A review of Paul Johnson’s “Modern Times”.
Much of what we have learned turns out to be myths. What explains the rise of rightist fascism, and how does it differ from leftist communism? According to Paul Johnson, there isn’t much difference at all, and the reason for its rise in Europe was the genuine shock, by the general population as well as by the Left itself, over the disastrous results of Lenin’s communist revolution in Russia, as much on an economic level as on a humane level. To counter the ruin and the atrocities of international socialism, the Left in Europe invented and turned to national socialism.
Thanks for the book find!
(I think GYYM would hang the Pope in St Peter’s Square if he could.)
The Left pivoted back to International Socialism – The Sodomite Trudeau family are a great example.
Paul Johnson is a good writer and historian. I’ve read a few of his books and was rewarded with good insights.
Fascists and Communists are a lot like the Crips and Bloods. Rival gangs competing for the same block.
The U.S. came very very close to fascism with FDR…what with his love of Mussolini and the New Deal Act which was struck down by SCOTUS so many times he threatened to stack the court if he didn’t get his way (Sound familiar?) ultimately he did but World War 2 got in the way and the rest is history.
That said – it’s a source of gob smacking bewilderment how today’s youth remains so enamoured with socialism, which in my opinion is communism but only in slo-motion, despite its disastrous and murderous track record.
Most people, young and old, will always gravitate to any government that advocates “take from you, and give to me”. “Socialism” just being the polite name of all the same.
l believe there a lot of truth to that. consistent with human nature for one,
lus when l was flat broke for the 1st 19 years of my life it was fanciful to look at freebies coming my way via ndp.
l knew nothing of economics.
nothing of the production process
nothing of the tradeoffs in life
nothing of human nature except appearance is everything
now l see ndp as some sort of bizarre alien concept seemingly all of them unawares of the manner in which resources are captured and utilized and the one doing that gets to keep part of the proceeds.
that is never government all they do is take take take and screw up anyway.
It’s sold to them as “sit on your ass and be just as well off (actually better off) as they guy busting his”.
Of course, it’s false advertising. No one gets lunch without providing value to the communist state. Big screen tv? The state says you don’t need it.
I’ve been saying the same for years and have never read Johnson. It’s obvious in the names. International vs National Socialism. Besides, Hitler distrusted Stalin and considered the former merely Russian imperialism. And then Stalin called anyone who opposed him a fascist, the American and western Communists chirped in unison and now we have antifa which couldn’t be more profa if they tried. And Pete Seeger absolutely wanted to take an axe to Dylan’s electric rebellion against working on Maggie’s Farm.
Burle Ives would kick Pete Seeger’s ass anytime!
Quibble:
Leftist communism / Rightist fascism
By my lights it should be:
Leftist communism / Leftism fascism.
Two flavours of totalitarianism.
Quoted in Niall Ferguson’s ‘The War Of The World’:
“There are two breeds of Bolshevism…..there is nothing to choose between the philosophies of Moscow and Berlin.”
Duff Cooper, British politician, First Lord of the Admiralty – August 23, 1939.
It is ironic how all commies are race commies because class communism didn’t work.
National socialism was the distilled essence of socialism.
The ignorant peasants recruited from the rural slums of Europe to do mindless factory work thought it would be an easier life than farming. They didn’t want a better life. They thought that in the city they’d get something for nothing. And they blamed the Jews when they didn’t get it. All they had to do, they were sure, was get rid of the Jews and take their gold, and they’d finally get what they thought they wanted—enough money to drink and whore till liver failure and syphilis took them, and do nothing for it.
Germans only hated Marxists because they thought Marxists were all Jews. Presented the option of a Stalinism that openly declared that the Jews were the misfortune of mankind and that capitalism was a Jewish plot, they grabbed it with both hands.
And not just them—global finance fell over themselves offering Hitler financing for re-armament.
Nobody learnt anything useful from the outcome. Only Jews learn from history. Jew-haters only learn from experience, and often not even that.
“What explains the rise of rightist fascism, and how does it differ from leftist communism? ”
Fascism only ends up on the right, if you use a very narrow arc of the political spectrum, since they both grow from the poisoned tree of marxism.
Fascism is to the right of Communism because nothing can be to their left. It’s part of how commies see the world.
Exactly. People who put fascism on the right must have climate control in their cars with hot at both ends. It makes no sense and it leaves no room for maximum freedom and ordered liberty anywhere.
A tend to comeback to Modern Times about once per decade, it is one of my favourite history books, along with Europe by Norman Davies.
iNazi’s
International National Socialists
Praying for an asteroid instead of picking a side between them and commies…
I often wonder if the world would have been better off if we had instead backed Hitler with his Barbarossa foray into the USSR. Wasn’t Germany really the lesser of two evils?
It was, in the circumstances. Problem is, the West backing Hitler instead of fighting him would have changed the circumstances. After cooperating with Stalin to defeat Hitler, we had one hell of a time dealing with Stalin. If we’d done it the other way round, we could have a much worse time dealing with Hitler. Imagine the Cold War but against German organization and technology instead of Russian. We might be lucky to have missed it.
The nazi’s had every social program in the book.. Free scht galore.. Its one of the main reasons hitler had to go to war to pay for it all.. They already tried printing money (HELLO) and all that did was drive inflation to unbearable levels..
Sounds like us today.. Expect war soon..
For those who haven’t yet read it, I suggest “The Road to Serfdom” by Hayek. Written during the second world war. He explains all this. He dedicated it to “The Socialists of All Parties”.
Socialism is simply the politics of envy. It caters to a person’s base desires of greed, control, revenge and envy while masquerading as love and equality. Since we all have to serve somebody, the state becomes the god.
H
This book is free on Audible right now.
Dictatorial tyranny has many names now a days. Man’s hatred of his fellow man and desire to control him is, well, as old as mankind.
Individualism.
Statism.
Collectivism.
Anarchism.
A carjacking in where else?
Brampton
https://mitchieville2020.blogspot.com/2024/04/a-carjacking-in-brampton.html?m=1