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Liberal Fascism
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Liberal Fascism (2008) (edit title/settings)

The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning

by Jonah Goldberg (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

“Fascists,” “Brownshirts,” “jackbooted stormtroopers”—such are the insults typically hurled at conservatives by their liberal opponents. Calling someone a fascist is the fastest way to shut them up, defining their views as beyond the political pale. But who are the real fascists in our midst? ... read more

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “It assumes the organic unity of the body politic and longs for a national leader attuned to the will of the people”
  • “It is difficult to unite a people by talking only on the highest ethical plane”
  • “The only fundamental and possible socialism is the socialization of the selective breeding of man”
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  • Fascism is a religion of the state. It assumes the organic unity of the body politic and longs for a national leader attuned to the will of the people. It is totalitarian in that it views everything as political and holds that any action by the state is justified to achieve the common good.
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  • It takes responsibility for all aspects of life, including our health and well-being, and seeks to impose uniformity of thought and action, whether by force or through regulation and social pressure. Everything, including the economy and religion, must be aligned with its objectives. Any rival identity is part of the “problem” and therefore defined as the enemy. I will argue that contemporary American liberalsim embodies all of these aspects of fascism.
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  • The utility of terror was multifaceted, but among its chief benefits was its tendency to maintain a permanent sense of crisis. Crisis is routinely identified as a core mechanism of fascism because it short-circuits debate and democratic deliberation. Hence all fascistic movements commit considerable energy to prolonging a heightened state of emergency.
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  • What unites them are their emotional or instinctual impulses, such as the quest for community, the urge to “get beyond” politics, a faith in the perfectibility of man and the authority of experts, and an obsession with the aesthetics of youth, the cult of action, and the need for an all-powerful state to coordinate society at the national or global level. Most of all, they share the belief—what I call the totalitarian temptation—that with the right amount of tinkering we can realize the utopian dream of “creating a better world.”
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  • Fascism, at its core, is the view that every nook and cranny of society should work together in spiritual union toward the same goals overseen by the state. “Everything in the State, nothing outside the State,” is how Mussolini defined it.
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  • Mussolini himself coined the term to describe a society where everybody belonged, where everyone was taken care of, where everything was inside the state and nothing was outside: where truly no child was left behind.
    Highlighted by 166 Kindle customers
  • What is today called liberalism stands, domestically, on three legs: support for the welfare state, abortion, and identity politics.
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  • The conservative or classical liberal vision understands that life is unfair, that man is flawed, and that the only perfect society, the only real utopia, waits for us in the next life.
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  • The history of totalitarianism is the history of the quest to transcend the human condition and create a society where our deepest meaning and destiny are realized simply by virtue of the fact that we live in it. It cannot be done, and even if, as often in the case of liberal fascism, the effort is very careful to be humane and decent, it will still result in a kind of benign tyranny where some people get to impose their ideas of goodness and happiness on those who may not share them.
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  • America’s political system used to be about the pursuit of happiness. Now more and more of us want to stop chasing it and have it delivered.
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Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Jonah Goldberg (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Doubleday
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 2008
ISBN: 0385511841
Page Count: 496

Classification edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Fascism
  • The Color of Fascism: Lawrence Dennis, Racial Passing, and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism in the United States
  • The Beast Reawakens: Fascism's Resurgence from Hitler's Spymasters to Today's Neo-Nazi Groups and Right-Wing Extremists
  • Right-Wing Extremism in Contemporary Germany (New Perspectives in German Studies)

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