I report and link. You decide. - J :)
From a FrontPageMagazine.com article, :
How the Left Was Won [/] By Jamie Glazov [/] FrontPageMagazine.com | August 22, 2006
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Richard Mgrdechian, the author of the new book, How The Left Was Won: An In-Depth Analysis of the Tools and Methodologies Used by Liberals to Undermine Society and Disrupt the Social Order.
[…] FP: So what led you to write this book? [/] Mgrdechian: Over the past several years, I’ve grown more and more concerned by what I saw happening within American society in terms of the increasing levels of divisiveness and the subtle, but undeniably destructive effects that liberal policies were having on the country overall.
I started to realize that there were certain highly predictable and very well-defined patterns that existed within that particular ideology. My book, How The Left Was Won is intended to show readers exactly what these patterns are and -- more importantly -- to demonstrate how all liberal policies are ultimately self-destructive to them, the people they claim to be helping and to the country as a whole.
FP: You refer to “tools” and “methodologies” in your book. Tell us about them. [/] Mgrdechian: Sure. The primary theme of my book is that all liberal statements, arguments, positions, policies and behaviors are nothing more than simple manifestations of the same relatively small set of strategies and assumptions, or what I call “tools and methodologies,” which are simply used over and over again.
For example, the first chapter, “Promote and Exploit Divisiveness,” focuses on class-warfare, man-hating, race-baiting and every other technique liberals use to divide people. Of course liberals always try to turn things around and, not surprisingly, they endlessly accuse conservatives of divisiveness. But to see what divisiveness is really all about, just take a look at the differences between how liberals and conservatives debate an issue.
When conservatives talk about illegal immigration for example, they structure real arguments and focus on things like the immigration being illegal in the first place, the strain on the county’s social services, the economic impact, the impact of trying to absorb too many people who speak a different language and so on. On the other hand, when liberals talk about immigration, they focus on one thing -- calling conservatives racist and telling Hispanics that we hate them. A logical discussion verses promoting and exploiting divisiveness. It’s as simple as that.
Of course there are numerous other tools and methodologies I go into in the book including Group[ Individuals] (which addresses any an[d] all arguments in favor of affirmative action, reparations, quotas or similar situations), Implicit Assumption (which shows why just about all the arguments liberals use to shape public policy are ultimately nothing more than a house of cards), The Perpetual Motion Machine (how all liberal policies either make problems worse or are based on the scientific impossibility of trying to get something for nothing), Relevancy and Proportion and a variety of others.
FP: What do you think are the underlying inspirations of a leftist? [/] Mgrdechian: When you look closely at all the things leftists do and say, you can’t help but notice that they almost always have one very obvious thing in common -- a need to bring others down. A need to undermine, a need to obstruct, a need to get in the way and a need to make themselves feel good by doing and saying superficial things that make no sense on any logical, practical or rational level.
N.B. "Levelers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear leveling up to themselves" - Samuel Johnson ..
Unfortunately, one of the best ways for them to deflect criticism or justify these sorts of behaviors is to hide behind some sort of guise. Disguise their attack against one group as an effort to help another. Disguise their hatred as outrage. Disguise their failure as oppression. Disguise their real agenda in any way they possibly can in order to make the viciousness of it seem as though it was actually meant to be benign.
But the reality is that these people are so consumed by their own hatred that they’ll sacrifice anything, anybody, any culture and even the survival of our own country to destroy the people they need to attack. Just look at the viciousness of the attacks against President Bush. We have an entire army of incredibly well financed, well trained and completely fanatical terrorists intent on destroying our way of life. But what do Leftists do anytime Bush tries to anything about the problem? They relentlessly attack him in every vile way they possibly can. These people are so obsessed by their need to destroy others, that they can’t even see straight long enough to save their own lives.
FP: Why do you think the leftist faith is ultimately self-destructive? [/] Mgrdechian: I think the answer can be summed up in two words -- Bad Competition, a concept I discuss in considerable detail in the second chapter of the book.
In that discussion, I offer the following proposition: There are in fact, two and only two types of competition -- good and bad. Good Competition is ultimately productive to the competing elements, while Bad Competition is ultimately destructive.
After describing what I mean by this and giving a few examples, I then provide some definitions. As such, I define Good Competition as: Any competitive effort where a person or organization attempts to achieve success based solely on the strength of their abilities, products or services. Similarly, I define Bad Competition as: Any competitive effort where a person or organization attempts to achieve success through any means other than the strength of their abilities, products or services. Rather than working to improve these elements, those engaged in Bad Competition will typically seek to achieve success primarily through the impairment of others.
Now look at things like affirmative action, quotas, empowerment, increasing taxes, thought-crimes or any sort of preferential treatment or special protections for women, minorities, homosexuals or others. How do these supposedly begin liberal programs help people? Simple -- by hurting others. There is no improvement on an absolute level, there is only improvement on relative level by taking from others, lowering standards, denying opportunities to more qualified people or rewarding people for achievements they never managed to achieve. Clearly this sort of thing can never help a society as a whole; it can only hurt it. Worse yet, over time, this dynamic of penalizing success and rewarding failure can only lead to one thing -- the complete collapse of a society.
This simple rule explains exactly why Hillary Clinton cannot ever be allowed to be President -- absolutely everything about her is based solely on the relentless exploitation of Bad Competition. And Bad Competition will -- without a doubt -- be the death of this country.
FP: What is the best way to fight the Left? [/] Mgrdechian: I think there are two ways to look at that question. The first would be how to fight the Left on an intellectual level, and I think the answer to that part of the question is fairly straightforward: the best way to fight the Left on an intellectual level is through logic, rational arguments and a thorough understanding of exactly what their strategies are.
Unfortunately, debate and logic don’t win street fights and the second way to look at the question is on a practical level -- in other words, what is the best way to fight the Left in order to prevent their ideas and policies from permeating more and more elements of our society? Now that’s a tough one. It’s tough because in a way, liberalism is to politics what fast food is to nutrition -- a quick fix and an easy escape from responsibility. So how do you get people off of that quick fix? The only way that ever seems to work is to force them to go through a complete withdrawal; to go cold turkey.
In other words, don’t compromise. In general, liberalism advances not through sudden shifts in policy, but slowly. Incrementally. A little bit at a time. And the best way to stop this advance is for conservatives to be more proactive in standing up for what they believe in. I admit, it certainly isn’t easy to do -- especially when you know you’ll be relentlessly attacked just for trying to be objective, but it is something that has to be done. If not, I have no doubt that one day we’ll all wake up, stare blankly out our windows and quietly wonder what ever happened to the country we grew up in.
[…] Jamie Glazov [("FP" above)] is Frontpage Magazine's managing editor. He holds a Ph.D. in History with a specialty in Soviet Studies. He edited and wrote the introduction to David Horowitz’s new book Left Illusions. He is also the co-editor (with David Horowitz) of the new book The Hate America Left and the author of Canadian Policy Toward Khrushchev’s Soviet Union (McGill-Queens University Press, 2002) and 15 Tips on How to be a Good Leftist. To see his previous symposiums, interviews and articles Click Here. Email him at jglazov@rogers.com. [My ellipses and emphasis]
