內容介紹
1969年，法國著名政論家勒維爾（Jean-Francois Revel）預言，美國即將經驗“第二次世界大革命”——這一場動亂將繼續完成第一次的革命，也就是18世紀西方興起的民主浪潮。在《沒有馬克思或耶穌》（Without Marx or Jesus）一書里，他預言一種新的人類(homo novus）即將出現。他相信，因為美國人現在開始對東方宗教產生興趣，所以這種關懷靈性的暗潮將是一種預兆，預兆這個地球上唯一自由到不流血就可以革命的國家即將發生深層的變革。勒維爾認為，這個二次革命是20世紀60年代一切社會運動、多元事物、抗議與暴力等混沌現象中的本型(pattern)。確實，有很多行動者已經開始轉向內心。這個方向，對傳統左派的同志而言，實在是異端。他們說，他們必須先改變自己，才能改變社會。
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http://www.amazon.com/WITHOUT-JESUS-AMERICAN-REVOLUTION-BEGUN/dp/B000OFM176/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251610649&sr=1-1
July 18, 2009
ByPieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg)
This classic work on the USA and the concept of revolution was first published in English in 1971. Revel's astute analyses include the observations that European culture was stagnant and that Europeans were hopelessly uninformed on the United States. Even more alarmingly, Revel reveals that already at that time the European elites were projecting their guilt and self-loathing for their own imperialistic past onto the USA. The author also explores the idea of revolution, distinguishing mere revolts that lead to worse oppression from revolutions that bring individual freedom and progress.
He identifies 5 conditions & 5 solutions prerequisite for a successful revolution. There must be critiques of: 1 injustice in economic, social & racial relationships 2 management against the waste of human & material resources 3 political power, both its sources and exercise 4 culture, morality, religion, customs, art and the function of these in society 5 the old civilizational sanction and vindication of individual freedom. Revel then explains why a true revolution can take place only in the United States.
Chapters 4, 5 & 6 investigate to the impossible revolution in the communist nations, in Western Europe and in the Third World. The following chapter looks at the history of revolutions whilst the next focuses on national sovereignty, international relations, multilateral & bilateral agreements and wasteful military expenditures. Revel also devotes a chapter each to violence & revolution and to the one-way street from freedom to socialism, a subject on which Hayek's Road to Serfdom remains the classical text.
The phenomenon of Anti-Americanism about which he wrote a most perceptive and witty book in 2003, is dealt with in chapter 11. He identifies two basic kinds of anti-Americanism and subjects its causes and symptoms to close scrutiny. In this chapter he provides ample examples of its emotionally unhinged nature, its puerile sense of grievance, lack of logic, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic undertones. America has faithfully followed its democratic institutions while Europe produced the Shoah/Holocaust, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, murderous collectivist ideologies and two world wars.
Revel points out that the cultural is the most humiliating form of defeat. The envy & resentment arising from that fuel much of the irrational anti-Americanism found amongst European elites. Several examples of verbatim conversations are provided in order to demonstrate the puerile and contradictory nature of this hatred of America. Since then, the phenomenon has grown as recorded by amongst others Andre Markovits, Bruce Bawer, Barry Rubin, David Horowitz, Paul Hollander, Jamie Glazov and Carol Gould. In addition, its close connection to anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism has become more explicit.
Chapters 12 & 13 cover the dynamics of revolution and the information revolution respectively. Interestingly, Revel claims that opinions formed by Propaganda are as easy to destroy as they are to create; counterpropaganda can in one day destroy what it took the state 20 years to fabricate. I found this of interest in relation to Eric Hoffer's claim in The True Believer that propaganda only serves to reinforce existing beliefs. Chapter 15: The Rights & The Means, provides evidence of the manifold means available to US citizens to defend their constitutional rights against the federal, state or municipal governments.
The final chapter which provided the title concludes that the only real revolution is taking place in America; a revolution involving culture, economic and technological power. Technological civilization is accepted as a means not an end. This revolution seeks not to destroy but to reshape society. Mary McCarthy's Afterword is flattering to Revel as iconoclast, a witty and enjoyable read but ultimately a bit shallow and devalued by her ideological bias. Revel tactfully but effectively refutes her obscurantism in the Author's Note to the American Edition, especially brilliantly on the definition of revolution.
I highly recommend Revel's How Democracies Perish along with his Anti-Americanism as well as Menace in Europe by Claire Berlinski and While Europe Slept by Bruce Bawer that expose the perilous situation of Europe. The ongoing attempt by progressives to subvert the US system is informatively examined by Jonah Goldberg in Liberal Fascism while two books by the French philosopher Chantal Delsol diagnoses the current malaise of Europe with great empathy: Icarus Fallen and The Unlearned Lessons Of the Twentieth Century: An Essay On Late Modernity.
