Sunday, July 17, 2016

Excerpts From Horowitz's "Progressives"

David Horowitz was a "radical leftist" in his early years. He renounced leftism, and has devoted his life to revealing the underlying principles of leftism. The following are quotes taken from a review by Paul Hollander of Horowitz's second book, "Progressives".
"[T]he community of the left is a community of meaning, and is bound by ties that are fundamentally religious. For the non-religious, politics is the art of managing the possible. For the left, it is the path to social and personal redemption…For the left, politics is ultimately not about practical options on which reasonable people may reasonably differ. It is about moral choices that define us as human. It is about taking sides in a war that will decide the future of mankind… "[159]
Horowitz correctly observes that,
"Our century was a stage for the destructive drama of a secular religious faith called socialism, inspired by dreams of a social redemption that would be achieved by human agency, through the force of politics and the state." [189]
[Emphasis added]
The specific reason that AtheoLeftists cannot be persuaded by logic, by empirical data regarding the hundreds of millions callously killed by Leftism, or by the obvious failures of every socialist state to provide for its people, is that Leftism is a religion, fervently believed despite all evidence to the contrary. Today's evidence is Venezuela; ignoring that evidence are the millions of "free stuff" Bernie Sanders Leftists. It will never stop; it never has. The war will proceed forever and must always be fought, at every level - from local SJWs to Congressional, Supreme Court and bureaucratic proto-dictators. It is a perpetual civil war and no one is exempt.

There is only one question: what tactics are required in order to prevail.

1 comment:

CJ said...

The difference between a classical liberal and modern social liberals (aka "progressives") is that a classical liberal believes people are best left alone to solve their own problems.

A social liberal believes in leveraging government to solve everyone's problems for them.

A classical liberal believes government exists to protect people from each other.

A progressive believes government exists to force everyone to get along, whether they want to or not.

A classical liberal believes financial self-interest in the context of a free market is the best method of fighting poverty, and that people should be as free as possible to secure their own economic self-interest.

A progressive believes in giving away other peoples' money.

A classical liberal believes in a free market both labor and capital would receive the greatest possible reward.

A progressive believes enabling people to fend for themselves is "racism".

Today we call classical liberals conservatives.

We call progressives clinically insane.