W. Cleon Skousen : A Giant Has Died

Human Events ^ | Jan 12, 2006 | Mark Skousen

[logician2u]

The great man's name was W. Cleon Skousen, not Cleo as in the title that Human Events assigned to it. Possibly no one on the HE editorial staff knew of him.

Most conservatives over the age of 40 do, though, and many of us have the utmost respect for him as one of those who kept the flame alive during the darkest years of the '60s when this country's intellectuals were preaching a "merger" between capitalism as practiced in the West and Communism as practiced in the Soviet Union and China. Skousen and a handful of others held fast to the idea that the United States of American was special and should never compromise its ideals of freedom and individual rights, no matter what the rest of the world thought. He sincerely believed that our Constitution was divinely inspired, and that our success as a nation can be attributed to the blessings the Creator bestowed on the Founders as men of wisdom.

May his soul rest in eternal peace.

[Mulch]

Sounds like a great man who lived a full life. RIP

[302damnfast]

It should be noted for passers by that this is the author of the book that contained the list of communist goals that's posted here on FR every other week.

[logician2u]

Oh, horrors! I shoulda checked the time before I posted.

How can anything like this compete with a football game?

[logician2u]

Interesting observation.

Can there be any doubt that those goals are a lot closer to being achieved today than they were in 1963?

The irony, of course, is that the only communists left to celebrate their victory are in Cuba, North Korea and on a bunch of university campuses.

[ghostcat]

I was fortunate enough to have met him, He was a friend of my fathers and I took a class from him at college. He and my father were both with the Bureau. He was a very good man.

[IronJack]

I'm embarrassed to admit I've never heard of him. But that will be remedied shortly. If he was the warrior this encomium presents, he deserves his own niche in the conservative pantheon.

[logician2u]

Thanks for sharing.

What class did he teach that you took? He was an authority on so many subjects, it could have been about anythinng connected with American history, criminology, the Bible, political sciece.

And I agree he was a very good man. I met him once, too, when I was still in high school.

[Boazo]

I've got one or two of his books,He was a giant.

[Vigilanteman]

This man was a genius ahead of his time. As a snot-nosed 6th grader, I read his book The Naked Communist and didn't consider it a particularly difficult book to either read or understand. It's too bad so many of our intellectual class still can't get what Skousen laid out so simply back in the 1960's.

I was surprised to read he was born in Alberta. I wonder if the Canadians claim him or if the family still has any ties there.

[logician2u]

No need to feel embarrassed, Jack. Perhaps your paths never crossed, or you may have lived in the wrong part of the country. Out west, Skousen was fairly well-known. His kind of patriotism was, unfortunately, not very welcome in the east for several decades.

We'll have to check the next couple issues of The Weekly Standard and National Review and see how the neos treat his passing. I'm not holding my breath.

[logician2u]

We can always ask our resident authority on Alberta.

What say you, Alberta's Child? Have you read Skousen? Does he have family still in Canada?

[JCEccles]

There is a sizable number of LDS families living in Alberta, in and around Lethbridge and Cardston, just across the border. By and large they are descendants of colonists sent there by Brigham Young in in late 19th Century.

[wita]

Thanks for the notice. I have numerous tapes of many of his speeches, and never tire of listening. "The Making of America" his book dedicated to the Founding Fathers is a much read study of the Constitution of the United States of America that resides on one of my bookshelves as well as the Thousand Years series. I don't think I know of anyone quite like him. A speaker and writer, I have respected for years.

[Taxman]

Sad ping. I know he was a FRiend of yours.

[Humidston]

RIP to a wonderful patriot, with many thanks for his brilliant writings. I attribute my awakening to several of his books which I eagerly read back in the "old days."

He was truly a trailblazer and well ahead of his time!

(BTW, if you have any sons read "So You Want to Raise a Boy." I highly recommend it. Little boys have been under attack since the '60's and he was one of the rare people who predicted the trend.)

[who knows what evil?]

The irony, of course, is that the only communists left to celebrate their victory are in Cuba, North Korea and on a bunch of university campuses.

Oh, there's still a few in various State Legislatures and the House of Representatives.

[logician2u]

No, really?

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

"I have numerous tapes of many of his speeches, and never tire of listening."


Are there copies of those tapes available for sale somewhere? Some are probably in the Congressional Record, are there others?

[ghostcat]

It was a religion class, on the Bible