Literary Review of the Unraveling of America by Allen Matusow
The book by Matusow describes the 1960s through different persepectives. The first section details the importance of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his presidency in allowing America to improve despite the existence of socialism. Kennedy's presidency displayed how classical liberalism helped improve the United States by fighting for Civil Rights, using Keynesian economics to get the country out of a recession, created jobs, prioritized schools, wanted to send a man to the moon in the Space Race against the Soviet Union, created the Peace Corps, and fought agaist socialism. Kennedy was a bureaucrats nightmare for choosing to improve the United States through jobs and educations consistent with Christianity, Democracy, and capitalism. (Nixon is described in positive terms at times while he was a crook while Kennedy was criticized concerning the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy was described having a "personal vendetta against Castro" while Castro had nuclear weapons pointed at the US in Cuba. It seems that Kennedy was defending the US against Cuba and there was no vendetta, but actually removal of nuclear threats. Kennedy is described being impressive throughout the book yet at times is criticized unfairly in the book. This is while racist affluent socialists in SDS are described being a part of the Civil Rights Movement.)
The book also significantly contrasts the mid 1960s when the disillusionment from Kennedy's assassination attempted to discourage Americans from being idealistic and courageous (Socialists envied JFK including Hoover, Sullivan and Nixon for being an impressive and innovative leader who practiced empathy and was a real Catholic Christian). The socialists attempted to cause a racial and class war between American citizens because the US had improved under Kennedy who was a classical liberal. The "counter culture" movement was created by socialists to prevent any further improvements by conservatives and classical liberals in the US. The socialists wanted Americans fighting against Americans based on race. (Racist socialists wanted to keep segregation and were oppressing and persecuting the Civil Rights Movement activists. The intention was for racist socialist bureaucrats to radicalize African Americans and minorities into aggression and violence against Caucasian racists so that bureaucrats could propagate further conflict and division so that there was no unity. The Civil Rights Movement kept civility and prevented a race war that was intended by the socialist bureaucrats in the 1960s.) Then the socialists in 1964 and 1965 attempted to foment class war. The bureaucrat socialists denied grants to Civil Rights activists like Farmer for ending segregation on buses, trains, and airplane while they gave grants to socialist "intellectuals". The socialist propaganda promoters gave free paychecks to poor socialists in order to instigate race and class war. Socialist "intellectuals" made propaganda to instigate class and race warfare identifying themselves with the oppressed while being affluent. (While being affluent they also helped themselves to tax payer funds.) The intention was not equality but fomenting division and chaos. Despite all of this, Americans citizens still kept integrity and did not give in to incivility and violence. Idolatry was seen shapeshifting since the 40s from socialist nazism to beats to hippies to materialism to SDS to racism to marxism to rock and roll to the Liberation Party to weatherman to Black Panthers to communism to bureaucracy. Socialism is deception and does not have a stable basis. Despite the different iterations of tempting to disobey the commandments of Moses, socialism fails. We are created to practice empathy and not envy.
Socialism is the Source of the World's Problems
In contrast to the start of the book that describes an impressive United States under classical liberal, JFK, the book also describes how socialism and counterculture attempted to diminish and decrease the United States in the mid 1960s. The book concludes that the existence of socialism in the mid 1960s contributed to the election of Ronald Reagen in the 1980s and clear repudiation of marxism in the US. This does not mean that socialism has disappeared but means that the socialists became covert socialists. The book describes how college affluent students were indoctrinated (and deceived) by socialist agents who may also have been FBI agents such as Black Panthers H. Rap Brown and Carmichael, Mark Rudd, LeRoi Jones, Marcuse, Savio, and Brown. The socialist agents preached hate and racism in order to cause a class and racial war between Americans. Affluent college students also decided to rebel against a quality education preferring to foment division in SDS and also shutting down classes for others. Despite such opposition from marxists against Education, Democracy, capitalism, and genuine empathy, it is stated that only 1 out of 5 students were marxists in 1967. Despite the abrasiveness and foolishness of marxists, only 1 out of 5 college students were socialists. This helps us know that the majority of students in the United States and in the mid 1960s preferred Christianity, Democracy, and capitalism to marxism.
While marxism wanted to eradicate classical liberalism and conservatism, it was actually socialism that declined in the 1960s and later led to the popularity of humble conservatism that was anti-establishment under Carter and Reagen. Despite the oppressiveness and negativity of marxism, moderates were able to persist protecting Democracy and capitalism from racist marxists. Instead classical liberalism and conservatism increased, and marxist counter culture (not actually culture but heathenism) declined. This was described in how racist socialist groups declined in the 1960s including SDS, weatherman, Black Panthers, marxists, and progressive liberal party. SDS declined seen in how students were barricading universities instead of helping others get a quality education. Instead of fighting the source of inequality that is socialism and socialists, affluent college students trashed their universities and cities. Socialists fought against police in order to be allowed to trash schools and universities. Marxists went to schools and staged sit ins to indoctrinate students in socialism. When confronted with the National Guard on different occassions, the coward socialists dispersed. Marxist students only fought against police when they had more numbers and never against marshalls and the National Guard. Matusow described in great detail the cowardice of marxist affluent students who were neither fighting for the working class nor for their own betterment but for disorder and non-sense. Marxist affluent students wanted to end Democracy and capitalism and instead created a rise in moderates and conservatives who saw that marxism is essentially parasitic and deleterious.
Constructive Criticism Concerning How the Civil Rights Movement Had Nothing To Do With Racism and Marxism
At times the book describes that the racist and marxist groups originated from the Civil Rights Movement. This is a lie. The Civil Rights Movement was anti-violence and anti-segregation. The racist groups and marxist groups were pro-violence and pro-segregation. The Civil Rights Movement is mutually exclusive from the racist marxist groups because pacifism has nothing to do with aggression. The book at times makes statements that the marxist groups were with the Civil Rights Movement, helped, or were derived from the Civil Rights Movement. This is a lie. Independent individuals who may have become radicalized and chosen to practice marxism in the times of the 1960s were no longer Civil Rights activists. Yet it may have been that marxists attempted to obfuscate the truth by calling themselves Civil Rights Activists in order to blame the Civil Rights Movement for riots and looting. This was also to make it appear that Democrats were distruptive and chaotic when in fact it was marxists who were rioting and looting. Marxists projected their evil actions onto Classical Liberals and Christians. (The book was written in the 70s or 80s and may have not conflagrated marxists with the Civil Rights Movement and classical Liberals with malicious intent. The book does describe that marxists were disruptive and disobedient and actually the source of conflict and quarreling). However at times it does criticize Civil Rights leaders with intense scrutiny (MLK could have retired early from the Civil Rights Movement in 1964) while easing off on Hoover (lied to JFK about MLK being a communist and Hoover kept bugging MLK until 1966, yet JFK is described as having allowed the espionage. Hoover was responsible for the espionage and also persecuted JFK and MLK), Sullivan, and Nixon (a "reformed" Nixon was a lie because Nixon was always a crook). Civil Rights Activists kept their integrity and values and were never a part of socialism. Although the book does describe marxist groups as the culprit of the instability in the 1960s.
"[Describing 1961] Participatory democracy was SNCC's implicit goal, anarchism its intuitive philosophy."- (page 346)
"How black power evolved out of the civil rights movement and then failed ideological challenge was one of the decade's more melancholy stories."- (page 345)
The author described that in 1961, SNCC's goal was "participatory democracy" when in fact it was desegregation and enfranchising disenfranchised African-Americans. Initially in the early 1960s, SNCC was working by using pacifism and civil disobedience consistent with MLK's beliefs. The goal was not anarchism nor marxism that was called "participatory democracy" by socialists that included rioting, looting, and harassment. The goal of SNCC in 1961 was breaking apart racist segregation laws in public places and educating African-Americans on their voting rights. This could hardly be called anarchism or "participatory democracy" that was used by marxists to call for harassment of liberals and conservatives. The description was not true because anarchism and harassment was used by marxists in 1965 and was described as "participatory democracy". SNCC in 1961 was harassed and reviled by racist socialists for educating disenfranchised African-Americans on their voting rights and helping them learn how to vote. Racist socialists were actually anarchists and used "participatory democracy" against SNCC in 1961 for educating and helping their African American brethen to exercise their right to vote.
There was a specific quote that described that nationalism (hating other nationalities or ethnicities) "evolved" from the Civil Rights Movement, yet it actually originated from marxism. The socialist Caucasian racists oppressed pacifist African Americans, Caucasians, and minorities in order to lead to a race war. Racist and idolatrous African Americans and minorities attempted to radicalize individuals to use violence and aggression against racists in order to keep promoting violence and racism. The righteous Civil Rights Activists were not a part of calling for violence and resisted hate. To equate the marxist racists to Civil Rights is to equate unneeded war with pacifism or racism with equality.
MLK preached non-violence and pacifism throughout his protests and activism. He also led others to civil disobedience rejecting rioting and looting that was what H. Rap Brown and Carmichael were calling for while they were infiltrating SNCC leadership since the mid-1960s. Because the Civil Rights Movement had desegregated public spaces in 1964 and was looking to eliminate Jim Crowe voter discrimination laws and housing segregation, Hoover and the FBI probably trained, funded, and supported H. Rap Brown and Carmichael to oppose MLK. SNCC was being infiltrated and led to socialism and racism since they had helped desegregate buses, trains, and airplanes with James Farmer and were looking to educate disenfranchised semi-literate voters on their voting rights teaching them how to read and vote. The socialist racists including H. Rap Brown, Carmichael, Newton, Cleaver, and Seal tried to lead African Americans to a race war while racist Caucasian socialists (Hoover, Sullivan, Nixon, Wallace, and the FBI) were instigating for violence through racism. While H. Rap Brown and Carmichael were calling for violence, there were riots and looting that occured in 1965.
Matusow described that Black Panther leader Cleaver was a nationalist but not a "racist". Cleaver was a jihadi muslim marxist and racist who worked for Nixon. Cleaver attempted to create a marxist third party in order to shift votes from the 1968 Democratic nominee to the third party and give the election to Nixon. (Cleaver was actually a racist and not trying to foment serenity.) Eventually, Nixon preferred racist Wallace as a third party candidate "populist" who hid his racism in the 1968 election to take votes from Humphrey appearing to be an "anti-bureaucratic Christian Protestant" instead of the California Peace and Freedom third party led by the Black Panthers.
"More successful was the Panthers opening to the white left, a demarché made possible because Cleaver was one nationalist who was not racist as well. In December 1967 he opened negotiations with the California Peace and Freedom Party, a predominanly white group that hoped to provide a radical alternative to the two major parties in the next presidential election..." The Panthers would have exclusive responsibility for defining the Peace and Freedom program for the [idolatrous and marxist] African American community. [Idolatrous marxist] Caucasians could define the party program for Caucasians.- (page 371) [Marxists attempted to create a third party to prevent the Democrats from winning the election of 1968 and give the election to Nixon, the crook. There was also no unity between racist marxists because they hate ethnicities that are not their own. Nixon still preferred Wallace.]
"For the new left, the image of America the bloodsucker organized the data of politics in a compelling and persuasive new way. But it also deflected the movement onto a disastrous course by fostering a romantic sense of identification with Third World guerillas, by bringing old left Marxism back into fashion, and by undermining the movement's commitment to democratic values."- (page 326) [The socialists including Hoover, Nixon, Wallace, and the FBI along with the Black Panther leaders who also were FBI attempted to make the US seem parasitical while actually espousing racism and marxism. (Liberals and conservatives were called parasitical while it was marxists who were actually parasitical.) Civil Rights Activists prevented a race war despite FBI socialists instigating in the 1960s. Vietnam was essentially an unneeded war where billions of dollars were appropiated by socialist bureaucrats from tax payers to cause conflict in Vietnam by Kissinger, Hoover, and Nixon and also to decrease Johnson's popularity. How else was Nixon going to beat a Democratic nominee in the 1960s? When there were considerations for peace talks for Vietnam by Johnson in multiple times, both sides of Vietnam refused and the war kept being escalated. It seems that the intention was to make Johnson seem like a warmonger while Nixon was made to appear like a "peacemaker". The Vietnam war was designed to cause unneeded warfare in Vietnam, make Johnson appear like a deranged warmonger liberal, and also to make socialists appear "kind and pacifists". In reality, Vietnam may have been persecution from marxists against Vietnam, Johnson was threatened to keep escalating the war, and socialist marxists were warmongers and parasitical. That is why marxism and socialism can not be equated with Civil Rights.]
"Black ghettos, they said, were internal colonies victimized by American imperialism precisely as were the colonies of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It followed that black rioters were no less revolutionary guerrillas than the Vietcong-urban guerillas waging war in the belly of the beast. SNCC chairman H. Rap Brown selected August 18, 1965, as the independence day of the internal colony because on that day 'the blacks of Watts picked up their guns to fight for their freedom' [the Black Panthers worked for racist bureaucrats of the FBI trying to instigate their bretheren through lies to a race war... "Declaration of Independence".] That was our Declaration of Independence, and we signed it with Molotov cocktails and rifles.'"- (page 327) [The marxists in the US wanted to cause a race war and justify it based on Vietnam's war. The marxists were not liberating anyone (they were working for the establishment to foment unneeded war in the US while ridiculing MLK and the Civil Rights Movement that was freeing people from racism and marxism). Malcolm X who was an African American Imam realized this and renounced jihadi racism and socialism. Once he was educating people on self-empowerment with self-education and without violence and racism, he was shot by African American jihadi muslims. Che Guevara attacked innocent Bolivians in Bolivia. Marxists were not looking to liberate Africa, Asia, nor Latin America. Chinua Okechebe wrote socialist propaganda complaining that Christianity was improving Africa and that no one wanted to practice paganism in Things Fall Apart. Apparently, individuals prospered because of Christianity and renounced idol worship. Then there was the persecution of farmers in Zimbabwe and South Africa because of envy. Marxists had times of famine because they did not want to or did not know how to work the land once they murdered industrious farmers in Africa. The marxists in America in 1965 instead were causing destruction, rioting, and looting.
"In August 1967 Stokely Carmichael, past SNCC chairman, joined revolutionaries from 27 Latin American countries for a conference in Havana to discuss ways of implementing Che's recent call for
'Two, three, many Vietnams.'"-(page 327) [So they were pacifists but wanted more warfare? Then Vietnam was used to attempt to promote socialism and racism in the US and other nations. If they were pacifists wouldn't they want no Vietnam [wars]?"
"Martin Luther King was on the streets during the riot, preaching nonviolence."- (page 362)
MLK was in the streets and in the slums during some of the rioting telling African Americans not to riot and loot. The Civil Rights Movement never called for violence and instead called for civil disobedience through peaceful resistance. H. Rap Brown and Carmichael were partly responsible for the rioting and looting along with Caucasian socialist racists who were instigating African Americans, non idolatrous Caucasians, and minorities through intimidation, revilings, and harrassment. Despite the instigation and calls for aggression from jihadi socialists in the Black Panthers, Caucasian socialist terrorists in the Weatherman and FBI racist socialists, the vast majority of African Americans decided to persevere practicing non-violence and civil disobedience. There were also pacifist, anti-socialism, and non-racist Caucasians who fought for the Civil Rights Movement. The FBI attempted to prevent Caucasians and African Americans from working together to end racism and wanted a race war in 1965. (Carmichael told SNCC members that Caucasian members of SNCC should be expelled despite also risking their lives to end racism. Carmichael, prior to Mark Rudd doing the same, told students in a college to oppress the administration and demand for a marxist and socialist education instead of a liberal education causing conflict. )
"They [African American socialists and marxists] looted not in the name of socialism but because looting was one way to acquire the material possessions that they believed, in typical American fashion, would make them happy."- (page 364)
This statement is false since socialism calls for stealing and aggression. To justify looting by blaming capitalism seems a bit dishonest. Capitalism is to be blamed for not dominating and resisting envy and coveting? It is not socialism's fault for the rioting and looting, it is capitalism and Christianity's fault? No! (This is the faulty and disingenous argument being made.) Seems illogical and permissive of sin, consumerism, idol worship, looting, rioting, and socialism or as socialists call it "participatory democracy". Socialists were looting in the name of marxism and communism. Socialist rioters were also receiving free paychecks from OEO offices for community action instructed by Bobby Seale, LeRoi Jones, and Saul Alinsky.
"With the onset of the guerilla fantasy, the corruption of the new left commenced. In the early years movement people tried to live their values by practicing participatory democracy in their organizations, cultivating open relationships, and creating their own community."- (page 330)
In 1965 when Vietnam began, marxists attempted to loot and riot. Marxists blamed everything on liberalism while being the source of problems in the US (Community Action Programs) and abroad (Vietnam war). Matusow stated that the marxists were in fact corrupted, yet conflagrates "movement" or Civil Rights Movement with "participatory democracy" that is harrassment and persecution of liberals and conservatives. Matusow described that marxists used "participatory democracy" in 1965 to describe the college affluent marxist's harrassment of moderates and barricading of universities. Then describes in 1961 and the beginning of the "movement" that Civil Rights Activists were using "participatory democracy" when it was pacifism and civil disobedience. This is done on multiple occassions similar to how marxism is conflagrated with the Civil Rights Movement on multiple occassions. Harrassment and persecution is not pacifism and civil disobedience.
"In the planning stage the Resistance argued for nonviolent civil disobedience, even in the face of arrest. But SDS-ers and other militants flatly rejected nonviolence, hoping to move the antiwar movement 'from the level of moral protests to a show of power.' In the end, no compromise was possible; so it was agreed that the factions would demonstrate on different days of the week [leading to the barricading of street intersections and colleges by affluent college marxists].
The resistance was not a resistance movement because the marxists were a part of the establishment. It is dishonest to call the establishment and marxists, that oppressed different ethnicities and the working class, a resistance movement while calling themselves "oppressed". College affluent marxists did not actually argue for pacifism and civil disobedience because they trashed streets and college campuses while saying they were "oppressed". Matusow describes that marxists were anti-democracy but then calls the marxists a "resistance movement" who argued for civil disobedience. This is false because marxists hate civility and pacifism. This false equivalence occurs multiple times.
"But even as real guerillas employed inhumane means to achieve the humane ends of revolution [false and illogical lie akin to "by any means necessary" lie] so now new leftists began to wonder whether, given their new seriousness, they could any longer afford to indulge their values. Democracy was the first casualty."
"In an even more dangerous departure, Carl Davidson, explicitly rejected the very norms of democracy itself."- (page 330)
Matusow spoke truth about deranged idolatrous marxists that they resent and hate democracy because it allows people to improve and have choices. Marxists hate self-improvement and want everyone to be stagnated in idolatry. True liberals and conservatives hate fascism, totalitarianism, marxism, and sycophantry. "Participatory democracy" that is actual harrassment and persecution of moderates is not democracy, is not revolution (not like the American Revolution where there was actual resistance to oppression from tyranny and creation of democracy and the Bill of Rights), and not utilitarian. Democracy respects the rights of others instead of throwing temper tantrums. We can change the tv station or turn off the tv instead of harrassing others and preventing them from speaking truth like it happened to Humphrey in 1968 with marxists overshouting him at a speech. (Nixon still resigned in 1974.)
Socialists Hate Pacifism and Civility
"On the cover of the issue of August 24, 1967, the New York Review put a diagram of a Molotov cocktail, while inside Andrew Kopkind, in the midst of dismissing MLK for having failed to make a revolution, wrote, 'Morality, like politics, starts at the barrel of a gun.'"- (page 387)
In a socialist magazine, socialists criticized MLK for making progress against racism and racial segregation through civil disobedience. Racist socialists ridiculed MLK's impressive accomplishments and instead promoted marxism and violence in 1967 (how did the riots happen in California?) Socialist "intellectuals" said that MLK had failed to make a "revolution". If by "revolution" they meant stealing from the tax payers, promoting looting and rioting, preaching hate and racism, using and selling illicit drugs, enving amazing Civil Rights Activists, causing conflict and division, creating a race and class war, using aggression and hostilities, promoting a caste system, surveilling illegally through bugging private phone calls, stalking and harrassing individuals who think differently, and calling themselves "oppressed", then no. MLK did not do that. Maybe that is why he was so impressive.
MLK did desegregate buses in Montgomery, helped give employment to African Americans and minorities, fought for better wages for sanitation workers, fought for desegregation in schools, universities, restaurants, theaters, shopping centers, libraries, stadiums, airplanes, trains, sports, jobs, and in civil society. MLK did all that by believing in GOD Almighty, practicing genuine empathy, civil disobedience, and pacifism. MLK caused the 1963 Civil Rights Legislation to be law. Then he helped the 1965 Voter Registration Law to pass eliminating racist laws that prevented African Americans and minorities from voting. Then he went to the North and desegregated the housing market in 1968 with the passage of the Equal Housing Bill. All of this while being harrassed, threatened, envied, reviled, slandered, gangstalked, bugged, lied about, arrested, mocked, ridiculed and there are socialists that still say, "MLK failed to make a revolution", while being born with money and calling themselves "oppressed" for having to have discipline in college.
Overall Review of Book
The book is great in the sense of describing the reality of the 1960s. The 1960s were turbulent times because marxism was looking to prevent Democracy and capitalism from operating in the United States. The US had opposition not only in the Soviet Union but also internally through covert marxists. (Maybe McCarthy was not wrong?) This is undeniable through the attacks against McCarthy in 1950 by Edward R. Murrow, who most likely was CIA. Murrow made a tv program slandering and attacking McCarthy. The book by Matusow also attacks McCarthy heavily. Matusow never spoke positively in the book about McCarthy in congruence with the false narrative that McCarthy was a "looney". The book does address the truth that JFK and MLK were amazing by their speeches and actions, yet also criticizes them for idealism. Humphrey was also criticized intensely for idealism.
(Humphrey almost beat Nixon despite Nixon being encouraged and adored by marxists. The whole establishment helped Nixon in 1965-1968. Marxists secretely adored Nixon while they appeared to "hated him in public". Nixon was a covert marxist.) Humphrey was also criticized for being idealistic. Humphrey was called "irrelevant", yet Humphrey almost beat Nixon without establishment support. Nixon used the Vietnam war, race riots, FBI, marxists, Black Panthers, Weatherman, college marxists, and media to foment division, then appeared in 1968 as a "Protestant Conservative pacifist" and still used Wallace as a third party candidate to take votes from Humphrey. Wallace was a socialist racist and worked for Nixon. Humphrey would have beat Nixon, if Wallace had not taken votes from Humphrey in a real competitive election [Wallace's third party candidacy was supported not to allow for democracy but to oppose Humphrey]. Humphrey was also criticized negatively despite battling Nixon after JFK, RFK, and Johnson were no longer candidates. Nixon is also criticized but not as intensely as idealists. Watergate was not even mentioned except in one sentence (While describing that JFK wiretapped, it was actually Hoover who did the wiretapping based on lies. Hoover is noted to have popularized wiretapping with the FBI in other books.) The book did describe that there were covert socialists who were opposing Democracy and American ideals. The greatest discrepancy within the book is when it mixes marxism with Civil Rights on multiple occassions. (At first I thought it was accidental but it maybe with the intention to conflagrate marxism and Civil Rights.) In trying to understand the overall themes of the 1960s describing classical liberals being tolerant, opposition to Democracy from marxism, and envy from marxism the book speaks truth. Yet in specific instances it criticizes amazing individuals including McCarthy, Agnew, and even Civil Rights Activists while complimenting marxists including Carmichael, Huey Newton, and Nixon.
"... October 21, 1967, across the country in Washington, D.C., there occured one of the most remarkable events in American history."
Matusow complemented the stroll of the marxists through the Pentagon in 1967 as a "remarkable event" when it was probably fake and planned by establishment and marxists. The passage of the Civil Rights Legislation in 1964 that JFK sent to Congress in 1963 was of greater importance. The Voter Registration Act of 1965 was of greater importance. The Equal Housing Legislation Bill that was ratified in 1968 was of greater importance than a stroll through the Pentagon by affluent "oppressed" marxists. The March on Washington and MLK's speech was of greater importance.
