Forum

I welcome comments on the Black Book and will reply to as many as I am able. I especially welcome comments from the left which so far has pretended that this critique does not exist. This is a throwback to the Stalinist era, and I hope that there are some leftists with the integrity to attempt to meet an argument rather than stamping it out. I hope all commenters will treat the intellectual issues involved and not resort to name-calling and anti-intellectual rants.

David Horowitz

36 thoughts on “Forum

  1. David,

    I read your chapter, “The End of Time” from the Black Book.

    Worthwhile….in every way. The personal anecdotes were particularly moving. You made a point about valuing time in contravention to the pagan impulse of seeking the mirage of immortality.
    Jeremiah said……..”Number your days so that you can achieve a heart of wisdom”.
    Your ideas from that chapter jumped out at me as being infused with Jeremiah’s sentiments.

  2. Hello David,

    Does your above statement mean you believe that existence is at its root meaningless? If what is called “the left” as a political organization dedicated to the collective control over the means of material production has its roots in the human search for meaning, then isn’t that search for meaning the underlining issue? And at that, wouldn’t any attempt to express that meaning politically and materially take a similar shape? If it is the case that the modern world has “killed God” (paraphrasing Nietzsche), i.e. has displaced the centrality of meaning from external sources and has placed that responsibility in the hands of humanity, then, if not politically, in what other forms can meaning be expressed? Maybe this is the role of art, science, and philosophy? In any instance, would you not agree that this existential striving towards meaning is an inextinguishable human condition based in the consciousness of our mortality? Is what is called “the left” really this consolidated politically organized force or, rather, a multitude of different forms of expression of the striving for meaning? Also, would not that which can be called the “right”, which in its American expression is the striving to protect the contract of individual civil rights as codified in the constitution, also have its roots in this existential striving towards meaning (in this instance a meaning produced through the universality of the rights of the human individual codified in the constitutional system)? At the heart of all of this than is, perhaps, what can be understood as the condition of existential and political life in the post-modern epoch. That is to say, in facing the reality of nihilism the burden of meaning is placed in the hands of humanity. That nihilism can be politically passive (meaning as expressed through yoga, new age ‘philosophy’, etc.) or political active, which itself can take a negative or positive form (negating the world, e.g. Islamic Terrorism vs. an active engagement to preserve the world expressed in right and left tendencies as described above). I look forward to your response.

    Michel

    1. Yes to most of your questions. The human quest for meaning is inextinguishable. The question is what form it takes. If it seeks it in a movement to create a heaven on earth it is dangerous. Islam in its radical forms, political radicalism and progressivism all fall into this category. If it understands the limits of human abilities as dramatized in the story of Eden and explored in the Federalist Papers then it is a quest I can identify with. I have written a book about this called A Point In Time: The Search for Redemption in this Life and the next. From the intensity and particulars of your email, I can guess that you will find it interesting,

      1. Thanks for the book recommendation David. I presume based on your response that that would be the place to look for your take on these important questions.

        1. Yes, and I would look forward to your comments about my conclusions. It’s a short book but a dense one.

      2. Hi,

        Regarding the speaker, Robert Spencer, on CSPAN Book TV, introduced by the editor of the “FrontPage Magazine, I disagree with the editor’s premise, as discussed below. But first I will note that, based on the FrontPage Magazine’s headline statement, I guess that I would be labeled by the leadership of this magazine as a “totalitarian,” since I consider my political and social philosophy to be “liberal.” I disagree with that assessment of my philosophical views.

        My personal philosophy was developed over 64 years of study or life experience, including being the mother of a active duty US Marine, who is a veteran of Iraq. I also have worked as a registered nurse for more than 40 years experience in clinical nursing in hospitals and in public health settings – in urban and rural areas of the US and internationally.

        Here’s why I disagree completely with labeling of the Muslim religion and the Quran as generally terrorist. The premise is faulty as it is based upon the personal actions and agenda of a few extreme, terrorist organizations – or governments – that misapply a literal interpretation of specific Islamic religious script of Islam to justify terrorism and murder. Taken out of context, specific Christian Biblical text could be interpreted mistakenly as terrorist – note the history of the Medieval Crusades. Also, an analogy could be applied mistakenly to Roman Catholicism and other Christian religions as “terrorist” because the actions of a few “Right to Life” extremists who engaged in terrorist behavior. Some “Right to Life” extremists have threatened the lives or murdered health professionals working in abortion clinics – besides using religion as a justification to threaten and harass adult women who have sought informed, self-determined health care at these clinics. Since most persons I’ve known who are Christian with a Right to Life viewpoint do not believe that Biblical text justifies terrorizing or murdering health professionals, it isn’t logical to label their religion as terrorist on the basis of the actions of a few extremists. Neither do the majority of Muslims condone terrorism in the name of Islam -despite the language of specific religious test. While acknowledging that some terrorists distort the interpretation of Islamic text to excuse their murders and personal agenda, It is grossly illogical to conclude that the religion of Islam, and all Muslims, are terrorist. And by the way, I think it would be great if all US students had the experience of visiting synagogues, churches, mosques, and WICCA sites as education toward religious tolerance and freedom – which our American forefathers – who social and political conservatives like to quote – did include in the very First Amendment to the US Constitution.

        Sue

        1. First of all this comments section is for comments about The Black Book of the American Left. Second you have a very superficial understanding both of Islam and Robert Spencer’s critique. Spencer has never claimed anything so ludicrous as that the Muslim religion is terrorist or the Qur’an is terrorist. They are misogynist, and they totalitarian in their very natures and they obviously encourage terrorism since every Islamic terrorist group claims inspiration from the Qur’an and the prophet Mohammed. You should read one of his books and then comment, but not on this site.

    2. Michel,

      The phenomenon called Utopianism is the idea David is referring to in his reply. Modern people who believe we have the ability to create an ideal society on earth are utopians. They universally have an ideology that requires collectivism and the use of force to build their dream of a “heaven on earth”. Communism and Fascism were 20th century examples of this ideology.
      The concept of free will is central to this debate. If an ideology or religion proposes that people are free to make moral choices, the trap of totalitarianism can be avoided. But if the idealogues require that you must submit to their beliefs for the greater “good”…………they are totalitarians. The totalitarian, whether it’s Castro, Mao or Hitler, finds his meaning in the struggle for this elusive “greater good”.
      Today…..Buddhists, Christians and Libertarians(among others) would not compel you to comply with their beliefs or risk the threat of violence.
      Islam would be the exception.

  3. Please note, I didn’t use the phrase “American Communist Party.” Communism is a pseudo religion. It has its origins in the Pelagian heresy. It is secular attempt to infuse a meaningless existence with religious meaning and the consolation that goes with it. I don’t see how “Sodom and Gomorah” help us understand this phenomenon. I have written a book, “A Point in Time” that attempts to do so.

  4. But David, I think Daniel is right here. It’s bigger than just the American Communist party. This is the influence of Satan and no politics, right or left, is going to solve this. America needs God. America needs to fight satanic evil in the government. Satan has influenced the right and the left. We now know the influence of Satan and how he tricks us to believing we are bigger than God or there is no God. I think you are on the right side and have the right intentions but now we need the right solution. We need to hear more voices like yours and like Daniels who understand that this is God’s mission. I think this message board can be a good place for that. Thanks Daniel and David and praise be to God our father.

  5. Now we find out that the Obama regime has released 36,000 illegal alien criminal offenders back on to the streets of America. These include hundreds of murderers, rapists and kidnappers. And Democrats flock to Obama’s defense and emphasize there will be no deportation of these criminals.
    Obama is like something from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

    1. No. Obama is from the story of American Communism and its offshoots — New Left Marxism and today’s Marxist Progressivism, which is what these 10 volumes are about. I would like commentators to this site to stick to the subjects of these volumes and the intellectual issues that arise from them.

      1. That is a reasonable request. But I think the spirit of my comment is being misunderstood.
        During the course of my studies of Soviet, Chinese and Cuban communism I began to notice that the pre-eminent dissidents of those systems were often Christians. Not every single one, but many. Some were Jewish, like Natan Sharansky and the Refusnik movement in general. And some could probably be described as “nonbelievers” along the lines of the great Andrei Sakharov.
        My point in bringing up Sodom and Gomorrah is not to promote religion or to smear communists with an epithet. It is to make an allusion to the original rebellion of man versus God because I believe that therein lies the psychological root of Communism.
        No doubt the French Revolution that led to the Paris Commune eventually was a rebellion against the idea of God.
        French ideas influenced the Russian nihilists who subsequently became the Bolsheviks and Soviet Communists of the 20th century.
        Marx, Mao and Castro all raised their own rebellions. Why did Mao imprison Watchman Nee for 25 years until his death? Why did Castro incarcerate Armando Valladares for over 20 years in a Cuban gulag(which left still insists doesn’t exist)?
        No doubt militant Leftism is a political movement. The Frankfurt School of Marxism brought a radicalized form of political thought to America when it was forced to relocate to Columbia University before WWII.

        I know you know these things David.
        I’m just trying to get to a psychological root cause which I believe Shafarevich’s article brings up. Dostoevsky created a character in his novel, “Demons”, along these lines. Kirilov uttered the famous statement……”If there is no God….then I am god.”
        You are masterfully detailing the political machinations of the Left. I’m just proposing a psychological motivation.
        All the best.

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