On reading the manifesto … (update: the first chapter of which turns out to have been written by William Lind)

Yesterday, acting on the recommendation of a friend, I took my laptop to a coffee shop and started reading the Anders Breivik manifesto, 2089—A Declaration of European Independence, from the beginning. I’ve only read a few pages of the manifesto proper, namely his first introductory section on Political Correctness (pp. 12-15). Based on that section, I am persuaded that I need to read the rest of the document to see what the author has to say. This goes against my earlier comment that I had no interest in reading this murderer’s book for its own sake, but only for defensive purposes, that is, in order to be able to fend off the left’s false statements about Breivik (for example that he is a fundamentalist Christian) and their attempts to link his act of mass murder with cultural conservatives such as myself. I will hold off sharing my reactions to the document until I have read much more.

UPDATE, 4 p.m.: The first three page section of the manifesto, “Introduction—What is ‘Political Correctness’?”, which impressed me with its remarkable cogency and insightfulness and made me want to read more, is in fact copied word for word (with a handful of alterations, such as changing “America” to “Europe”) from the introduction to “Political Correctness:” A Short History of an Ideology, edited by William S. Lind, and originally posted at the website of the Free Congress Foundation in November, 2004. Breivik does not make this clear up front, or, indeed, at all. After his initial three page section or chapter, “Introduction—What is ‘Political Correctness’?”, which is all I’ve read, there are several more sections or chapters, each a few pages long. Then at page 33 there is another chapter heading, entitled,

Further Readings on the Frankfurt School

This is the sixth and final chapter in the Free Congress Foundation’s book on Political Correctness, or—to call it by its real name—cultural Marxism.

At the end of that chapter, at the bottom of page 37, there is a url:

http://www.freecongress.org/centers/cc/pcessay.aspx

No title, no author, no date of publication. Just a url. Furthermore, the url is dead. The page it originally linked to at Free Congress no longer exists. From what I’ve heard, in other sections of the manifesto, Breivik apparently lets us know whom he is copying, such as Fjordman. But when it comes to the masterfully written introductory chapter, he presents the work as his own. The only indication that the work is not his own—the only mention of the work he is copying—comes from the work he is copying, i.e., the first sentence of the sixth chapter: “This is the sixth and final chapter in the Free Congress Foundation’s book on Political Correctness…” To repeat, Breivik’s only citation to the book he is copying word for word, is itself copied from the book he is copying word for word.

- end of initial entry -

LA writes:

By the way, whatever good work William Lind did on cultural conservatism in the ’90s and early ’00s (I was deeply impressed by a short book he wrote called Cultural Conservatism in the early ’90s), had sadly turned into something sick and strange by the middle of the latter decade. In July 2006 I wrote:

William Lind has mutated from irascibly angry paleocon and promoter of a new military strategy to respond to “fourth-generation” (non-state) warfare, to a Rockwellite anarcho-libertarian who celebrates and supports the “non-state” terrorist entities Hezbollah and Hamas against the state of Israel. Read this [at LewRockwell.com] and let your jaw drop.

Then see my discussion of another article of his at LewRockwell.com, in which he advised Hamas on how it could outfox Israel, if only it returned to its true, “Fourth Generation” roots as a non-state terrorist actor. Lind had started his career as the theorist of “Fourth Generation” warfare by advising America how it could defeat “Fourth Generation” terrorist groups. When his advice wasn’t taken, he got so angry that he began to advise “Fourth Generation” terrorist group how they could defeat America and its ally Israel. To leave no doubt as to his intentions, he published these articles at the aggressively anti-American website of Lew Rockwell. He also wrote 325 columns at the anti-American website Anti-War.com, edited by Justin Raymondo, before his retirement there in 2009.

Then he moved to The Paleostinian Conservative (a.k.a. The American Conservative ), where he was still, in March 2011, obsessing about “Fourth Generation Warfare” as the analytic answer to all questions. The article contains this sentence: “Bush’s invasion of Iraq and the endless war in Afghanistan made America into the ‘Great Satan’ in the eyes of Muslims everywhere.” As though America had not been the Great Satan in Muslims’ eyes before that! In the mind of this knee-jerk paleocon, all evil comes from Bush. It wasn’t Muhammad, the Koran, the Hadiths, and the sharia, commanding war against all infidels, that made Islam into our enemy. It was Bush who made Islam into our enemy.

All this by way of showing how resentment destroyed a once notable conservative writer and thinker.

Ken H. writes:

Breivik changed “Americans” to “Europeans,” and may have made other changes.

Also, 2.17 The psychology of cultural Marxists, was adapted without credit from the Unabomber manifesto.

Except for the introduction (before “What is Political Correctness?”), very little of Book 1 seems to be original. I think only:

1.15 History of the Islamic Ottoman Turkish Empire I (1299-1876)

In Book 2, I think these parts are original:

2.6 The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg is a cultural Marxist controlled political entity

2.16 Why the discipline of Sociology must be completely removed from Academia

2.29 Current and recent Jihads in Asia and Africa

2.40 Muslim atrocities committed against Western Europeans 1960-2010

2.44 List of Muslim demands for Sharia in Europe

2.45 Saudi Arabia—The serpents head

2.46 How many Muslims worldwide support militant Islam or Jihadi Salafism?

2.52 Demography and the Islamisation of Europe

2.53 Statistics and the Islamisation of Europe

2.72 Green is the new Red—Stop Enviro-Communism!

through

2.80 3 point guide to convert your right wing blog/site to a newspaper/magazine with national distribution

2.86 Conflict avoidance and how to avoid it

2.87 “Western”, modern countries that never adopted multiculturalism—Japan,

2.94 Conservatives discussing future solutions for Europe

2.98 Are all European men weak minded cowards or are they just brainwashed?

2.101 Preserve or replace the European monarchies?

2.102 Not a war between capitalism and socialism but a cultural war between

2.104 Future deportations of Muslims from Europe

2.105 Change of investment/education mentality in the coming decades

2.106 The ideological journey—from indoctrinated multiculturalist zealot to

2.107 Further studies

Much of Book 3 appears to be original with Breivik.

Max P. writes:

I always liked William Lind’s description on the origin of political correctness, which he also calls cultural Marxism. For any of your readers who are interested, here is a 20 minute film put together by Lind in the 1990s which ties it all together.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 29, 2011 11:50 AM | Send