The dangerous destructiveness of the left.

These are some powerful words about the left from Mr. Vasko Kohlmayer, who defected from Communist Czechoslovakia. Note, especially, his idea that there is a death drive, a suicidal impulse, that is inherent in all great civilizations. The Left is the embodiment of that impulse:

The Left’s seemingly insatiable hunger for governmental expansion has bucked the West’s long-term trend toward the limited State. Dominated by large, all-intrusive welfare states, the condition of many European countries could be justifiably described as soft socialism. The excessive taxation and regulation which are the inevitable byproducts of this have virtually strangled their free economic enterprise and induced long-term economic malaise. Diametrically opposed to the ideals of classical liberalism, this state of affairs represents a complete subversion of western political and economic tradition.

By teaching that the masterpieces of the West’s greatest creative minds are no more intrinsically valuable than artifacts of far less advanced societies, the Left has deprived westerners’ of their justified pride in their own culture. And by lying about the West’s past, it has managed to suppress our consciousness of historical greatness.

The Left’s successes have been largely due to its takeover of the two main channels for the dissemination of knowledge and information – the media and academia. Careful to avoid positive portrayal of the West in almost any context, they abound in aspersions and criticism. In the process, the Left has devised an ingenious and effective mode of censorship to further its ends. It is called political correctness.

Death Wish: destroying the West

The West’s moral decline, the collapse of its religion, economic sluggishness, and the indifference to its own historical and cultural achievements – all this is the Left’s doing. . . .

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The West’s greatest threat is neither Islam nor any other external foe. It is its own political Left. . . .

By corroding the West’s moral, spiritual, economic and cultural foundation, the Left has wrought incalculable damage on our civilization.

"The Suicidal Left: Civilizations and their Death Drives." By Vasko Kohlmayer, The American Thinker, 2/28/06 (emphasis added).