|
|
|
|
IC's
Top 25 Philosophical and Ideological Conservative Books
No. 12 - Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn: Leftism Revisited (From de Sade and Marx to Hitler and Pol Pot)
by Dr. Enrico Peppe
28 July 2004
 The
late, great Max Eastman remarked after reading Kuehnelt-Leddihn that "Reading
(him) is like going to college and graduate school, all over again."
|
|
Erik
Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (1909-1999) held as his principal aim the study
of politics so one might find ways to "strengthen the great Western tradition
of human freedom, now under attack from so many sides."
He more than admirably achieved his aim in Leftism Revisited, our
book under review. The multi-faceted "idee fixes" of the Left are skillfully
dissected. The Leftist Mind is left -- vacated.
Born in Austria, Kuehnelt-Leddihn studied theology and law in Vienna, and
later earned his doctorate in political science at the University of Budapest.
In America, he taught at Georgetown and Fordham; in 1947, he returned to
his native Austria, where he studied, lectured and wrote. A man of letters,
he spoke eight languages, and created novels, books on political theory,
essays, and (not very) occasional pieces. If a legacy be granted to the Doctor,
it is his enormous contribution to conservative explication (which he correctly
describes as "liberal theory and practice").
William Buckley, in a 1998 tribute at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute stated,
It
unquestionably occurs to some that in reading Erik you are in the hands of
an exhibitionist. It is important to know that this isn't the case: an exhibitionist
seeks merely to display the knowledge he has achieved... (He)...seeks with
agonizing effort to put that knowledge to the service of a set of ideas he
has hammered out from his conversance with the history of the world, and
the history of human thought.
The late,
great Max Eastman remarked after reading Kuehnelt-Leddihn that "Reading (him)
is like going to college and graduate school, all over again."
It is in this light that I hope our IC readers will cope (or re-cope). Reading Leftism Revisited is very difficult work indeed. It is as if working out Hindemith rather than Haydn. The result is more Glass than Gluck.
But it has to be read! Kuehnelt-Leddihn rambles and bounces about, and sometimes
it seems without purpose. It has fallen to the reader the task of understanding
his purpose, much like "e e cummings" expects from his readers.
The book deals with the Leftist mind, Leftism in history, Leftism and American
foreign policy, and what I will deal with most since it fits with IC's mission, "Real Liberalism" and "False Liberalism."
THE LEFTIST MIND
The Rightist
understands the good forms inherent in politicization, the Leftist mouths
the bad. Kuehnelt-Leddihn's marvelous ability to synthesize, condense, and
abbreviate is portrayed as he charts for the reader what Aristotle and the
Scholastics would consider as prudent or rash:
Good Form:
Monarchy, the rule of one man in the interest of the common good.
Bad Form:
Tyranny, the rule of one man for his own benefit.
Good Form:
Aristocracy, the rule of a group in the interest of the common good.
Bad Form:
Oligarchy, the rule of a group for its own benefit.
Good Form:
Republic or Polity, the rule of the better part of the people in the interest of the common good.
Bad Form:
Democracy, the rule of the worse part of the people for their own benefit."
Our author leads us to his appendix in what is a beautiful cornucopia of
the Leftist mindset. I have no space for all of the forty one characteristics,
but a few might entice:
#1. Materialism: economic, biological, sociological.
#13. Antiliberalism: hatred of freedom.
#32. Secular rites replacing religious rites.
#39. Nationalism or internationalism as against patriotism.
#40. Struggle against extraordinary people, against "privileges."
For Kuehnelt-Leddihn, a Rightist would absent himself from the list of characteristics comprising the Leftist frame.
LEFTISM IN HISTORY
Buckley
states in his preface to this grand book that "The mind of K-L is more fully
stacked than that of anyone I have ever known."
Very True.
His section on "Leftism in History" leaves the reader gasping and happily
cognizant of his own unawareness of political history. The positive spin
I put on my own inadequacy regarding my knowledge of Leftist history is thoroughly
compensated by my having the privilege of reading chapters 5 through 14 in
which Kuehnelt-Leddihn
dissects, (or rather chews on seemingly endlessly) the historic origins of
Leftist non-mind-sense, nascent America, the French Revolution (key to the
grand theory), the trek from democracy to romantic socialism, scientific
(international) socialism, Marxism, Fascism, Hitlerism, (and little understood
by youth), socialist racism.
Leddihn calls himself an "extreme rightist arch-liberal." We understand his
self-description more fully as we develop along with him the sorry state
of the raucous mind of the Leftist. The French Revolution typifies (grandiloquently)
the Left at its best. The influence of de Sade and materialism is made clear
as we find the French influence on the Utopians, Marx, Woodrow Wilson, FDR,
and I suspect, to make current, (and further analysis is needed of which
I am currently not capable of rendering), the mindset of the Neoconservative
of today.
LEFTISM AND AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY
Kuehnelt-Leddihn examines
the War Machine, which, he makes clear, is of Leftist origin. His critique
of American foreign policy as practiced by Wilson and Roosevelt has sinister
tone and I suspect is somewhat overblown (he likes to jolt). His analyses
of the Vietnam conflict and the terror-filled government of Pol Pot is less
animated and clearer.
But, regardless of the myriad of facts thrown quickly and heatedly (not that
he's off-base, he's just too much to read at one time for even the devotee
of things military), his final paragraph in the chapter, "Another Leftist
War" shows his brilliant libertarian spirit:
Today,
world conflicts take place on several levels. The time of the old-fashioned
cabinet wars is over, war has become total, partly because technology has
produced staggering means of destruction, partly because of the withering
away of religion, enabling totalitarian ideologies, capable of mobilizing
the masses and fanaticizing pragmatists, to fill the void. Hot wars destroy
bodies, cold wars destroy immortal souls. Today, more than ever, the words
of Rivarol, one of the most brilliant spirits of old France, ring loud, 'Politics
is like the Sphinx: It devours all those who cannot solve its riddles.'
LIBERALISM (REAL AND FALSE)
In just twenty five pages, Kuehnelt-Leddihn
travels to the nub of the denotative/connotative conundrum surrounding the
term, "liberal" ("Liberal"). His insights and explanations are worth their
weight in gold.
"Real" Liberalism divides into five sections (all within the European context).
Using six headings our author charts period.. time.. leader(s).. interest..
politics..(and)..religion as follows: (I abbreviate for space.)
Pre-Liberal..1750-1810..Adam Smith..
Economics..Libertarian..Deist
Early Liberal..1812-1900..de Tocqueville, Burke, Acton..Poltical/Social..Mixed Government (non or anti-democratic)..Christian/pro-Christian
Old (Paleo) Liberal..1840-ongoing..Mises, Hayek..Political/Economic/National..Parliamentary Monarchy (pro-democratic)..Liberal Protestant/agnostic
Late British Liberalism..1900-1960..Lloyd George, the
young Churchill..Economic/Social/Political..Parliamentary (symbolic) Monarchy
(democratic)..Indifferent to Religion
New (Neo) Liberal..1945-ongoing..Ropke.. Economic/Social/Political..Mixed Government (skeptical towards democracy)..Christian or pro-Christian
Kuehnelt-Leddihn admits
to simplification as to his dissection (as well he should). Nevertheless,
the variegated complexities surrounding today's Liberal/Conservative/Neoconservative/
Libertarian arena of discussion is given a great boost by Kuehnelt-Leddihn. One sees a tatter of all the above camps by a careful study of his chart.
Leftism is "false liberalism." K-L asks, "How, in the United States, did
the word that means freedom-loving, generous, tolerant, open-minded, that
is anti-statist and anti-totalitarian come to stand for the very contrary
of these virtues and concepts?"
Leddihn answers:
It
is, in fact, easily explained. The 'old-fashioned liberal' was often the
man who went along with what might be called the Wave of the Future. The
conservative (and even more the 'reactionary'), on the other hand, as often
took a stand against change. And change was largely a leftward movement.
The leftist ideologies had...assumed...a 'futuristic' character. They all
claimed the future, utopia, they all claimed the millennium in a chialistic
spirit. They believed in the concept of near-automatic progress (which needed
just a little 'push'). In their eyes, this fictional road had the character
of an 'advance.' The conservatives, meanwhile, adhered to the 'status quo,'
while the reactionaries looked ever backward.
Finally our author gladdens the heart with:
Today,
what is called 'liberalism' in the United States, that boring mixture of
modernity, mediocrity, mimicry, and naiveté, still dominates the mass media
--though they grow anxious about an uncertain future...
IC readers who want a synopsis of Kuehnelt-Leddihn's views on topics ranging from theology to ethnicity might well read his "Principles of the Portland Declaration."
Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn: Leftism Revisited is available on Amazon.com.
IC's Top 25 Philosophical and Ideological Conservative Books.
Dr. Enrico Peppe is a retired educator who runs the website, "The Third Way."
He spends an inordinant amount of time reading and thinking about the conservative
movement, studying Catholic theology and listening to Sinatra and Miles Davis.
Forever a committed Rightist, he married the beautiful Deborah on July 4th,
2004.
Email Dr. Peppe
Send
this Article to a Friend
|
|
