Free Market Bolsheviks

2/17/05 | Peter Gaffney

[gnosys]

I'm surprised more Christians and others of deep religious conviction here in America aren't at least slightly put off by the philosophy of the Neoconservatives who are at the top of the current administration -- not Bush himself, who I believe is a man of genuine faith, but Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, etc. -- and in particular the view formulated by their mentor Leo Strauss that religion is a useful illusion which should be encouraged among the common people because it promotes social order and mitigates the corrupting influences of selfishness and materialism. (The leaders themselves don't need to believe in the myth, of course, any more than adults need to -- or could -- believe in the Easter Bunny.) They have much the same view of patriotism.

I personally find the arrogance and cynicism of these attitudes offensive. It makes me wonder if it's more than a coincidence that many of the founding fathers of the Neocon movement were former Communists who abandoned the Party because of the excesses of Stalinism but who, in their migration to the extreme right, remained motivated by a vision of a radical new social order engineered and led by an intellectual elite -- themselves or their heirs -- who thought they knew what was best for the people but who also believed that the people aren't sophisticated enough to understand that they are being manipulated for their own good and therefore must be kept in the dark about many of the details of the grand plan. In such an elitist scheme, democracy and freedom are window dressing, to be honored more in name than in actual practice.

In order to encourage the people's willing cooperation and to strengthen their own grip on the reins of power, the Neocons also believe in the creation or magnification of an external threat to American society. This same group of people -- Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Cheney, et al -- have been thinking along these lines since they first achieved a measure of power under the Ford Administration. At that time they promoted the myth of a (in fact nonexistent) secret Soviet military buildup. Now they've got a far more real and dangerous threat -- terrorism -- to serve their purposes. Whether or not there's been any exaggeration involved in their portrayal of the terrorist menace -- certainly there's no denying the possibility of another attack on America on the scale of 9/11 or perhaps much worse -- it's helped the Neocons consolidate their grip on power in Washington, ensuring the re-election of their President and creating a climate of insecurity in which it's been easier for them to push forward their agenda (and cast their opponents as disloyal and unpatriotic).

Please understand, I have no evidence that this Neocon cabal has done anything WRONG -- now or in the past. I don't know what their long-range plans call for, or, if it were to be carried out, whether it would ultimately prove to be for the good or ill of America.

What disturbs me about these guys is simply that they're not being entirely forthright about their agenda for America, nor about their vision of themselves as an intellectually and morally superior elite better equipped to decide our future than we ourselves are, nor about their view of faith, patriotism and democratic ideals not as eternal truths but as useful illusions and tools of social manipulation. On one level these Neocons extremely idealistic; on another they're caculating and cynical. Their god may be the free market rather than state socialism, but in other ways they seem to me disturbingly reminiscent of Bolsheviks -- not bound by the rules society imposes on lesser men, essentially disingenous about the true nature of their project and confident their high-minded ends justify almost any means .

[LongsforReagan]

Welcome to FR.

[formercalifornian]

I couldn't have said it better.

[Tax-chick]

Snore.

[texan75010]

I would rather have leadership whose god is free markets as opposed to leaders whose god demands unborn children be cut up and sucked out into a bucket.

I would rather have leadership who let me keep more of my own money as opposed to leaders who confiscate my earnings at an ever increasing rate.

I would rather have leadership blinded by greed than leadership that sacrifices individual freedom for the sake of the common good.

If you want a true taste of communistic ideology you need go no further than the DNC leadership. If you want examples of elitism, look at the arrogance of the Democratic party's response to their failed attempt at the presidency.

The shortfalls of the Republicans pale to the rancid rhetoric and destructive ideologies of the Dims.

Question morality all you like. It is not a matter of the lesser of two evils. As long as the murder of unborn children, wealth confiscation and the bastardization of morality are planks in the DNC platform it is clear where true evil resides.

[headsonpikes]

If gnosys supposes his toeses are roses, then gnosys supposes erroneously!

Welcome to FR. Read at least one more book before posting again.

Two, even.