"Growing numbers of' people are beginning to realize that capitalism is the uncontrollable force driving our ecological crisis, only to become frozen in their tracks by the awesome implications of the insight."
Minds going Blue-Screen! (And many failing to re-boot...)
Another great book by Kovel, "Red-Hunting in the Promised Land - Anticommunism And The Making Of America" published in 1994.
Extremely relevant today for understanding much of U.S. foreign policy and the propaganda that accompanies it.
Kovel, a psychiatrist and professor of social studies at Bard College, traces the evolution of anticommunism in this country from the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 to the collapse of the "evil empire" in the age of Reagan and Bush. How, Kovel wonders, did the United States, "of all the capitalist powers the least threatened by Communism," come to be "the most floridly anticommunist"? He offers psychoportraits of such leading ideologues as Father Charles Coughlin, George Kennan, John Foster Dulles, J. Edgar Hoover, and Joe McCarthy to demonstrate "how Communist-hating is used opportunistically as an instrument to secure power and wealth." The author concludes with Nietzsche that "he who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster." Though aspects of this thesis have been previously advanced, this provocative and stimulating book is certain to be controversial. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.
- Thomas Appleton Jr., Kentucky Historical Soc., Frankfort
I found this article extraordinarily thought-provoking--.not that I agree with everything of course. I rewrite almost everything at least a dozen times., mostly because I disagree with myself a lot.In this case, I'm not sure that people are" frozen in their tracks by the awesome implications of the insight". Rather, I think they realize that capitalism is an uncontrollable force driving the ecological crisis but not the implications, which like death must be denied. Of course, when you say people that mean some people not all people. minds not going blue screen all the time but switching in many cases to Netflix. LOL. Mind you, the more I read this article, the more different ideas come to me. thank you once again
It has become a trend that if you're against the Democratic Party or American Empire, that you have to support truth and bigotry as equals e.g. Trumpers have to support climate denial whilst hating covid but not questioning Trump's actions concerning it. If you're part of the tribe it's easy to be contradictory e.g., to stand up for Palestine whilst supporting RFK and Ramaswamy, and to say that you don't hate gays, you're just conservative.
As connected sociopaths took advantage of the masses before, now sociopaths get rich out of being contrarian, adapting themselves to which hate package sells best (which is the rebel becoming the politician).
A major problem is that some of these narcissists are wordsmiths offering nuggets in between the bullshit. They're as convincing as a date rape drug.
What a great article! This pretty much says it all.
How true the first sentence,
"Growing numbers of' people are beginning to realize that capitalism is the uncontrollable force driving our ecological crisis, only to become frozen in their tracks by the awesome implications of the insight."
Minds going Blue-Screen! (And many failing to re-boot...)
Another great book by Kovel, "Red-Hunting in the Promised Land - Anticommunism And The Making Of America" published in 1994.
Extremely relevant today for understanding much of U.S. foreign policy and the propaganda that accompanies it.
Review at Amazon.com
From Library Journal
Kovel, a psychiatrist and professor of social studies at Bard College, traces the evolution of anticommunism in this country from the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 to the collapse of the "evil empire" in the age of Reagan and Bush. How, Kovel wonders, did the United States, "of all the capitalist powers the least threatened by Communism," come to be "the most floridly anticommunist"? He offers psychoportraits of such leading ideologues as Father Charles Coughlin, George Kennan, John Foster Dulles, J. Edgar Hoover, and Joe McCarthy to demonstrate "how Communist-hating is used opportunistically as an instrument to secure power and wealth." The author concludes with Nietzsche that "he who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster." Though aspects of this thesis have been previously advanced, this provocative and stimulating book is certain to be controversial. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.
- Thomas Appleton Jr., Kentucky Historical Soc., Frankfort
I found this article extraordinarily thought-provoking--.not that I agree with everything of course. I rewrite almost everything at least a dozen times., mostly because I disagree with myself a lot.In this case, I'm not sure that people are" frozen in their tracks by the awesome implications of the insight". Rather, I think they realize that capitalism is an uncontrollable force driving the ecological crisis but not the implications, which like death must be denied. Of course, when you say people that mean some people not all people. minds not going blue screen all the time but switching in many cases to Netflix. LOL. Mind you, the more I read this article, the more different ideas come to me. thank you once again
Dissatisfaction, alone, isn't truth.
It has become a trend that if you're against the Democratic Party or American Empire, that you have to support truth and bigotry as equals e.g. Trumpers have to support climate denial whilst hating covid but not questioning Trump's actions concerning it. If you're part of the tribe it's easy to be contradictory e.g., to stand up for Palestine whilst supporting RFK and Ramaswamy, and to say that you don't hate gays, you're just conservative.
As connected sociopaths took advantage of the masses before, now sociopaths get rich out of being contrarian, adapting themselves to which hate package sells best (which is the rebel becoming the politician).
A major problem is that some of these narcissists are wordsmiths offering nuggets in between the bullshit. They're as convincing as a date rape drug.