23 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What's the choice? Liberty or Greatness?, June 7, 2005
This review is from: Return to Greatness: How America Lost Its Sense of Purpose and What It Needs to Do to Recover It (Hardcover)
This is a wonderful book, clear, concise, logical and properly infuriating for anyone concerned about the current state of the nation.
It's based on a simple premise: liberals believe government authority, policies and incentives have guided America's destiny into greatness. The neoconservative rebuttal is that America's destiny is based on not meddling in the lives of ciizens and not becoming involved in foreign nation building.
Wolfe doesn't endorse the neoconservative view. He writes, "As it takes the personal courage of a Teddy Roosevelt or a John McCain to become a great American leader, itr takes intellectual courage to propose great ideas for Amerca, such as the courage to insist that sometimes government is necessary and the taxes to finance its activities a small price to pay for the results it can achieve or the courage to do what is right for future generations rather than what is most likely to garner votes in the very next election."
It's based on an assumption that people are either basically evil or good. Liberals believe in basic goodness; conservatives believe in basic evil and punishment to instill respect and morality. Wolfe writes "The hope-filled language of the Reagan and Kennedy administrations finds no place among men like Vice President Dick Cheney, who are convinced that forces of darkness rule the world and must be met head-on with iron resolve. Suspicion and fear guide this administration, not confidence and generosity."
True enough. Do you trust the government? If so, this book outlines in chilling detail the intellectual underpinnings of how and why the Bush administration wants to reverse almost everything the US government has achieved since 1860.
If you don't trust the government, this book outlines heart-warming reasons of how and why "Bush is the first Republican president to make libertarianism the centerpiece of his presidency." The express goal of massive budget and trade deficits is to make sure the US "is unlikely to possess for decades the financial wherewithal to achieve any of the objectives its leaders set out to realize."
To understand this antiu-government attitude, it's worth understanding the "Old Confederacy" was born the moment Gen. Robert E. Lee offered his sword to Gen. U.S. Grant at Appomattox; thus began the legend of states' rights. As Wolfe explains, "A hundred years ago, Southerners voted overwhelmingly for a party that stood against the idea of a strong America. Now they continue to do exactly that."
The result, Wolfe writes, is "the stronger American conservativism becomes, the weaker America will be." In this wonderfully liberal view of conservative ideas, a strong state dominates and controls its citizens, taxing them heavily to finance its domestic experiments, foreign adventures and imperial greatness. Does the powerful national unity and sense of purpose implied by the slogal "Ein volk, ein reich, ein fuhrer" ring a bell?
It's been said of John Milton, who wrote 'Paradise Lost' to praise God and condemn Satan, that he inadvertently created a heroic Devil because of Milton emphasized his very human insistence on individuality instead of meek submission to God.
In his praise of America, Wolfe likewise writes, "Greatness, which has always been the exception rather than the rule in the American experience, must be willed into being over the objections of all those forces that benefit from the individualistic culture, decentralized political structure, and profit-seeking opportunities that dominate everyday American life." Take your choice . . . . individuality or greatness.
It puts Wolfe right up there with Milton.
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20 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Greatness=Fascism, May 30, 2005
This review is from: Return to Greatness: How America Lost Its Sense of Purpose and What It Needs to Do to Recover It (Hardcover)
Like beauty, greatness is in the eye of the beholder. Alan Wolfe's concept of greatness sharply differs from this reviewer's view of greatness. While he claims to be a "Liberal" Kerry voter, he does not promote the classical liberal thought of a Lockean, and is intolerant of other views of greatness. Rather, like many of today's "progressives" his "Liberalism" is a perversion. It calls for a strong coercive government that destroys any existence of individualism. His heros are Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt. What makes them heros is that they all succeed in increasing the power of the central government while actively ignoring the true intent of the US Constitution. The obligations that one has towards his fellow citizens are not self imposed, but are decided by and enforced by a strong central government bureacracy.
Indeed, Wolfe's idealogy is highly nationalisic and intolerant. It is basically a fascist ideal where the will and the identity of the individual is destroyed. Greatness (as opposed to goodness) comes from government strength. Wolfe's desired Leviathan could easily violate the basic freedoms that many have given their lives to defend.
This reviewer believes that both America's goodness and greatness have come from her people, and not from government force or military might. Without the force of government, the great Americans of yesterday and today freely place restrictions on themselves in order to improve life for themselves and their fellow world citizens. America's great people come from all walks of life. She is a school teachers, business owner, a loving parent, a little league players, or she is just an infirmed lady who can rise above her own pains to freely give some of what little money she has to the tsunami victims in Southeast Asia. If she were forced to give of herself as Wolfe would advocate, then she has lost her right to be good, generous, and helpful.
Greatness comes from within the individual and can never be imposed by government power. A country can never be great if its citizens are treated as livestock, and this is the reason that Wolfe's vision fails. If his vision is ever implemented, the US will go the way of many failed regimes such as Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and many innocent lives will be lost along the way.
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