Customer Reviews

The End of Commitment: Intellectuals, Revolutionaries, and Political Morality in the Twentieth Century

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you have read any of Hollander's earlier books such as "Understanding Anti-Americanism" "Discontents" or "Political Pilgrims" among others, you will enjoy this book. It is more than just an update of his examinations of those who are so deeply invested in their hatred of the West that they are blind to the horrors of totalitarian systems and the genocides committed on their behalf. It is a good look at the phenomenon that Orwell stated so well over a half-century ago when he noted that some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals could believe them.
This book examines some of the same pathologies that infect much of the Left today that Flynn does in his books such, as "Intellectual Morons" but does so with a scalpel instead of an ax. Hollander does a very good job of showing that one of the ironies of the left's hatred of the Western societies that they live in is that theirs is a religious belief system far more dogmatic than any of the major religious movements today. The systems they attack are far more open to criticism and change than any of the so-called intellectuals such as Eric Hobsbawm, who turns a blind eye to the millions murdered by Stalin since it was done in the name of destroying the society that gives him the freedom to be a fool, and be amply rewarded by fellow leftists for it.
a very good book.

How could modern intellectuals and thinkers become seduced by the promises of communism and its ideals: an idea that proved repressive in actuality? THE END OF COMMITMENT: INTELLECTUALS, REVOLUTIONARIES, AND POLITICAL MORALITY examples questions of political morality, belief changes, and commitments, examining the moral limits of individuals and why ideologies can seduce even the most reasoned. It's the first to pair a history of Communist systems with a social survey of how its ideology spread around the world - and it provides chapters powerful in social survey and insight.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

In this work Hollander examines the disillusionment of some collectivist utopians, how defectors & dissidents in totalitarian societies dealt with reality after losing their religion, the phenomenon of westerners who remained true believers, and the roles of emotion and personality in these developments. He discusses dissidents in the old Soviet Empire, China, Cuba, Ethiopia, Nicaragua & Vietnam as well as those Western intellectuals who rejected the ideology and those who were unable to do so. The work is thus a collection of short political biographies, rare in its documentation of the disillusionment with non-Soviet systems. There's no doubt that communism is a secular salvationist ideology, a belief system that entrapped many intellectuals through the emotions.

The author covers an extensive list of the disillusioned from the early Soviet defectors like Orlov and Kravchenko to later ones like Kopelev and Yakovlev. They held high moral values that were more important to them than material rewards. Next he deals with brave individuals in China and Third World countries like Vietnam, Ethiopia, Cuba and Nicaragua who challenged the system under butchers like inter alia Mao, Mengistu and Castro. Honest intellectuals who lived under communism could not deny the chasm between reality and promise; their faith was swallowed by the chasm.

In the West, Hollander investigates the utopian mindset amongst individuals who never personally experienced the oppression and deprivations of communism. These include David Horowitz, Eugene Genovese, Doris Lessing, Susan Sontag, Ronald Radosh and Christopher Hitchens. He argues that their youthful commitment may have been shaped by personality and emotion rather than moral indignation caused by social injustice. Disappointed personal expectations and alienation resulting from wounded idealism triggered the pursuit of meaning in an adversarial community. Passionate belief in a cause subjects the personal to the political as Eric Hoffer points out in The True Believer.

Their rejection of genocidal utopianism also took courage as it involved a complete break with old friends and ejection from a socio-political subculture. Personality again plays a part here: the genuinely non-conformist individual feels compelled to rebel against deception and propaganda. The Clintons' bad behavior prompted Hitchens to write No One Left To Lie To about the then-president and his wife. In certain cases the unscrupulous behavior or cold indifference of their fellow leftists ignited the second thoughts, as in the case of Horowitz whose friend was murdered to the unanimous silence of his fellow radicals. In addition, the true rebel cannot long abide any form of orthodoxy or consensus built on lies.

A chapter is devoted to those who could not shake off the totalitarian temptation. The British historian Eric Hobsbawm is one who admits to the slaughter of millions but justifies his continued faith on the grounds that a "better world" would have resulted from the success of communism. Hollander analyses Hobsbawm in minute detail with reference to the historian's hatred of the present and worship of the future, the primacy of emotion over reason and good intentions over reality in his writings and his irrational hatred of Israel, an attitude he shares with Noam Chomsky whom Hollander diagnoses with extreme alienation. The Anti-Chomsky Reader edited by Collier and Horowitz, offers a thorough and in-depth study.

Others of this ilk were or are Bill Ayers, Tony Negri, Ramsey Clark, Alexander Cockburn, and Edward Said whose claims are so brilliantly refuted by Ibn Warraq in Defending the West. Books that investigate and illuminate the history, modus operandi and compulsions of hardcore utopianists include Stephen Hick's Explaining Postmodernism, Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn's Leftism Revisited, Bruce Walker's Sinisterism, Jamie Glazov's United in Hate and The Death Of Right And Wrong by Tammy Bruce.

Hollander celebrates the fact that that some sinisterists do ultimately face the facts, accept reality and change their minds. They are often the ones who become the most vigorous champions of freedom. However, as Jean-François Revel reminds us in Last Exit to Utopia, this evil religion always rises again. Years ago he had already concluded that the totalitarian temptation is incomprehensible without considering the possibility that there are influential people in all societies who desire tyranny - some yearning to exercise it and others longing to submit to it.

If you're interested in understanding what's happening today with the anti-war activists, why Jane Fonda made an appearance in Washington DC recently, and why it seems like the Vietnam anti-war mentality is impacting our Congress read this book. It also exlains why certain groups affiliated themselves with the communists in 1930s, and how their kids grew up as new left soldiers. Very interesting book that touches on issues that the politically correct don't want talked about. History and sociology at its best. If you project what the author's material suggests we are in for a very rough time over the next 25 years.