Friday, March 28, 2008

Wilsonianism

A few quotes from the Gates of Vienna:

  • Democracy is socialism applied to the highest level: the form of government.
  • Shaking off Wilsonianism is a worthwhile goal.
  • From Versailles to the UN to the idealism of George W. Bush: we set out to make the world safe for democracy, and ended up making it unsafe for just about everyone.
  • What is rarely recognized is how much Wilson had in common with Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, and all the other murderous socialist dictators of the 20th century. Like them, he believed that humankind could be reshaped by the idealistic vision of the privileged few who governed them. Like them, he was loath to allow the reality of human nature to stand in the way of his vision.
  • [T]he great crash of 1917-18; which brought down the whole edifice of European civilization (specifically, monarchial European civilization) -- to which Wilson contributed his mite -- was the pivotal catastrophe of modern times.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The so called civilization was the civilization that created the war in the first place, and the Belgian monarchy killed milions in the Congo.
The deaths of innocent civilians for imperialist power games was the tragic occurence not the loss of monarchies.

J.K. Baltzersen said...

Sir or Madam:

As William Lind has said, "the fact that World War I occurred is the greatest disaster. But once that had happened, the last chance the West had of retaining its traditional culture was a victory by the Central Powers."

Yes, the old order had its excesses. I don't deny that. I do, however, claim that it over all as a general rule was better than the new. See, e.g., this post.

Yes, the old order had its wars. It started off a war in 1914. However, the French Republic was just waiting for its revenge from 1871. Nor was democratic Britain innocent in the war being so devastating. Kaiser Karl wanted to end the war, but the Allied Powers knew that Uncle Sam would not let the Allied Powers lose the war.

Yes, the old order did attempt ("third degree") suicide, and it succeeded, but not without help. That need not imply that what takes its place is better.

The vacuum created in Russia when the monarchy went, was filled with Communism, which spread to China. The Black Book of Communism gives us numbers in the millions of victims.