National Self-Hatred
Reader comment on item: Lee Harvey Oswald's Malign Legacy

Submitted by Paul Eidelberg (Israel), Nov 21, 2007 at 20:53

Dr. Pipes' article on Piereson requires serious reflection, and not only by Americans.

I wonder if there is any conceptual connection between self-hating American academics on the left and their counterparts in Israel?

Be this as it may, it seems to me that deeper forces are at work in both countries--which is not to minimize the importance of Piereon's analysis.

We also need to consider the corrosive impact of moral relativism that had been percolating especially in the social sciences and humanities BEFORE the Kennedy assassination. Let's also bear in mind the corrosive impact of revisionist historians like Charles Beard and Richard Hoftadter, as well as the reductionist political science of Harold Lasswell Beard more than Hofstader exploded the aura of America's Founding Fathers and their Constitution.

Lesswell reduced politics to Hobbes quest for income, safety and deference. These academics –and many others I could mention—spawned a great deal of cynicism among college youth regarding America. In short, the subversion of liberal America was facilitated by American higher education before Kennedy's assassination. And some of the causes can be seen in post-Zionist Israel and post-Christian Europe.

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