What separates most of those who are able to use fear motivationally from those who succumb to it is usually a higher sense of purpose, a greater meaning to their life. For me—and this isn’t the answer for everybody—that greater meaning is service to God. For others, maybe their purpose is as simple as being a good parent, leaving an important legacy to their children, or just being a responsible citizen. But the key is that you need to find something that is bigger than you. Something that will outlast you.
I remember reading a book a few years back called The Survivor’s Club: The Secrets and Science That Could Save Your Life, by Ben Sherwood. Ben went out and interviewed survivors of various incidents, tragedies, and illnesses, as well as experts, to analyze what qualities helped these people survive. What makes an effective survivor? Why do some people beat the odds and others don’t? What he found was a mentality, an outlook, inherent in survivors: honesty about the situation they faced.
But honesty alone was not enough to survive; action was also required. When we are confronted with danger, our minds don’t always recognize it at first. If we see something out of the ordinary that could be a threat, we don’t immediately see the danger, because we’re not used to seeing it and because we don’t want to see it. It’s called the normalcy bias. Our minds are programmed to find the normalcy in every situation in an effort to comfort and give us hope. That is usually a good thing—your brain rationalizes that turbulence on an airplane happens all the time, that bumps are part of flying, and that thousands of flights a day have turbulence with no consequences. But every so often, the normalcy bias gets in the way of seeing the reality of a situation: the noise in the night that’s not just the house settling, the person acting strangely on the plane who isn’t just afraid to fly, the backpack on the street corner that wasn’t just forgotten by a kid.
What differentiates survivors from victims is that survivors act. Armed with situational awareness, they overcome their normalcy bias and see danger coming well before anyone else.
I hope this book has given you that situational awareness. After this journey through the sordid, even bloody history of progressivism, you will see this danger where it lurks in modern political and cultural life. You will see the truth about what progressivism stands for and what it will do to America if we can’t get our friends and neighbors to wake up.
Seeing the truth is brave. Seeing the truth is consoling. Seeing the truth gives people resolve. And seeing the truth gives us all the strength to face it with action.
God, hope, reason, action. These are the keys to fighting the fear factor.
Which is why, perhaps, progressivism these days seems to work so much better in the major metropolises of America. When I first moved to New York City and had an apartment somewhere up in the clouds, I would stand every night at the windows, looking at the sprawling city beneath me. Towering buildings, buses, taxis, parks—it was incredible. And it was all made by man.
When I left New York, I once again started looking up. The sky, the clouds, the stars at night. All made by God.
In New York, I didn’t even know the people who lived on the same floor as I did. In rural America, you’d be hard pressed to find a family who doesn’t know everyone in town. It’s a big deal because it speaks to why progressivism does so well in cities. People don’t feel that they need one another—let alone God—because they’ve got the city of New York, the MTA, the state of New York, and, of course, the federal government all looking out for them.
Sure they do.
Americans didn’t use to believe, as progressives do, that individuals couldn’t progress and become better without help from government and elites who know better than us. Americans didn’t use to believe, as progressives do, that we must surrender to others in order to improve our lives.
We can progress and improve ourselves. But only as individuals.
We recognize the danger. We’ve been able to put aside our normalcy biases and realize that this is not OK, that we are in clear and present danger.
Now it’s time to act.
GLENN BECK, the nationally syndicated radio host and founder of TheBlaze television network, is a thirteen-time #1 bestselling author and is one of the few authors in history to have had #1 national bestsellers in the fiction, nonfiction, self-help, and children’s picture book genres. His recent fiction works include the thrillers Agenda 21, The Overton Window, and its sequel, The Eye of Moloch; his many nonfiction titles include It IS About Islam, Conform, Miracles and Massacres, and Control. For more information about Glenn Beck, his books, and TheBlaze TV network, visit GlennBeck.com and TheBlaze.com.
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ALSO BY GLENN BECK
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The Immortal Nicholas
It IS About Islam
Conform: Exposing the Truth About Common Core and Public Education
Agenda 21: Into the Shadows
Dreamers and Deceivers
Miracles and Massacres: True and Untold Stories of the Making of America
The Eye of Moloch
Control: Exposing the Truth About Guns
Agenda 21
Cowards: What Politicians, Radicals and the Media Refuse to Say
Being George Washington: The Indispensable Man, as You’ve Never Seen Him
The Snow Angel
The Original Argument: The Federalists’ Case for the Constitution, Adapted for the 21st Century
The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life
Broke: The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth and Treasure
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Idiots Unplugged: Truth for Those Who Care to Listen (audiobook)
The Christmas Sweater: A Picture Book
Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government
Glenn Beck’s Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine
America’s March to Socialism: Why We’re One Step Closer to Giant Missile Parades (audiobook)
The Christmas Sweater
An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World’s Biggest Problems
The Real America: Early Writings from the Heart and Heartland
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Notes
PART I: THE ROAD WE’VE TRAVELED
CHAPTER 1: ROOTS: HEGEL, MARX, AND THE MAKING OF HEAVEN ON EARTH
“frantically waving red bandanas” Richard Franklin Bensel, Passion and Preferences: William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 Democratic National Convention (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 224.
“ ‘hopes of their own inmost souls’ ” Richard Franklin Bensel, Passion and Preferences: William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 Democratic National Convention (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 231.
“leader Europe had been waiting for” Terry Pinkard, Hegel: A Biography (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
“he dubbed the ‘general will’ ” David Wootton, “Introduction,” in Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Basic Political Writings, trans. Donald A. Cress, 2nd ed., (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2011), p. xxiv.
“ ‘were the first to attain the consciousness’ ” Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Philosophy of History, trans. J. Sibree, (Kitchner: Batoche Books, 2001), p. 32. http://www.hegel.net/en/pdf/history.pdf.
“trying to build their individual fortunes” Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Philosophy of History, trans. J. Sibree, (New York: Colonial P
ress, 1900).
“ ‘conveyed across the border’ ” Karl Marx, “Suppression of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung,” Neue Rheinische Zeitung, No. 301, May 18, 1849.
“ ‘the Young Hegelians’ ” Francis Wheen, Karl Marx: A Life (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001).
“ ‘interested in their welfare’ ” Elmer Roberts, Monarchical Socialism in Germany (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913), p. 119.
“ ‘to the government’ ” Richard M. Ebeling, “Marching to Bismarck’s Drummer: The Origins of the Modern Welfare State,” Foundation of Economic Education, December 1, 2007, https://fee.org/articles/marching-to-bismarcks-drummer-the-origins-of-the-modern-welfare-state/.
“ ‘a certain degree of circumspection and distrust’ ” James Madison, “The Total Number of the House of Representatives,” Federalist No. 55, in The Federalist Papers, February 15, 1788, https://www.congress.gov/resources/display/content/The+Federalist+Papers - TheFederalistPapers-55.
“a national standardized time system” Thomas C. Leonard, Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016), p. 3.
“guided by disinterested, expert social scientists” Steven Mueller et al., A Spirit of Reason, ed. Jackson Janes (Washington, D.C.: The American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, 2004), http://www.aicgs.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/muller.pdf.
“had influenced the American Founders” Thomas C. Leonard, Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016), p. 17.
“ ‘than through any other institution’ ” David Henderson, “Richard Ely, Racist and State Worshipper,” Library of Economics and Liberty, May 14, 2011, http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2011/05/richard_ely_rac.html.
“ ‘the advancement of common interests’ ” Richard M. Ebeling, “American Progressives Are Bismarck’s Grandchildren,” The Future of Freedom Foundation, June 17, 2015, http://fff.org/explore-freedom/article/american-progressives-bismarcks-grandchildren/.
“ ‘an industrial civilization demands’ ” David Henderson, “Richard Ely, Racist and State Worshipper,” Library of Economics and Liberty, May 14, 2011, http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2011/05/richard_ely_rac.html.
“He campaigned to bar immigrants” Thomas C. Leonard, Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016), p. 8.
“ ‘replace laissez-faire from within men’s hearts’ ” Jonah Goldberg, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Change (New York: Crown Forum, 2009), p. 95.
“a new generation of social scientists” Clifford F. Thines and Gary M. Pecquet, “The Shaping of a Future President’s Economic Thought: Richard T. Ely and Woodrow Wilson and ‘The Hopkins’,” The Independent Review 15, no. 2 (Fall 2010), https://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_15_02_06_thies.pdf.
“Everything could be improved” Thomas C. Leonard, Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016), p. 9.
“ ‘pay to educate the Negro’ ” W. Barksdale Maynard, “More Than a Mere Student,” Johns Hopkins Magazine, September 2007, http://pages.jh.edu/jhumag/0907web/wilson.html.
“the best being allowed to reproduce” Nathaniel Comfort, “Better Babies,” AEON, November 17, 2015, https://aeon.co/essays/the-dream-of-designing-humans-has-a-long-and-peculiar-history.
“ ‘galaxy of genius might we not create’ ” Nathaniel Comfort, “Better Babies,” AEON, November 17, 2015, https://aeon.co/essays/the-dream-of-designing-humans-has-a-long-and-peculiar-history.
“American Breeders Magazine” Thomas C. Leonard, Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016).
“Major Leonard Darwin, Charles Darwin’s son” Stefani Engelstein, “Controlling Heredity: The American Eugenics Crusade: 1870–1940” (exhibition, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 2011).
“ ‘remaining least valuable types’ ” Larry Stern, “Perspectives: What Is a Human Being,” (internet lecture, Collin College, McKinney, TX, 2013), http://ftp.collin.edu/lstern/INTRO-WEB-UNIT1B-LECTURE.html.
“ ‘to carry on the race’ ” Larry Stern, “Perspectives: What Is a Human Being,” (internet lecture, Collin College, McKinney, TX, 2013), http://ftp.collin.edu/lstern/INTRO-WEB-UNIT1B-LECTURE.html.
“ ‘grateful to you for writing it’ ” Larry Stern, “Perspectives: What Is a Human Being,” (internet lecture, Collin College, McKinney, TX, 2013), http://ftp.collin.edu/lstern/INTRO-WEB-UNIT1B-LECTURE.html.
“would come to know Adolf Hitler’s name” Edwin Black, “Hitler’s Debt to America,” The Guardian, February 5, 2004, http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/feb/06/race.usa.
“ ‘something to be achieved’ ” Ronald J. Pestritto and Thomas G. West, eds., Modern America and the Legacy of the Founding (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007).
“build a kingdom of heaven on earth” Thomas C. Leonard, Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016), p. 12.
“create a “sober and pure world’ ” Ian Tyrrell, Woman’s World/Woman’s Empire (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010).
“give debt relief by coining silver” Michael Kazin, A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2006), p. 26.
“Dubbed ‘hayseeds’ and ‘anarchists’ ” Richard Franklin Bensel, Passion and Preferences: William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 Democratic National Convention (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 14.
“voice their concerns when he addressed the delegates” Richard Franklin Bensel, Passion and Preferences: William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 Democratic National Convention (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 183.
“the ice trade, a booming business on the eastern seaboard” Robert C. Kennedy, “Hunting the Octopus,” On This Day (blog), The New York Times, October 6, 2001, https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/harp/1006.html.
“ ‘We want something to eat’ ” Margaret Sanger, Margaret Sanger; An Autobiography (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1938), p. 32, https://archive.org/details/margaretsangerau1938sang.
“ ‘Toss! Beauty!’ ” Margaret Sanger, Margaret Sanger; An Autobiography (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1938), p. 32, https://archive.org/details/margaretsangerau1938sang.
“ ‘under government medical protection and segregate . . . ’ ” Margaret Sanger, “My Way to Peace,” The Margaret Sanger Papers, Library of Congress., Library of Congress Microfilm 130:198, 1931, http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/webedition/app/documents/show.php?sangerDoc=129036.xml.
“a policy of ‘race improvement’ ” Paul Kengor, “Race and Margaret Sanger,” The American Spectator, September 14, 2015, http://spectator.org/articles/64049/race-and-margaret-sanger.
“is to kill it” Margaret Sanger, Margaret Sanger; An Autobiography (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1938), p. 32, https://archive.org/details/margaretsangerau1938sang.
“ ‘those who should never have been born’ ” Kevin Vance, “Sec. Clinton Stands by Her Praise of Eugenicist Margaret Sanger,” The Weekly Standard, April 15, 2009, http://www.weeklystandard.com/sec.-clinton-stands-by-her-praise-of-eugenicist-margaret-sanger/article/28444.
“ ‘her courage, her tenacity, her vision’ ” Kevin Vance, “Sec. Clinton Stands by Her Praise of Eugenicist Margaret Sanger,” The Weekly Standard, April 15, 2009, http://www.weeklystandard.com/sec.-clinton-stands-by-her-praise-of-eugenicist-margaret-sanger/article/28444.
CHAPTER 2: FIRST WAVE: WILSON, THE PHILOSOPHER PRESIDENT
“Titanic was built and marketed as ‘unsinkable’ ” Mary Karmelek,
“2 Ships Passing in the Fog: 35 Years before the Titanic, Uneasy Sailing on the White Star Line,” Anecdotes from the Archive (blog), The Scientific American, May 31, 2013, http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anecdotes-from-the-archive/2-ships-passing-in-the-fog-35-years-before-the-titanic-uneasy-sailing-on-the-white-star-line/.
“ ‘the furthest-reaching disaster’ ” Wyn Craig Wade, The Titanic: End of a Dream (New York: Penguin Books, 1992), p. 98.
“ ‘the gaining represents benefit to the community’ ” “The New Nationalism,” Theodore Roosevelt, Osawatomie, KS, August 31, 1910. http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/first-principles/primary-sources/teddy-roosevelts-new-nationalism.
“ ‘general right of the community to regulate its use’ ” “The New Nationalism,” Theodore Roosevelt, Osawatomie, KS, August 31, 1910, http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/first-principles/primary-sources/teddy-roosevelts-new-nationalism.
“ ‘as the steward of the public welfare’ ” “The New Nationalism,” Theodore Roosevelt, Osawatomie, KS. August 31, 1910, http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/first-principles/primary-sources/teddy-roosevelts-new-nationalism.
“ ‘the foundation of every other relationship’ ” Ray Stannard Baker, ed., The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters, Volume 1 (New York: Harper & Bros., 1925), p. 432.
“Yes, even Jimmy Carter” “Washington, Lincoln Most Popular Presidents: Nixon, Bush Least Popular,” Rasmussen Reports, July 4, 2007, http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/people2/2007/washington_lincoln_most_popular_presidents_nixon_bush_least_popular.
“routinely rank Wilson among the top ten” “List of Presidential Rankings,” NBC News, February 16, 2009, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29216774/ns/politics-white_house/t/list-presidential-rankings/#.V0Sb0OcrIy6. Brandon Rottinghaus and Justin Vaughn, “New Ranking of U.S. Presidents Puts Lincoln at No. 1, Obama at 18; Kennedy Judged Most Overrated,” Monkey Cage (blog), Washington Post, February 16, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/02/16/new-ranking-of-u-s-presidents-puts-lincoln-1-obama-18-kennedy-judged-most-over-rated/.