Conservatives without Conscience, By John W. Dean

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bout the Author

John W. Dean used to be White House legal counsel to President Nixon and then helped break the Watergate scandal with his testimony before the U.S. Senate. He served as chief minority counsel for White House judiciary of justice. He has penned books such as Blind Ambition (1976), Lost Honor (1982), The Rehnquist Choice (2001), Warren G. Harding (2004), and Worse Than Watergate : The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush (2004), and Conservatives Without Conscience. He lives in the state of California and works as a columnist for Findlaw.com.

Dean’s style of writing is efficiently simple; his tone is highly critical, and his courageous, straight forward, right-on-the-spot writing is admirable.

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onservatives without Conscience

In his latest book Conservatives Without Conscience he boldly asserts that the Republican party is reigned by authoritarians. He seeks for the conservative way of thinking and then he points out the repeating features carved in their heads such as their intolerance to opposing opinions (which is of course rendered as an authoritarian trait). Dean reveals his diagnosis when he blames the same brand of people, leaders, for turning conservative politics upside down.

John W. Dean who has given birth to this book during several encounters with his mentor, Senator Goldwater, introduces himself as a Goldwater Republican/Conservative. What makes this book precious is that it is compiled by a conservative who criticizes conservatives.

Dean in this book has made use of Robert Altemeyer’s findings, which allegedly has taken him quite a long time administering a research called RWA Survey (Right Wing Authoritarianism). In Altemeyer’s pre- composed questionnaire, individuals were being asked to agree or disagree with statements like: “there is nothing wrong with premarital sexual intercourse.”[1]. Those who had scored high according to Altemeyer’s research scale were regarded conservatives.

Dean then mentions Altemeyer’s evidence of right-wing amoral disposition through a theory put forward by him called Global Change Game. In this theory, components rule over different parts of the world. Supposedly, when right wing authoritarians took over the control in this so called “Game”, some 2.1 billion people were killed. “According to a complicating formulae used in the game to take into account the consequences of war, long term unemployment, malnutrition and poor medical infrastructure.”

Altemeyer, as the result of his long term run research, claims: “probably 20 to 25 percent of the adult American population is so right-wing authoritarian, so scared, so self-righteous, so ill-informed, and so dogmatic that nothing you say or do will change their minds. They would march America into a dictatorship and probably feel that things had improved as a result.”

Dean maintains that Altemeyer has provided as enormous data based on a scientific work when he says: “At the outset of Conservatives Without Conscience, I provided a quick and highly incomplete summary of Altemeyer's findings, explaining that his empirical testing revealed "that authoritarians are frequently enemies of freedom, antidemocratic, anti-equality, highly prejudiced, mean-spirited, power hungry, Machiavellian, and amoral." To be clear, these are not assessments that Altemeyer makes himself about these people; rather, this is how those he has tested reveal themselves to be, when being anonymously examined.”

Moreover, John W. Dean makes a clear cut distinction between those “hungry for power” and those, like the followers to Hitler, follow them. Dean lists the traits as : “highly religious, moderate to little education, trust untrustworthy authorities, prejudiced (particularly against homosexuals, women, and followers of religions other than their own), mean-spirited, narrow-minded, intolerant, bullying, zealous, dogmatic, uncritical toward their chosen authority, hypocritical, inconsistent and contradictory, prone to panic easily, highly self-righteous, moralistic, strict disciplinarian, severely punitive, demands loyalty and returns it, little self-awareness, usually politically and economically conservative/Republican.”

What Dean categorizes for leaders is as follows: “dominating, opposes equality, desirous of personal power, amoral, intimidating and bullying, faintly hedonistic, vengeful, pitiless, exploitive, manipulative, dishonest, cheats to win, highly prejudiced (racist, sexist, homophobic), mean-spirited, militant, nationalistic, tells others what they want to hear, takes advantage of "suckers," specializes in creating false images to sell self, may or may not be religious, usually politically and economically conservative/Republican.”

Interestingly John Dean doesn’t stop there; rather, he keeps on by giving names and profiles of numerous old school Republicans, whom he considers authoritarian conservatives, and clearly utters his outlook toward the red-alert situation caused by these (mostly) gentlemen. Among these names are: Newton Gingrich, Dick Cheney, Phyllis Schafly, G. Gordon Liddy, J. Edgar Hoover, and other leaders of religious right wing. He breaks out his standing point when he warns America of the history of power abduction by the above mentioned authoritarians. He believes if this trend continues, America will confront anti-constitutional threat which will also endanger what the U.S. prides itself on: Democracy.

References:

1. Conservatives without conscience (in) The Conservative America. Austine Bramwell, (17 July, 2006) Available at: http://www.amconmag.com/article/2006/jul/17/00029/

2. Dean, J.D. 2004. Conservatives without conscience. NY: Norton Co.

Nation of Islam, How It Came Into Being And What Has Shaped Its Fundamental Pillars

Biography [1]

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he founder of the Nation of Islam, an African American man named Wallace D. Fard who is believed to be of Arabian ancestry though not documented anywhere, used to be a salesman wondering door to door trying to sell goods during which he occasionally had the chance to lecture about what was to come as his fundamental doctrines to his costumers’ eager ears.

There is an evolutionary journey in his teachings; that is to say he, at first, set out to talking about black history, culture, traditions, and origin then slowly mingling it with political and religious color. It took the disciples a little bit when they finally were introduced to the Holy Quran. The final move was that his teachings became anti-white racist oriented beliefs. A hall was rented and named "The Temple of Islam." This is how the movement which calls itself "The Nation of Islam" and is called by detractors, "Black Muslims," came into being.

Among the initiatives Fard started were founding a university, that was in reality a secondary school which emphasized the teaching of math and astronomy, a Muslim Girls Training Class, that continues to today and still teaches the principles of home economics and how to be proper wives and mothers, a para-military unit called "Fruit of Islam" (FOI) to teach military tactics and the handling of firearms against the predicted day that whites would not tolerate their growth and prosperity, the office of The Minister of Islam which, with the aid of a well trained staff, ultimately ran the whole organization.

With the Fard’s disappearance in June 1934 that directed the leadership to Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam lost some of its extreme hostile aggressiveness toward whites. Its focus became centered upon black social and economic advancement. The Nation of Islam still maintained its black supremacy theology; however, implementing black supremacy as a political reality was not part of their program. That was to be left in the hands of Allah. One commentator writes, "The Black Muslims have come far under Muhammad. He has given them temples and schools, apartment houses and grocery stores, restaurants and farms. Most important of all, he has given them a new sense of dignity, a conviction that they are more than the equals of the white man whose tricknology is a constant threat to their well-being."[1]

As time elapsed, Elijah Muhammad's theology changed and lifted Fard to the level of Allah incarnate, and himself to the level of the Prophet of Allah.

Biography inspired from http://www.noi.org/history_of_noi.htm, Retrieved at 12/17/2009.

One of the Nation of Islam’s most famous individuals was Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little.

New converts to the Nation of Islam were told to stop using their slave master name and apply to have an ethnically appropriate name given to them.Until it was given, they were referred to as "X." The X had a double meaning. It first indicated that their original name was still unknown. There was also the idea of "ex" incorporated in the name as well.

In November of 1963, after Malcolm X made his famous "chickens come home to roost" statement in regard to the assassination of JFK, Elijah Muhammad suspended him from all duties for a period of 90 days. This was the beginning of a rift that ended in the defection of Malcolm X in March of 1964. Malcolm X formed his own organization called The Muslim Mosque, Inc. and a secular counterpart, Afro-American Unity. He was assassinated February 21, 1964.

After the death of Elijah Muhammad his followers mostly divided into two major groups. The first that comprised 90 percent of the black Muslims followed Elijah’s son, Warith Dean Muhammad who in 1985, disbanded the Nation of Islam, and led them into authentic Islam. However, a minority of about ten percent maintained their original doctrines and became known as "Ten-Percenters." The Ten-Percenters still call themselves The Nation of Islam and still hold to the teaching of W. D. Fard and Elijah Muhammad. They are basically a militant black supremacy movement.

Mottos

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he teachings of Fard and Elijah Muhammad differ substantially from that of traditional Islamic sects that exist in different parts of the world. “According to the Nation of Islam, Allah, (God) created man, and the man he created was black. They believe that Allah himself is the original and supreme black man. He is the supreme being among a mighty and powerful race of black men. In this The Nation of Islam differs strongly with the monotheism of traditional Islam. The black race is thus divine and superior to all other races. Modern day blacks came into existence some 66 trillion years ago when a great explosion ripped the moon from the earth. These people were black and called the tribe of Shabazz. They explored the earth and settled the better places to live, two of which are the Nile Valley and Mecca. W. D. Fard taught that the white man is the result of genetic manipulation by an evil black scientist named "Yakub." Through a special method of birth control, Yakub bred the black out of his experimental creatures until they were white. This took about 600 years to accomplish. According to the theology of Elijah Muhammad, black really is the symbolic color of good and white symbolic color of evil. His reasoning is that all colors are present in black, and all colors are taken out of white. His conclusion is that the whiter Yakub's creatures became, the less good there was in them and the more evil there was in them. The final product was so evil, they became devils. Black Muslims call the white man Blue Eyed Devils and blame all of the suffering in the world upon them. The creation of the white man occurred some 6,600+ years ago.”[1]

1. Ney Rieber, available at: http://www.bible.ca/islam/islam-nation-of-islam.htm, Retrieved at 12/17/2009.

With all being said, the Nation of Islam stands for hope to millions of people in America and around the globe who have been deprived of the high standards of a righteous way of life.

Among the founding beliefs upon which the organization called the Nation of Islam was built are “peace, learning the knowledge of the oneness of God, eat and to prepare the best of foods for the longevity of life, respect and protect our women who are the mothers of civilization, respect the laws of the land, never to carry arms, family as the back bone of society, cleanliness inwardly and outwardly with the practice of good manners and respect to one and all, divine unity and the universal brotherhood of Islam.”[1] “The Flag of Islam with the symbols of the Sun, Moon, and the Stars, represent the Universe and is also a Banner of Universal peace and Harmony.”[2]

References:

1. Lomax E., 1963, When the Word Is Given: A Report on Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and the Black Muslim World, World Publication Company.

2. Karim B., 1971, the End of White World Supremacy: Four Speeches by Malcolm X, NY: Monthly Review Press.

3. Natambu K., 2001, Malcolm X: Critical lives, Alpha.

4. Perry B., 1989, the Last Speeches, NY: Pathfinder Press.

Notes:

1. http://www.noi.org/history_of_noi.htm

2. http://www.bible.ca/islam/islam-nation-of-islam.htm

1 & 2. Tynetta Muhammad, available at: http://www.noi.org/history_of_noi.htm, Retrieved at 12/17/2009.