The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas (51 page)

Read The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas Online

Authors: Jonah Goldberg

Tags: #Political Science, #Political Ideologies, #Conservatism & Liberalism

BOOK: The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas
3.47Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

“scientism” vs., 211

Senate, U.S., 168, 169

separation of church and state, 76–83, 260

in colonial America, 78–79

religious bias of politicians and, 79–82

roots of, 77–79

September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, 52, 132, 235, 276

commemoration controversies and, 76, 91–92

Service Employees International Union (SEIU), 133

60 Minutes,
22, 23, 223

Slate,
167, 210

slavery, 71, 105, 114, 119, 150, 166, 168, 185, 198, 270

abolition of, 180–81, 185

slippery slope arguments (SSAs), 4, 115–21

“boiling frog” parable and, 118–19

civil liberties and, 116, 119–21

examples in validation of, 117–18

political circuit breakers and, 120–21

weaknesses of, 117, 118, 119

Smith, Adam, 40, 41, 142, 202, 203

Smith, Al, 268, 269

Smith, Shawn, 217–18

Smithsonian, 133

Social Animal, The
(Brooks), 8

Social Aspects of Christianity
(Ely), 82, 287
n

Social Catholicism, 139

Social Darwinism, 100–113

conservatism unfairly linked to, 100, 101, 102, 108–9, 112

eugenic connotations of, 101, 103, 105–7, 113

liberal villification of, 101, 103, 105, 107, 109, 112, 113

in progressive economic thought, 105–7

“robber barons” and, 107–9, 110–12

Spencer as “founder” of, 101–2, 103–4, 105

“survival of the fittest” and, 103–5, 108, 112

Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860–1915
(Hofstadter), 107–8, 110

socialism, 11, 21, 24, 40, 47, 49, 53, 67, 104, 106, 109, 139, 177, 212, 224, 252, 276

“Christian,” 82–83

Dewey’s philosophy and, 54–56

Marxist, 195–98, 211–12

rebranding of, 63–64

war, 50–51

Socialist Party, 55, 63

social justice, 69–70, 81, 131–46, 160–61, 292
n

“disposition standards” of, 136–37

as euphemism for “goodness,” 132, 134, 143, 144–45

evolving meaning of, 137–42

in Green Party platform, 135–36, 137

as ideological concept, 143–44

ill-defined sentiment of, 132, 133–36, 137, 144, 145–46

in mission statements, 132–34

as “redistribution of wealth,” 137, 138, 141–42, 144

Social Psychology Quarterly,
204

Social Security, 25, 215, 229

Social Statics, or The Conditions essential to Happiness specified, and the First of them Developed
(Spencer), 102

Socrates, 96, 210, 220

South Carolina, University of, 137

Soviet Union, 14, 16, 55, 151, 183, 215

Sowell, Thomas, 89, 185

Spanish Inquisition, 248–52, 253, 301
n

Spencer, Herbert, 101–2, 103–4, 105, 106, 107, 108, 111

spirituality, religion vs., 256–60

Stalin, Joseph, 64, 84, 124, 150, 212, 214, 215, 276

Stanford University, 27, 217

Starry Messenger
(Galileo), 11

Star Wars,
40, 134–35

State, 17, 67, 143, 292
n

“competitiveness” argument for interference by, 14–16

government vs., 151–52

“living constitution” and, 13, 163, 165–66

regulation of violence by, 181, 182–83

social ecosystems within, 138

see also
government

Staying on Top
(Phillips), 16

Stearns, Harold, 193, 194

Steffens, Lincoln, 14–15

Steinem, Gloria, 244, 246

stem cell research, 205, 206

sterilization, 107, 165–66, 218

Streisand, Barbra, 89–91, 92, 98–99, 176

Students for a Democratic Society, 194

Sullivan, Andrew, 34–36, 37, 65

Summers, Lawrence, 51, 206

Sumner, William Graham, 102, 103

Suprema Congregatio Sanctæ Romanæ et Univeralis Inquisitionis,
247, 302
n

Supreme Court, U.S., 148, 160, 162, 226, 272

Buck v. Bell
decision of, 107, 165–66

“living constitution” and, 162, 163, 164–66

nominations to, 164–65

“survival of the fittest,” 103–5, 108, 112

Switzerland, 237, 301
n

“Taboo of Virginity, The” (Freud), 264

Taliban, 238, 239, 264

Tallentyre, S. G., 2–3

Taparelli d’Azeglio, Luigi, 137–38, 139, 291
n
–92
n

Tea Party, 129

Ten Days That Shook the World
(Reed), 212

“ten guilty men” principle, 3, 153–58, 294
n

terrorists, 52, 76, 121, 168, 184, 189, 232, 238, 239, 242, 243

freedom fighters vs., 4–6

Theodosius, Emperor of Rome, 77

Theory of Moral Sentiments, The
(Smith), 202

Thomas Aquinas, 9, 74

Thompson, John B., 43

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents
(Burke), 121

Thucydides, 262–63

Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, The
(Jung), 19

Tocqueville, Alexis de, 93, 232, 233, 288
n

Toleration Act (England), 78

trade, peace sustained by, 183, 266–67

“tradition of existence,” 235, 239

Travolta, John, 175–76

Treatise on Judicial Evidence, A
(Bentham), 156–57

Treatise on Political Economy
(Tracy), 41

True and Only Heaven, The
(Lasch), 193
n

“Two Genes Predict Voter Turnout” (Fowler and Dawes), 207–8

“uncanny valley” phenomenon, 264

understanding, as bringing peace myth, 261–67

“narcissism of minor differences” as rebuttal to, 263–65

unemployment, 140, 142, 201

unions, 133, 177, 191, 202

United Nations, 144–45, 184, 270

United States:

class system in, 197–99

current health-care system in, 26–30

political circuit breakers of, 120–21

post-Civil War prosperity in, 109–10

system of government in, 271–72

see also
colonial America; government

unity, appeals to, 274–77

Use of Force in International Affairs, The,
123

Victorian Studies,
101

violence, 180–89, 261, 262, 294
n

of early humans, 252–53, 303
n

enforcement of law with, 181–83

Gandhi’s opposition to, 180, 185, 187–89

and “might makes right” debate, 184–85

as “never solving anything,” 4, 180–85, 187–89

pacifism vs., in war efforts, 183–84

as sometimes necessary, 180–81, 182, 183, 185, 188

Voegeli, William, 58, 200–201

Voegelin, Eric, 33, 75

Volokh, Eugene, 117–18, 153–54, 294
n

Voltaire, 2–3, 253

voting rights, 168, 222, 226, 270, 272–73

War Against the Weak
(Black), 101

War on Poverty, 51, 70

war socialism, 50–51, 232

Washington, D.C., 61, 174

Washington Post,
61, 226, 230

Weber, Max, 181, 198

welfare state, 24, 82, 107, 135, 169, 191, 200, 201

Western Civilizations: Their History and Their Culture
(Lerner et al.), 242

What’s Wrong with the World
(Chesterton), 66

Wheaton College, 240

Who’s Who in America,
111

Why Is There No Socialism in the United States?
(Sombart), 198

“Why Liberals and Atheists Are More Intelligent” (Kanazawa), 204

Wikipedia, 8–9

Will, George, 1, 164

Wilson, Woodrow, 16, 49, 51, 58, 82, 120, 128, 152, 161, 167, 193, 272

“Leaders of Men” essay of, 273–74

on “living constitution,” 162–63

war socialism of, 50, 232

witch hunts, 157, 243–47, 252, 301
n

Without Feathers
(Allen), 147

women, 95, 133, 166, 205, 206, 264

forced sterilization of, 107, 165–66

gender quotas and, 96–98

witch hunts and, 244–45, 246, 301
n

women’s rights, 135, 168, 273

see also
feminism

Words That Changed a Nation
(Obama), 297
n

working classes, 46, 195, 197–98

World Day of Social Justice, 144

World Health Organization (WHO), 26–27, 28

World War I, 50

World War II, 51, 52, 124

Japanese-American internment in, 120

“Worst Study Ever?, The” (Atlas), 26–27

Worst Years of Our Lives, The
(Ehrenreich), 122

Wylie, Irwin, 110, 111, 112

Yale University, 8, 27, 49, 57, 102, 133–34

Young Americans Foundation, 225

youth, 220–27

as “inherently” liberal, 225–27

political fetishization of, 224, 225, 226–27

voting rights of, 222, 226

Zwinglians, 78, 237, 238

Other books

Rescued by the Pack by Leah Knight
The Purity of Blood: Volume I by Jennifer Geoghan
Terr5tory by Susan Bliler
Under a Falling Star by Fabian Black
The Chrome Suite by Sandra Birdsell
Wolf Bite by Heather Long
Debatable Space by Philip Palmer
Percy Jackson's Greek Gods by Rick Riordan, John Rocco