Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Understanding The Left
David Horowitz has been fighting the good fight for many years. In his blog at Front Page Magazine, he puts very simply what often has us just scratching our heads: namely, how can American (academic) leftists be in such clear opposition to their own country? He and Peter Collier wrote the following a decade ago:
Among academic intellectuals, the leading philosophical doctrines—Marxism(!), structuralism, deconstruc-tionism, etc.—are rooted in intellectual and political traditions that gave rise to Nazism and Communism, the twin scourges of the 20th century. The thrust of these doctrines is to question and deconstruct democratic traditions and values, to instill a sense of moral relativism and moral equivalency, and to question objectivity and truth itself. In this atmosphere of distortion and propaganda, America's tolerance and freedom are indistinguishable from totalitarian force. It is hardly an accident that the university-based intelligentsia has been the center of relentless attacks on America's national security apparatus and its policies for the last 25 years or that it has been the focus of opposition to America's recent effort to lead a multinational coalition against Iraq's aggression in the Persian Gulf.
Among academic intellectuals, the leading philosophical doctrines—Marxism(!), structuralism, deconstruc-tionism, etc.—are rooted in intellectual and political traditions that gave rise to Nazism and Communism, the twin scourges of the 20th century. The thrust of these doctrines is to question and deconstruct democratic traditions and values, to instill a sense of moral relativism and moral equivalency, and to question objectivity and truth itself. In this atmosphere of distortion and propaganda, America's tolerance and freedom are indistinguishable from totalitarian force. It is hardly an accident that the university-based intelligentsia has been the center of relentless attacks on America's national security apparatus and its policies for the last 25 years or that it has been the focus of opposition to America's recent effort to lead a multinational coalition against Iraq's aggression in the Persian Gulf.
# posted by mds : 7:56 AM
