Horowitz on Progressivism

Vincent J. Curtis

4 Dec 22

About ten years ago, American political activist David Horowitz began a speaking tour on college campuses throughout the United States to warn people, especially students, of the true nature of progressivism.  He knew progressivism from the beginning; he knew it inside and out.  I surmise that his lectures were video-recorded, and some of them wound up on YouTube.  I was so impressed with this one that I took notes.  Below are the raw notes I took from Horowitz’s lecture.  Jonah Goldberg, a few years ago, wrote a book entitled “Liberal Fascism” which covers the same waterfront and is likewise insightful.  It’s book I recommend.  Horowitz’s analysis is pithy and pungent.

David Horowitz on Progressivism:

Progressives break things, and leave it to others to clean up the mess.

Communists, fellow travelers, and dupes.

They’re not Jeffersonian Democrats, they’re communists.

The mentor of the entire American Left today is Saul D. Alinsky.  Don’t telegraph your agenda, he recommended.  Lie.

Four features of the Leftist mentality.

“Man if born free but live everywhere in chains.  Society did it.  People in a state of nature get along, they’re not greedy, they don’t lie, they’re not vain, they’re not driven by their ego.  Everybody on the Left believes this crock.  That’s why they think government can solve problems.  (Government the creator of slavery, segregation, war, whatever.)  You take people who are lying, cheating, and stealing, and oppressing, and we give them lots of power, and they’re going to fix everything???  No, they’re not, they’re going to go on being what they were before they came to power, only much worse.

Conservatives understand that the root cause of social problems is us.  We’re the problem; that’s why it’s never been solved.  We are the problem; therefore, the founders devised a system of government with checks and balances, to make it really difficult to change things.  To tyrannize over our fellow citizens.

If you believe that social institutions are the source of the problem, and that if you change social organizations you can change people. Even Hillary Clinton said we have to redefine what it means to be human in the 21^st century.  That is communism.  That is what drives them.  Their core belief that if we get enough power and change social institutions, we’re going to create new men and new women, and we’re all going to get along with each other.

Second characteristic:  They like the term progressive because they believe history is in a forward march.  Things are getting better and better; now and again there are setbacks.  “The moral acrc of the universe is bent towards justice.”  NO IT ISN”T!!  Is there a worse century in history than the 20^th century?  The slaughter of human beings, and slave labor camps, the oppressions, 100 million people were killed.  Progressives believe that there’s a happy future.

Progressives are focussed on the future, not the past like conservative, and the chief characteristic of the future is that it’s imaginary.  The future they’re focussed on has never existed in human history.  It’s very destructive, as we know from the progressive movements of the 20^th century, which killed 100 million people - in peacetime.

Progressivism is a crypt-religion.  The world is a fallen place, and we’re going to save it.  They see themselves as the savior.  If you think the redemption is going to take place in this life, and you’re going to be part of it, that’s the Hitlers, that’s the Maos, that’s the Lenins.  If we have the power we can do it.  If you believe that social institutions can change things, then, looking at your opponent, they’re not going along with the program, you see yourself as the army of the saints.  Who are they?  They’re the party of Satan.  That’s why they’re rude, that’s why they’re interrupting, that’s why it doesn’t bother them in the least that there are no conservatives on their faculties.  Conservatives are evil!  They’re spreading ideas that are evil, and are keeping people from enjoying this paradise on earth that they’re going to bring about.

Third characteristic is their problematic loyalty to America.  Alienation from America.  America’s the problem; what weakens America is actually good.

Fourth characteristic is that they lie.  You cannot be a Leftist without lying.  Without lying about the most basic strategic facts about who you are.  The kingdom of heaven on earth that they’re going to bring about.  (How arrogant is that?)  Progressives cannot telegraph their agendas.  How can they be so delusional?  Because in their minds, these are just building blocks to a Socialist America.  If you are prepared to use the IRS to punish your political opponents, if you have a healthcare system controlled by the government that controls the services that can save the lives of loved ones, and you have spy agencies that know everything that’s going on, you don’t need a secret police to destroy any opponent. 

Bill Ayers:  I despised Bill Ayres because I was a Marxist revolutionary, and he was a rich, snot-nosed irresponsible twit, and an ignoramus.  Which he remains today. 

If you believed you could bring about heaven on earth, what lie would you not tell, what crime would you not commit?

The more noble and lofty the idealism the bigger the crime it will justify.  (quoting Nietzsche).

Read their books.  The most extreme racist views.  Racist against white, but they’re still racist views.

Progressives show contempt for the people they’re defending: to say that’ they’re brainwashed all the time, and have no volition of their own.  They allow themselves to be socially constructed.

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