Jamie Glasov Explains: Why the Left is Just Plain Nuts

Note: I previously posted this article under the heading "The Psychological Pathologies of the Far Left." Then I remembered that most Americans voted for Barack Obama and are too dumb to know what that means. So retitled my article in simpler English that means the same thing and have reposted it here.

I started reading my new book last night. It’s by Jamie Glasov and is entitled “United In Hate,” about the coalition between the far left and militant Islam (see my previous post below on the subject). The book is good at explaining the mind set and the psychology of the far left. That mind set includes:

1. Self-hatred or self-loathing, leading to a desire to efface the self, to submerge the individual into the anonymity of the masses where personal identity and responsibility disappear. In the most extreme case, the leftist desires death, especially dying for the cause, as that goal gives him a tremendous sense of significance and purpose.

2. Estrangement from society as a whole, leading to sympathy for antagonistic or hostile systems that the leftist imagines will fulfill all of his psychological needs. Since he hates his own society he is naturally sympathetic to other systems that share his hate.

3. The desire for a political system where the individual will feel validated and empowered and given a feeling of purpose. The most powerful systems thrill him the most, particularly those that engage in mass killing and oppression. By identifying with these systems he attains a vicarious feeling of power. Glasov notes that both Stalin and Mao enjoyed their greatest praise and pilgrimages from western leftists precisely at the peak of their mass murder and oppression.

4. Guilt for being well off. Self-hating leftists imagine themselves to be victims of a society that has failed to provide them with a feeling of fulfillment or purpose; they naturally identify with other “victims.” However, western leftists live in the most prosperous nations on earth, and it is hard to feel like a victim under those circumstances. So they make unreasonable demands on the power structure so they can picket and march and preach hate of the establishment. They especially like to be arrested as this adds to their desired feeling of victimhood.

Glasov takes several key ideas from Eric Hoffer’s classic “The True Believer.” Just understanding the psychology of self-destructive leftists is worth the price of the book. I will write more about this book as I finish it.

United In Hate: Why the Left Loves and Glorifies Tyranny

I just got from Amazon.com my copy of Jamie Glazov's book, "United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror." I also heard Glazov on KSFO radio (San Francisco) talk about the book.

Glazov notes that the Left always supports the tyranny du jour. First they supported Fascism; then Soviet Communism; and today they support violent Islam and Jihad. This is not an exaggeration. Jonah Goldberg, in his book "Liberal Fascism," gives historical facts about the liberal dalliance with fascism in the 1930s (they liked it -- a strong central, socialist government where the interests of the state superseded that of the individual. What's not to like?).

The left's romance with Soviet tyranny is something I observed first hand, having lived through a few decades of that history. Basically, they wanted unilateral disarmament, meaning, we would prove to the Soviets that we loved and trusted them by eliminating or severely reducing our nuclear stockpiles, thus making them feel secure and voila, they would eventually follow suit by reducing their nuclear capability as well. Furthermore, we wouldn't oppose their subversion and conquest of other nations because those nations would be better off under communism anyway. Some idiots even suggested that we send great sums of money to communist third-world despotisms who hated our guts. Sort of like Obama is doing today with regard to Hamas, pledging to send them almost a billion dollars.

Today radical Islam is the new fad. Leftists throughout the West are importing millions of hostile Muslims and changing their laws and customs to suit the newcomers. The Left hates Jews and so admire the fanatical Islamic anti-semitism.

Well, you have to give the left credit. They always support regimes that create millions of smiling faces. Of course, those faces are skulls. See illustration above right.

Glasov points out that liberals greatly admire people and regimes that would surely kill those liberals if they lived under their rule. This would seem to confirm Michael Savage's observation that liberalism is a mental disorder.

On the radio, Glasov said that leftists want to establish a socialist "paradise" on earth and believe that can only be done on the ashes of the existing world. A great, cleansing cataclysm must occur to destroy capitalism and modern civilization; then the new socialist society can be created. In this regard they see militant Islam as a useful tool for that end, one that can help destroy the existing order. Destruction of western civilization brings joy to the leftist heart. It explains why so many of them were so gleeful when the 9/11 attack destroyed 3,000 lives and billions of dollars in property.

Yes, with a little destructive assistance from Islam, socialism can emerge to provide the new paradise. It's nonsense, of course. Socialism destroys human incentive and industrial production; under it millions of people have starved or were exterminated.

Of course, this one attribute -- millions of dead people -- is common to all of the tyrannies that the left has embraced. Millions died under fascism, communism and Islamism. There is no possible hope for a "paradise" under a leftist system. The left wants to eliminate what has worked better than any other system in human history -- capitalism and democracy -- and replace them with a system that has always failed spectacularly in providing either freedom or food.

They will accomplish this over our dead bodies. And that's the plan.