So it is with the rest of our self-government. The problems facing us, faced by all mankind engaged in Democracy, may seem complex, or indeed insolvable, and we, in despair, may revert to a state of wish-fulfillment—a state of “belief” in the power of the various experts presenting themselves as a cure for our indecision. But this is a sort of Stockholm syndrome. Here, the captives, unable to bear the anxiety occasioned by their powerlessness, suppress it by identifying with their captors.
This is the essence of Leftist thought. It is a devolution from reason to “belief,” in an effort to stave off a feeling of powerlessness. And if government is Good, it is a logical elaboration that more government power is Better. But the opposite is apparent both to anyone who has ever had to deal with Government, and, I think, to any dispassionate observer.
It is in sympathy with the first and in the hope of enlarging the second group that I have written this book.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My son asked me to explain the difference between a Conservative and a Liberal. I went on at some length. He thought for a while and said, “Then, basically, it’s the difference between the Heavenly Dream and the God-Awful Reality”—a succinct and accurate compression of those views which I have, at somewhat greater and, I hope, excusable length, endeavored to express here.
I had never knowingly talked with nor read the works of a Conservative before moving to Los Angeles, some eight years ago.
I am indebted to very patient friends and teachers I met here, who inspired me to seek some understanding of the political process.
I would particularly like to thank Endre Balogh and Rabbi Mordecai Finley. They introduced me to the works of Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, and, so, began my efforts at self-education; and to Jon Voight, who, among other acts of kindness, gave me Whittaker Chambers’s Witness.
As my reading broadened, I became aware of various nexuses of Conservative thought: I discovered that my radio had an AM band, and that the news and commentary on KCLA from Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, and Glenn Beck made more sense to me than the bemused and sad paternalism which had previously filled my drivetime.
I am very grateful to my wife and children, for putting up with my virtual monomania as I wrestled with what had become, for me, a new way of considering human interaction; to Sloan Harris for his forbearance, encouragement, and championship of the project; and to my assistant Pam Susemiehl for her patience, good humor, and much appreciated suggestions during the writing of this book.
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