Roger Scruton Quotes
Nothing upset me more than the award of Companion of Honour to Eric Hobsbawm in reward for a lifetime of unswerving loyalty to the Soviet Union.
Scruton, Roger. Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left. Bloomsbury Continuum, 2015.
At the time, the Red Scare was prevalent and many Americans were terrified of communists. It was a very effective political tactic to imply that an opponent was a communist or communist sympathizer. For another harsh smear of Stevenson, see {619523}.
This blind defense of all Soviet policies and actions by non-Soviet communist parties was typical of the day. Politics became so polarized that throughout the world, political groups took sides and defended or tolerated whatever acts their “allies” engaged in.
The PBSUCCESS unit was attempting to thwart the Communist movements in Guatemala.
He lists a number of employees including his own wife. The foundation was the L. Ron Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation Inc. In this case a religious leader was asking the government for assistance in determining who was and was not fit to be a member and an associate of his organization. The FBI apparently ignored his accusations, and there was no government action though he continued to accuse associates throughout his life. The FBI agent who met with Hubbard to investigate his charges wrote “mental case” on the file.
1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor. This turned out to be one of the worst predictions in political history.
Truman had to deal with Stalin for many years and over time he became more and more soured on the Russians. See {626411} for his view 22 years later,
He like many others had signed petitions for good causes that were circulated by Communist organizations. Racists then used that fact to claim that desegregation, voting rights and anti-lynching laws were communist ideas. With the Red Scare operating in the 1950s, Terkel, like so many others were Blacklisted and denied opportunities to earn a living. Many claimed that they had been duped and don’t really believe in these causes. Some like Terkel would not. He opposed most of the Communist programs, but agreed with some. Ironically, ideas like anti-lynching and voting rights which were then labeled as Communist ideology, are today supported by the vast majority of Americans.
Many Americans were paranoid about Democratic Socialism being a stalking horse or front organization for Communists. Similarly, many Socialists were paranoid that the American and European (and other) capitalists were out to destroy them in their conflation of socialism and communism.
Harriman at that time was the United States Ambassador to Russia and one of President Roosevelt’s closest advisers. There were those who claimed that the Roosevelt administration was very naïve about the potential danger of Stalin. This statement as well as others like it, show that the administration was not so naïve and ignorant.
During the Cold War and afterwards many Americans attributed the problems we were having with the Soviet Union emenated from the fact that they were Communists, and our focus was anti-communism. Kennen, however argued that it was not Communism that was the cause of the Aggression of the Soviet Union. It was an extension of the Russian Culture. After the Soviet Union collapsed, and Communism was rejected by the Russians, we still had a great deal of Russian aggression and Foreign Policy problems with Russia. Kennan was right. It was the Russian culture, history, values and traditions that were the primary cause of most of the problems with Russia.
Sir Roger Vernon Scruton FBA FRSL was an English philosopher and writer who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy. Scruton wrote over 50 books on philosophy, art, music, politics, literature, culture, sexuality, and religion; he also wrote novels and two operas. He was a regular contributor to the popular media, including The Times, The Spectator, and the New Statesman. Scruton was knighted in the 2016 Birthday Honours for "services to philosophy, teaching and public education".
