Book Reviews

America-Lite: How Imperial Academia The outlook appears grim. But in the Madison examines the roles of Dismantled Our Culture (and Ushered in epilogue,Gelernterwrites:“Wearefacinga state and federal governments and the Obamacrats), by David Gelernter, terrible problem with a fairly simple deems it unlikely that the federal hardcover, 185 pp, $23.99, ISBN 78- solution.” He says we need to go back to government would become more 159403606-4, New York, N.Y., Encounter telling the truth, and suggests that we powerful than the state governments. He Books,2012. need an alliance of the old and the young states, “The powers proposed to be against the corrupt center. His single- lodged in the federal government are as America is being destroyed by a point program for curing America is this: little formidable to those reserved to the cultural revolution, writes Gelernter, with “American education is in the hands of individual states, as they are indis- corruption proceeding from the top— liberal airheads. Take it away from them.” pensably necessary to accomplish the the elite universities. He calls the leaders Gelernter believes that America has come purposes of the Union; and that all those PORGIs: Post-religious, globalist intel- through much worse. He concludes: “We alarms which have been sounded, of a lectuals. And he states that they are now havebarelybeguntobloom.” meditated and consequential anni- being followed by the PORGI Airheads or Gelernter may have the answer. The hilation of the state governments, must, intellectualizers. It is not a conspiracy, he young whose future is blighted by the on the most favorable interpretation, be writes. “Do algae conspire to choke a cultural revolution need to come together ascribed to the chimerical fears of the pond?” Intellectuals are just going about with the old, who can still remember what authorsofthem.” their business. Their business is to make life was like before the PORGIs began the “Part V: Self-Reliance and Character,” theories, and to impose them on people takeoverinthe1960s. begins with a letter, “What Is an Amer- regardlessofthefacts. ican?” by French immigrant J. Hector St. The new establishment is called post- Jane M. Orient, M.D. John Crevecoeur (1753-1813), giving his religious in the sense that the Judeo- Tucson, Ariz. impressions of life in America. In glowing Christian religion doesn’t strike most of terms, he describes the prosperity of the them as being important enough even to TheIdeaofAmerica:WhatItWasandHow mostly agricultural society, the op- bother dismissing. Left-liberalism, on the It Was Lost, second edition, by William portunity for a comfortable existence, as other hand, is itself a religion, and its Bonner and Pierre Lemieux, hardcover, 345 well as the “melting pot” aspect of faithful are not merely pious, but zealous pp, $24.95, ISBN-13: 978-0-9835414-0-0, America. He colorfully describes the or even fanatic, writes Gelernter. It turns ISBN-10: 098354140X, Baltimore, Md., differing character of those Americans politicalideasintoreligiousdogma. Laissez Faire Books, 2003, 2011, originally who live on the coast, those of the inland Barack Obama is a representative of published by Les Belles Lettres. areas, and those who live on the frontier the generation of Airheads,“the first ever of that time. The latter group receives to come of age after the cultural The Idea of America is an anthology of Crevecoeur’s strongest criticism, as he revolution.”This is important not because essays compiled by William Bonner and notes their lawlessness and deceptive he is exceptional, but because he is Pierre Lemieux, who themselves dealings with the Native Americans. He typical of the new establishment. More contributed a foreword, introduction, and stresses that hard work is necessary for an than 30 years of educational malpractice afterword. Because of the variety of topics immigrant’s success, but that the op- has led to this result. Religion has been and authors, this review describes only a portunitiesarefargreaterinAmericathan replaced by political indoctrination, and few of the works. These writings date from canbehadinEurope. left-liberal politics is no longer even a the founding of America to recent times In the following essay, “To Those Who conviction but “built-in mind furniture and are grouped by category. “Part I: Would Remove to America,” Benjamin that you take for granted without Founding Documents” includes the Franklin also emphasizes the diligence needing to think.”In 2008, Obama won 68 Declaration of Independence and the Bill necessary to succeed in America. An percent of the under-30 vote. It was not of Rights. “Part II: Revolutionary Ideals” immigrant could likely expect to achieve a just a landslide or a supermajority, but “a includes works by Murray N. Rothbard, comfortable, though not wealthy, blowout, a complete Republican col- Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, and Lord situation in life through hard work. His lapse.” Gelernter warns that “we have Acton (John E.E. Dalberg, 1834-1902). children would have more opportunities knowingly reared a whole generation in Parts III and IV cover “Self-, Decentralized, than in Europe, through apprenticeships ignorance of history, literature, religion, and Limited Government” and “Religion,” that would educate them in a trade. morality….” The Airhead Generation, and contain essays by James Madison and Franklin views the necessity of work as a together with its leader, has been Alexis de Tocqueville. “Responsive positive aspect, as he states that“industry inoculated with theories against facts. Governments” is taken from The Federalist and constant employment are great Withouthistory,Americalosesitsidentity. No.45,byJamesMadison. preservatives of the morals and virtue of a

124 Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 17 Number 4 Winter 2012 nation.” Two other essays by H.L. Mencken This book, written lucidly for the Fogoros explains how Obamacare will and Ralph Waldo Emerson complete this layman, is a call to rise in defense of our stifle medical progress, using examples fifth section of the book. lives, and our children’s lives. Its thesis anyone can readily grasp. He uncovers “Part VI: The Frontier” contains a seems exactly correct to me; I have what has been concealed from many, selection by economics professor John scarcelyanyquibbles. including major conflicts of interest Umbeck about the California Gold Rush, Chapters 1-5 describe the sorry state involving the centralauthority. as well as an excerpt from Mark Twain’s of our“healthcare system.”Economics is a The book is leavened with ironic “Life on the Mississippi.” With his usual study of human behavior, which frust- humor, and sprinkled with light self- entertaining, humorous style, Twain rates anyone trying to control it. deprecation, which will amuse many and details his experiences learning the river Medical care was paid for privately annoyafew. pilot’scraft. until 1965. Availability of taxpayers’ Med- Fogoros’s language is direct, even “Part VII: The Spirit of Liberty” has icare money caused an explosion in blunt. Obamacare, he writes, was writings by Thomas Jefferson, Henry research and development, according to designed to be obscure. He tells us that David Thoreau, and Voltairine de Cleyre, Dr. Fogoros. I disagree on that point: “insurance” executives love the Act as well as two fairly recent selections Freedom was responsible, and the because it will force healthy young by the U.S. Justice Department and the acceleration of knowledge began much people to give them money. He exposes U.S. Supreme Court concerning the sooner. Taxpayer funding has caused the doubletalk of the ACA and its failed SecondAmendment. huge increases in medical consumption, Clinton predecessor, called “HillaryCare.” “Part VIII: Open America” contains and the debt will cause societal collapse. He explains that the central authority Emma Lazarus’s poem on the Statue of Fogoros debunks the idea that waste is determines what constitutes healthcare Liberty, part of a speech by John Quincy thecauseoftheproblem. and what does not; if the government Adams, and an essay by RoseWilder Lane. The system’s response to limited says it’s healthcare, it must be covered; if The excerpt from Adams’s speech, “On supply, but unlimited demand, is covert it’s not covered, you cannot have it. No Foreign Policy,” stresses that America’s rationing. The clear explanation of covert physician will actually make a medical role is to speak “the language of equal rationing methods used by HMOs sets the decision, and patients will be pieces of liberty, of equal justice, and of equal stage for a discussion of the capitulation of rights,”to other countries. Adams praises livestock on a government ranch (my the medical profession, and the central phraseology and Fogoros’s mirror each America’s non-involvement in other authority’sdrivetocontrolphysicians. nations’ affairs. He states, “Wherever the otherhere.) Fogoros discusses the collusion of the The book is about medical care, but standard of freedom and independence “insurance” industry with the “Affordable has been or shall be unfurled, there will Fogoros makes it clear that medical care is Care Act” (“Obamacare”) and the reasons her [America’s] heart, her benedictions, a proxy for central authority by a liberty- for it. Of the four ways to pay for medical and her prayers be. But she goes not erasing, all-powerful government, which care, the socialist (Progressive) way is at abroadinsearchofmonsterstodestroy.” does not believe rights are from our issue here, so Fogoros diagnoses what ails Creator, but that they are grants from In the afterword, Bonner presents his Progressives, and characterizes their central authority. This authority views all views on the loss of liberty in America, programs, including their methods of disagreement as crazy, stupid, or evil. It government growth, and the economy. covertrationingofmedicalcare. He ends with a pessimistic tone, stating: must be cured by therapy, education, or Fogoros skillfully presents an easily “America is a very good idea; somebody elimination. He sounds the alarm that any understood blend of philosophy, fact, oughttotryit.” Progressive medical care system will analysis, and conclusion that will clear It was helpful to me to re-read prevent us from spending our own much confusion from many minds, if only Lemieux’s introduction to the book after I money on our own medical care, and he itcanreachthemintime. was finished, perhaps because too much explainsthereasonveryclearly. Obamacare’s accountable care organ- time had elapsed since I had started the As Fogoros points out, murderers will ization (ACO) is characterized accurately as book. He examines individual liberty and continue to have personal advocates to the final noose around the necks of the growth of government during the help them navigate the judicial system, course of American history, tying into the physicians, who will be practicing “herd medicine” in which they will be inter- but innocent sick people have been discussion many of the writings in the deprived of their personal advocates in book. This introduction helps to review changeable puppets in a pitiless machine, and their patients will be reduced to navigating the medical care system. They the ideas in the selections, and to provide have been deprived of their physicians unityforthebook. anonymous members of a herd. Herd medicine will choke off innovation and lives. principally by lawyers in theWhite House, The discussion of age-based medicine Congress, and the Judiciary. In my view, Sally Christman will chill your blood. It reminds me of what those lawyers treasonously violate their Dayton, Ohio a former patient, a Battle of the Bulge oaths of office, enabled by a citizenry veteran, told me and his family last distracted by trivia, and physicians Open Wide and Say Moo! The Good January just before he died. He said the hoodwinkedbyapoisonousphilosophy. Citizen’s Guide to Right Thoughts and U.S. system was becoming like the one The last part of the book is the Right Actions Under Obamacare, by ruled by the Nazis. We would all be prescription for cure, beginning with a Richard N. Fogoros, M.D., available free at commodities, and some of us would be discussion of the ethics of individual www.covertrationingblog.com. consideredworthless. autonomy. Direct pay and stubborn

Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 17 Number 4 Winter 2012 125 refusal, leaving the country, and be- movement of street protestors by 2009, as the way the world works, after decades of coming informed advocates for our- more Americans learned that the Fed’s studying economics—in particular Aus- selves,arealladdressed. printing more dollars allows the govern- trian economics as found in the works of I recommend that you download this ment to spend beyond its means. Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, and Murray book, read it closely, and give a copy to Doherty tells us that Paul is consid- Rothbard. Paul states that his real oppon- everyoneyoucaninducetoreadit. ered a vital asset by a large national cons- ent is not a politician like Romney or tituency of libertarians and cons-titution- Obama, but rather the dead economist Tamzin A. Rosenwasser, M.D. alists. His central concerns are monetary John Maynard Keynes, who asserted that Venice, Fla. policy, foreign policy, and civil liberties. He governments should regulate the business has “introduced legislation to abolish the cycle by spending money they don’t have. Ron Paul’s Revolution: The Man and the Occupational Safety and Health Adminis- According to the Austrians, free Movement He Inspired by Brian Doherty, tration, repeal the Gun Control Act of 1968, markets and hard money are the essential hardback, 294pp, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-06- end the postal monopoly, restrict the IRS’s requirements for prosperity and liberty. 211479-2, New York, N.Y., Broadside ability to inspect our tax returns, repeal the They point to two irrefutable facts that Books,2012. National Flood Insurance Act, make paper the socialists, liberals, progressives, and The Ron Paul Revolution, a peaceful dollars legal tender only for taxes, repeal Keynesians ignore: (1) We as humans on revolution, is alive and growing and Selective Service, impose term limits on earth are faced with a universal, ever- changing the shape of American politics. legislators, audit the Fed (many times), present scarcity of goods. (2) Because of How it happened and what it means for withdraw all the military from Europe and our human nature (which cannot be the future of America is explained by Japan, end the Fed, bar federal teacher changed) we must be motivated in a way Brian Doherty in this inter-esting and certification,[and]legalizehemp.” that ensures we will produce goods and readablehistory. Paul believes we all should be free servicesandcreatewealth. Rep. Ronald Ernest “Ron” Paul (R-14- to own and use guns. He wants to Doherty points out that Ron Paul has Texas) is a classic American patriot in the eliminate illegal immigration; eliminate not yet become mainstream, but states grand American tradition of the Jeffer- the departments of Commerce, Interior, that his “genuinely radical” ideas even- sonians. The 77-year-old obstetrician and Energy, Education, and Housing and tually will become mainstream. The Paul Air Force veteran has served in the U.S. Urban Development; abolish the IRS, movement is not just a personality cult House of Representatives 1976-77, 1979- FEMA, and the TSA; shut down the “drug but part of a larger movement that will 85,and1997topresent. war”; eliminate the federal income tax, the change our culture by educating the Though libertarian, he has repeatedly death tax and corporate subsidies; and publicabouteconomicsandphilosophy. won re-election while promoting the repeal “ObamaCare,” Dodd-Frank, and Although mainstream media and the liberal policies of ending the “war on Sarbanes-Oxley. Republican Party apparatus have tem- drugs,”repealing the USA Patriot Act, and Paul believes that“if you do not protect porarily succeeded in silencing him, Ron stopping wars in the Middle East. He’s the liberty across the board…we don’t have a Paul’s Revolution, Doherty believes, will only congressman to win a seat as a non- First Amendment,”and we will end up with continually progress into a mass constitu- incumbent three different times. Though a government“that is going to tell us what ency for no war, no Fed, no drug war, no he represents an agricultural district in we can eat and drink and whatnot.” He regulatory state, and a progressively Texas, he always votes against federal believes that all government power is at smaller entitlement state. But before this agriculturesubsidies. rootbothauthoritarianandviolent. can happen the American people must For Paul, each political campaign is Paul maintains that actions have renounce their long-held belief in using an effort to win election, but beyond consequences and that empire has costs the force of government to impose their that, an effort to educate Americans about that need to be considered. He believes willonothers. liberty. As Doherty notes, Ron Paul doesn’t the United States would be better off Doherty is a journalist who has change his message; he“changes minds.” minding our own business and following a covered Ron Paul for more than a decade, Paul lost the presidential race in 1988 as foreign policy of friendship and trade, not so it is disappointing to find a few of his the Libertarian candidate (where he came wars and subsidies. He says the way we statements to be misleading. For ex- in third), and was trounced by Sen. John treat foreigners overseas is the criminal ample, he describes Paul’s political McCain in the 2008 contest for the behaviorofadecadentempire. philosophy as“quirky,”(p 287) and asserts Republican presidential nomination. But He believes that our government that the Revolution relies on the ideas following that, he won the presidential today, instead of respecting and protec- of the new Tea Party (p 160). In fact, straw poll at the Conservative Political ting our rights, violates them. He also both Paul’s political philosophy and his Action Conferences in both 2010 and 2011. believes that, because of our fiscal foreign policy are well grounded in ideas And his failed presidential campaign mismanagement, we are a bankrupt that have been proven to work many spawned two Paul organizations: Young empire, and that a severe economic crisis times in the past. Finally, Doherty says Americans for Liberty, and the advocacy is nearly unavoidable. He asserts that gold that Paul’sforeign policy puts him outside group Campaign for Liberty, which has 289 as money, instead of paper money, is the the normal realms of “not just his party, chapters, more than 3,000 dues-paying onlywaytosolvetheproblem. butanyparty”(p259). members, and a network of 26,000 activists. Doherty tells us that Paul has devel- Even so, Doherty tells us that Ron Paul Paul’s “End the Fed” ideas progressed to a oped his philosophy, his understanding of is the only coherent, logical politician

126 Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 17 Number 4 Winter 2012 around, and in fact is one of the few the most essential human activity, but the leading population control group (p 163). honestpoliticiansinhistory. most emblematic. It is through agriculture Zubrin traces the origins of anti- Paul’s ideas of private property and that man continues the work of creation, humanism back to 1800 A.D.; yet, the basis freedom of choice are, in my opinion, the quite literallychangingtheworld to make it of anti-humanism dates back several only ones that can lead to the greatest a better place in which to live” (p 204; millennia.“Man is the measure of all things” creation of wealth, to increase of our emphasis in original). Zubrin continues: has been long attributed to Protagoras of happiness, and to preservation of our “All forms of agriculture are unnatural. Abdera, the 5th century B.C. sophist. Plato liberty. Doherty’s book will help educate Watering a plant isunnatural…. All of our contradicted this with“God is the measure the American public about these important domesticated plant and animal allies are of all things.” Although Zubrin references economic and philosophical ideas. unnatural, intelligently contrived Western Civilization's Judeo-Christian products of an age-old effort by many origins twice, he seems to imply that the Jerome C. Arnett, Jr., M.D. generations of people to improve upon “dignity of man” has superseded the Helvetia, W.V. whatNaturehadtooffer”(p207). Genesis vision of man as “the image of Bioengineering differs from previous ag- God”(p 1). Merchants of Despair: Radical ricultural methods, he explains, only in that Ironically, I find the roots of anti- Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo- it makes use of changes initiated by design, humanism in humanism itself. Some Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Anti- instead of attempting to exploit random humanists see man as creating the illusion humanism, by Robert Zubrin, hardcover, mutations and gene transfers (p 208). of God. With this ontological inversion, 320 pp, $25.95, ISBN 978-1-59403-476-3, Zubrin traces the origins of this food some men have essentially declared NewYork,N.Y.,EncounterBooks,2012. fetish back through the modern themselves omnipotent, at least in the eyes German Green Party and Nazi ideology of the lowly beholder, similar to the Wizard This splendid and intriguing book traces to the early 1800s. A cult ideology of Oz illusions. Philosopher of history Eric modern murderous and genocidal devel- celebrated nature and deplored “me- Voegelin traces modern anti-human opments in anti-humanistic ideologies. chanical and materialistic civilization” and ideologies to the Gnostic heresy of the first Robert Zubrin, Ph.D., is a contributing all else that proposed to raise man above century A.D.1 George Gilder and others editor for the online journal The New Atlantis nature(p198). refer to some of these modern variants as (www.thenewatlantis.com). He is an In the 1930s, leading Nazis embraced the“materialistic superstition.”2 aerospace engineer by training, a fellow of some of these food fetish ideas, including If human-created "dignity of man" is the Center for Security Policy, and president restoring a pure race on pure soil with a the basis for our human rights, humans can of the Mars Society. According to the plan to de-populate Eastern Europe of change the concept and our rights. God- description on the journal’s website, the “impure”SlavsandJews(p199). given rights are infinitely more substantial book “names the chief prophets and Although bioengineered foods have and are not subject to the whims of promoters of anti-humanism over the last been a godsend to many hungry people in political leaders or dictators. God-given two centuries, from Thomas Malthus Africa, the European Green Movement rights are discovered and based on the through Paul Ehrlich and Al Gore.” Also, it has invoked the so-called “Pre- laws written on the human heart, as in the “exposes the worst crimes perpetrated by cautionary Principle” to forestall agri- natural law tradition. With human-created the anti-humanist movement, including cultural improvements.“According to this rights, some have tried to radically change eugenics campaigns in the United States and concept, no innovation can be human rights, e.g., by government action, genocidal anti-development and population permitted which cannot be proven in as with Stalin and Hitler. Indeed, these control programs around the world.” advance to be completely harmless. If socialist dictators attempted to change the Zubrin meticulously traces the origins accepted, this idea would make all nature of man, sometimes under the guise and development of these ideologies technological progress impossible”(p 203). of science (as with eugenics and cell over the last two centuries. He often The“Precautionary Principle” “is nothing research) and sometimes by murdering or tracked down primary sources, yielding less than the pure crystallized phil- eliminating unworthy humans. Rights many cogent gems such as “The World osophy of smothering bureaucratic based on the dignity of man (as estab- Has Cancer and the Cancer Is Man,”which dictatorship”(p 204). lished by humans or governments) can as the Club of Rome attributes to Dr. Alan Zubrin recounts how William D. easily be taken away. Gregg, an official at the Rockefeller Ruckelshaus, the first administrator of the This is a small cavil in the face of Zubrin’s Foundation. His analysis exposes the fatal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), achievement in demonstrating the evil and immoral flaws of Malthusianism and banned the use of DDT in America. consequences of the modern ideologies of the other ideological offshoots of anti- Subsequently, the U.S. Agency for Inter- anti-humanism. humanism. It is the most thorough national Development (USAID), by critique of the Malthusian ideology that I prohibiting the funding of international Robert J. Cihak, M.D. haveseen. projects that used DDT, turned “the foreign Brier, WA Each of Zubrin’s chapters is filled with aid programs of the United States and a wealth of illuminating data. For REFERENCES Europe into agents of genocide”by allowing 1 Voegelin E. The political religions. In: The example, the “Better Fed than Dead: a resurgence of malaria, which now kills CollectedWorksofEricVoegelin,Vol.5. Columbia, Green Police for World Hunger” more than a million people (mostly Missouri:UniversityofMissouriPress;2000. 2 Gilder G. The materialist superstition. chapter traces and analyzes modern children) every year (p 101). After his anti-human myths about biotechnology Intercollegiate Review 1996 (spring). Available government service, Ruckelshaus became a at:www.imaginativeconservative.org/2012/09/ and agriculture. “Agriculture is the art of board member of the Draper Fund, a the-materialist-superstition.html. Accessed improving nature. As such, it is not only Sep29,2012.

Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 17 Number 4 Winter 2012 127