War and Democracy

Fülszöveg

War and Democracy presents a selection of essays and reviews by Paul
Gottfried written from 1975 to the present. They cover a variety of topics, both
historical and contemporary, ranging from Oswald Spengler and the Frankfurt
School to the destruction of classical liberalism, the dumbing down of higher
education and the increasing dominance of administration in democratic
governments. Most crucially, Gottfried sees Western governments as engaged
in a messianic fantasy of bringing democracy to the world, an imperialist
endeavor that has only brought disaster to all nations concerned, while liberties
at home are being gradually curtailed.
A recurring theme is the transformation of the modern West, and how the
meanings behind the ideas and concepts which helped to build our civilization
have been altered to create a new type of society that bears a connection with
that of our forefathers in name only. He points out that the history we are taught
and the "Right" that we... Tovább

Fülszöveg

War and Democracy presents a selection of essays and reviews by Paul
Gottfried written from 1975 to the present. They cover a variety of topics, both
historical and contemporary, ranging from Oswald Spengler and the Frankfurt
School to the destruction of classical liberalism, the dumbing down of higher
education and the increasing dominance of administration in democratic
governments. Most crucially, Gottfried sees Western governments as engaged
in a messianic fantasy of bringing democracy to the world, an imperialist
endeavor that has only brought disaster to all nations concerned, while liberties
at home are being gradually curtailed.
A recurring theme is the transformation of the modern West, and how the
meanings behind the ideas and concepts which helped to build our civilization
have been altered to create a new type of society that bears a connection with
that of our forefathers in name only. He points out that the history we are taught
and the "Right" that we know today have become signifiers for a very different
reality that is in many ways opposed to what they stood for previously.
Gottfried remains tenacious in his defense of the original meaning and purpose
behind the conservative movement, which favors organic social growth as
opposed to imposition through force and an expanding bureaucracy.
"The notion that all countries must be brought — willingly or kicking and
screaming — into the democratic fold is an invitation to belligerence. The
notion that only democracies such as ours can be peaceful is what Edmund
Burke called an 'armed doctrine/ It is simply ridiculous to treat the pursuit
of peace based on world democratic conversion as a peaceful enterprise.
This is a barely disguised adaptation of the Communist goal of bringing
about world harmony through worldwide socialist revolution/7
Paul Gottfried (b. 1941) has been one of America's leading
intellectual historians and paleoconservative thinkers for over 40
years, and is the author of many books, including the landmark
Conservatism in America (2007). A critic of the neoconservative
movement, he has warned against the growing lack of distinctions
between the Democratic and Republican parties and the rise of the
managerial state. He has been acquainted with many of the leading
American political figures of recent decades, including Richard
Nixon and Patrick Buchanan. He is Professor Emeritus of Humanities
at Elizabethtown College and a Guggenheim recipient. Vissza