Epilogue

I have demonstrated, in the best way I could in the time allocated, that neoconservatism is very closely related to the Left, modern "liberalism" (also known as Social Democracy), and socialism. It can also be linked to Marxism, although I do not believe I really demonstrated that. Possibly someone else can do that or I can at a later date.

In any case, it can easily be shown that all of these various "isms" are variants of collectivism. Its antonym would be individualism. The hallmark of collectivism is that it places people in collectives or groups, and gives the group, or society, or community, priority over the individual. The only difference among these variants of collectivism is the emphasis or degree. From my individualist standpoint, any way arsenic is packaged, in any concentration, it is still a poison.

One thing I demonstrated for certain, by the example of Barry Goldwater is that neoconservatism is far removed from what I consider true conservatism, the political philosophy of the Founders, also known as paleoconservatism, classical liberalism, or libertarianism. In “Three Enemies” I said a little bit about that and how it was pushed aside by a revival of the old mercantilism that the Founders had rebelled against when the country was founded. I also showed that the old mercantilism was brought back by the formation of the present Republican Party and that those who fought in vain to retain (conserve) the country's founding philosophy would be like today's Libertarian Party.

And I pointed out that, aside from a few brief years of flirtation with true conservatism, the GOP has been consistently opposed to the Founders' vision. During that brief period, however, they did quite well in an attempt to restore freedom, the high point being the Goldwater nomination. Otherwise, the GOP has been just another branch of the establishment's pro-government movement, as it is today, along with the Democrats and the Left. They are all cut of the same cloth.

Turning things around right now is what is needed, but what will certainly not happen. The country, and the rest of the world with it, I fear, will have to bottom out before we start rising back up. The neoconservatives and other authoritarians have too much of a stranglehold for the people to learn their lessons the easy way. They will have to learn the hard way. It will be a rough ride for everyone, not just dissidents.

Ludwig von Mises, philosopher and economist, did say that government is based on ideas that are prevalent in the culture. This is why it is very important to reverse the trend towards dependency and collectivism. The government will lie through its teeth to prevent this turnaround, so that money and power will keep gravitating toward it. It will conjure up crises, exaggerate real and imagined problems into crises, lying all the way to the bank.

If we do not learn from previous mistakes we are bound to repeat them. We need to think of what happened in and to authoritarian regimes of the past before we give up what little is left of our freedom.