First post pressures

The first posting is always the hardest. What is the Progressingamerica project? What are my goals for this blog?

Initially, my goal is to provide a complete transcript of the book Fabian Freeway, by Rose L. Martin. Why would I do this? Simple: far too many Americans (and even more dangerously, many of those of us who believe in free markets) do not understand that progressivism is not just about “making progress”, rather progressivism is a political philosophy, an ideology. One that seeks to destroy free markets and the constitution – “fundamental transformation” to use Obama’s words. Progressivism has roots, it has major figures in history who have defined the ideology and made it what it is today. And it is these roots which I find fascinating and worthy of discussion. It is my hope that by bringing things to the forefront, that others will notice them and keep the discussion going, here and elsewhere. Anybody should be able to point to the details, be forceful in their arguments, and provide facts to prove their case.

Despite the book’s title, Fabian Freeway goes quite into depth about progressivism here in the United States. There have been great books written which detail progressivism in exemplary ways. R. J. Pestritto’s book Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism should be on anybody’s must read list, for those who wish to truely understand progressivism. Also, Jonah Goldberg’s book Liberal Fascism has plenty of details from the history of progressivism. But Fabian Freeway is different. It’s in the public domain like most of the books in the Mises Literature Library. That means its free for download for anybody, and anybody can do whatever I want with it.

My plan is to re-create it in a way that’s not only useful, but so that the contents of the book in it’s entirety can be searched on page with your web browser. Also, it would be useful for the contents of the book to show up in a web browser searches. As it currently stands, parts of the book do but your search terms have to be really explicit and the results do not continue on past whatever your terms contained. There’s a copy of the book up on Scribd, on Google books and the PDF that I’ve referenced several times as well, but in all cases the information is locked away and not as accessible as it should be. Not just access to information, but easy access to information. That’s my goal here. That’s what we need if we’re to understand progressivism. No more will progressives be able to run and hide from their own history once we become experts in it. (as a Mises-affiliated blog, these pages show up in Google)

When I’m done the book will be very easy to navigate per chapter via the table of contents(my final posting on the matter), a close example of what I wish to do would be this. Sometimes the best way to educate people is not to try to come up with something new, but rather to highlight that which may already exist, especially if it’s well written. Fabian Freeway is such a book.

The progressingamerica project can be summed up with the following question: “How are they progressingamerica”? I seek to answer the question, and a great way to do that is to highlight past persons and actions from the progressive movement. I have taken very fondly to a quote which comes from Sun Tzu’s Art of War: (section 3)

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle

Foreward and Preface

Preface to the book Fabian Freeway.

Foreword

      The American people have been and are complacently unfamiliar with Communism’s helpmate, Fabian Socialism. For over fifty years but especially since the middle nineteen-thirties there have been insinuated into high places in our government at Washington men whose collaboration in this socialistic movement has been greatly responsible for breaking down our constitutional form of government and substituting therefor the Socialist idea of centralized government.

     Every loyal American should read this book. It is well documented, and proves beyond doubt that those who have wielded such vast influence upon successive Presidents, especially since Franklin Roosevelt, do not have a desire to retain the freedom of the individual and the free enterprise system, but rather seek to establish the very coercion from which our forefathers fled. The reader will be shocked when he comprehends that there are those in high places in government who are dedicated to this Socialist movement. The ultimate objective of the Fabian Socialist movement is no different than the ultimate objective of the Communist movement….

     To those who have an inquiring mind, and to those who wish to understand the tragedy of abandoning our form of government under which we prospered and under which our people have freedoms never enjoyed before in the history of the world, this book is a “must.” It will enlighten the American people, and it is hoped that a reaction will set in demanding that the Walter Lippmanns, the Schlesingers, the Rostows and a vast number of others disclosed in the book as Fabians, be exposed for what they are so that their influence on government will terminate.

     The author has rendered a great public service. Whether you agree or disagree with the conclusions or the philosophies enunciated herein, you cannot close your eyes to the documentation of the progress of this evil movement.

                                        Loyd Wright

 

 

Everything Has a Beginning . . .

     Everything has a beginning. This book tells how the Fabian Socialist movement, which exists under many names in many places, began and grew in Britain; and how, under the guise of an innocent-looking reform movement, it became a ruling force in the United States as well.

     Started by a small group of middle class revolutionaries in nineteenth century England, its respectable influence now pervades the English-speaking world which is still largely unaware such a movement exists.

     In Britain its present-day leaders control the Parliament and the Ministries, in the name of the Labour Party.

     In the United States, where its identity has been even more carefully concealed and where its practitioners are usually known as liberals rather than Socialists, it has very nearly succeeded in reversing that movement of national independence which began in 1776.

     Originally advancing with the slow but steady gait of a tortoise on a country road, Fabian Socialism has now adapted itself comfortably to a high speed age and attempts to lead the Free World with unprecedented velocity towards a financial, military and moral breakdown, of which World Communism is the only logical beneficiary.

     Still carefully restricted in size and as shy of inspection as the keepers of the Soviet missile sites, the parent Fabian Society of London is today what it has always been: a revolutionary secret society, behind a beguiling false front of benevolence and learning. One of the traits of a secret society is that a handful of its officers and publicists may be known, while the majority of its followers remain as hidden as its operations.

     Let no one tell you the Fabian Society has faded or is only a pale relic of a bygone day. Let no one tell you it is mild, gentle or harmless. Here is the evidence that it has neither declined nor passed away, even if it sometimes chooses to play dead.

     It is not that the Fabian Society is dead, but that our own world is threatened with death. Nearly all the conditions necessary for such demise have been set up, including the barefaced announcement that God is “dead.”

     In spite of outward semblances of prosperity and freedom, the America we have known and think we still possess lies gasping—its constitutional separation of powers blurred; its wealth expended in the vain hope of nourishing a largely hostile world; its military security endangered by invisible civilian planners and irresponsible brokers of disarmament; its union, which was its strength, crumbled into a powder of racial minorities and special interest groups.

     Altogether this no longer spells creeping Socialism but onrushing Socialism, of which Communism [or totalitarianism] is merely the final stage. Incredible? Not to those who have kept their eyes open and their senses alert, instead of being anesthetized by slogans or lulled by promises of perpetual affluence.

     If the tortoise was once an appropriate symbol, a speedier and deadlier device would be suitable for today’s faster moving Fabian Socialism, effective leader of the Socialist International. And if the turtle’s obscure trail once seemed the proper path, the multi-lane highway or freeway is the avenue today.

     Indeed, executive-type socialist errand-boys, diplomats and hatchet men in a hurry, range modern America’s freeways, impatiently carrying out the schemes of unseen Fabian master planners, redeveloping American cities, reorganizing local governments along regional lines, keeping the farmer relatively happy despite the trend towards a collectivized agriculture. So instead of the tortoise and its tortuous trail, we have the fast car and the freeway.

     How did all this come about? To understand, we must go back to New York’s Turtle Bay of the nineteen-twenties and then back a greater number of years to a certain modest parlor in one of London’s less fashionable streets, where a few brash young people met on a certain evening to plan a New Life—and then we must follow through from there!

                                   Rose L. Martin

                                   Los Angeles, 1966

Chapter 1 >>