asks if the traditional political appellations of ``left'' and ``right'' retain any meaning in postŽCold war America. He answers most emphatically that they do. While he admits that the left may be ``rhetorically in retreat,'' its goals and agenda, he feels, remain the same and consist of nothing less than Ža war against the democracies of the West.'' That we donŽt see the true nature of the leftŽwhether it now calls itself Žprogressive'' or ``liberal'' or whateverŽreflects, for Horowitz, ``the long-standing dominion of socialist sentiment'' within our culture. Despite cosmetic differences, the left is of a piece. Grounded in utopian dreams, coming to fruition in the grotesque tragedy of the Soviet Union, the left continues to insist on absolute economic equality and the abolishment of private property. The right, on the other hand, continues to believe in and defend that which is good: the free individual and the free market. Having presented these themes, however, Horowitz really has nowhere to go, and so the book mostly consists of empty rhetoric. If the left is indeed of a piece, and all left argumentation and critique is therefore Stalinist, there is no need for Horowitz to engage with such critique; itŽs by definition bad. This all makes for a tremendously boring book; one can only read page after page of invective for so long. Readers will look in vain for the precise scholarship and sound logic of which the often brilliant Horowitz is certainly capable. A thrown-together book with no real purpose. Interested readers will be better served reading the author's vastly superior Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey (1997).
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Summary: Horowitz takes on the Left
Review: and their ideological underpinnings, and hits his target. The 1-star reviews seem to be from leftists/liberals whose oxes are getting gored, squealing like stuck pigs. While it is true that many liberals don't ascribe wholesale to radical socialist concepts, you need to understand where liberal ideas came from, the ideological framework if you will.
The motive force for social engineering, the deconstruction of the family, is derived from a modern ideology best described as cultural marxism. He show this in chapter 1 'the left after communism', and their future, introducing along the way folks like Gramsci. Cogently points out that the result is what we see today - cultural divisions have become political battles, a result wholly expected as a result of cultural marxism. He brings up what this means in his second chapter, 'The Fate of the Marxist Idea'. And then Horowitz weaves together those roots in several different areas. Horowitz is an ideologue in the best sense, understanding and articulating ideas and ideals, good and bad, and explaining why they drive surface political events. He is especially effective in exposed the Marxist projects in academia. The result is a very clear picture of the *underlying* structure of our cultural and political faultlines.
Rating:
Summary: Horowitz takes on the Left
Review: and their ideological underpinnings, and hits his target. The 1-star reviews you'll notice are from leftists/liberals whose oxes are getting gored, squealing like stuck pigs. While it is true that many liberals dont ascribe wholesale to radical socialist concepts, you need to understand where some of their ideas came from, the ideological framework for them if you will.
The motive force for social engineering, the deconstruction of the family, is derived from a modern ideology best described as cultural marxism. He show this in chapter 1 'the left after communism', and their future, Gramsci. Cogently points out that the result is what we see today - political battles are cultural battels. He brings up what this means in his second chapter, 'The Fate of the Marxist Idea'. And then Horowitz weaves together those roots in several different areas. Horowitz is an ideologue in the best sense, understanding and articulating ideas and ideals, good and bad, and explaining why they drive surface political events. The result is a very clear picture of the *underlying* structure of our cultural and political faultlines.
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Summary: Hey, the guy was there . . .
Review: Being a staunch Libertarian who holds no truck with bureaucratic social engineering from either the Republican moralists or the Democratic PC crusaders, it is rare that a political screed holds up to the natural cynicism I bring to most reads of this sort. The vast majority are screaming, finger-pointing diatribes extolling the perfection of the authors' POV and the Satanic origin of his opponents'.
That said, I must hand Dr. Horowitz kudos of the grandest nature for his factual analysis of how our two major parties wound up where they are today. Committed Republicans can point to this clear and illustrative history of the Left and discover why they feel like they do; it is difficult to not jerk one's knees in reaction to some of the eyewitness accounts given here.
Committed Democrats can point to this clear and illustrative history of the Left and find their roots; a genaeology of their outlook helps clarify the causes of some of their actions and emotions.
Committed Libertarians, however, will still have a hard time explaining why Republicans are acting more like Democrats and Democrats often pretend to be Republicans; I wonder whether Horowitz is waxing nostalgic or prescient.
In any event, this is history that popular media will not provide. Likewise, I find it noteworthy that academic acquaintences who enjoy Horowitz will also discuss Lerner and Dershowitz equally openly. Not so for the establishment professorials I've known. For those reasons I lean more towards believing the content of this work. If, perhaps, those who disagree would explain their contention with fact and account instead of rhetorical pooh-poohs and the literary equivalent of rolling their eyes, acceptance might still be in question.
A critical examination of the substance of the work coupled with an arms-length perusal of the respective reactions convinces me that Horowitz speaks truthfully. Now, the question is where do we find anybody who can actually do with his presentations what needs to be done?
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Summary: David hits it right on the head
Review: David continues to show that he's at the front edge of conservative thought. There are some reviewers who boo-hood the book. You can bet those reviewers are dealing from the bottom of the deck. My Son, who's attending College in the Northeast, just called to thank me for recommending the book. Now that's what I call groundbreaking.
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