Kossack Exclusive from John Dean
Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 12:48:43 PM PDT
John Dean was particularly helpful to me as I worked to usher Glenn Greenwald's How Would a Patriot Act? into the world. I asked him for a blurb. To give one, he said, he would have to fact-check the entire book before lending his name. Ahh...integrity! Grateful for his time and the eventual blurb, I offered to read his new book, Conservatives Without Conscience[
http://www.amazon.com/...], and told him that, if I found it worthy, I'd want to help spread word about the book to the blogs.
I find it worthy--and then some. I'll be posting on FireDogLake a full review, but wanted Kossacks to have a first read of a short Q&A that Mr. Dean put together especially for DailyKos. I'll also pose some follow-up questions to Mr. Dean for a post here later this week, so if you've got a question, please send it on.
Questions and Answers from John Dean, author of
Conservatives Without Conscience
After reading the recent postings on Daily Kos I prepared the following questions and responses to shed further light on what I am doing and why I am doing it.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish by writing CWC?
A: It is long past time to start using the "A" word - authoritarianism - when talking about contemporary American conservatism. I started working on CWC in 1994, looking for explanations of what had happened to conservatism. Why were these people so nasty, mean-spirited, self-righteous and aggressive? Why were conservative leaders so manipulative? Why were the followers so compliant and unquestioning? After 9/11 I intensified my researching but I was still looking for answers in a lot of wrong places before I discovered some fifty years of social science research into authoritarianism. This information was an epiphany for me. It explained contemporary conservatism, not in the words of social scientists, rather in the words of authoritarian conservatives themselves. For these studies are based on answers to literally hundreds of thousands of questions over an extended period.
Q: Where did you find the information on authoritarianism?
A: Unfortunately, the material is found in proprietary data bases, professional journals, and books, and almost none of it is written for the general readers. I spent considerable time working my way through this material, with the assistance of the leading researcher in the field, Bob Altemeyer of the University of Manitoba. Another researcher who assisted me (sending me general readings in the field) was John Jost of New York University. His study of conservatism, which is found here with further material here [http://www.wam.umd.edu/~hannahk/gjonas.pdf and here [http://www.wam.umd.edu/....], sent many conservatives ballistic, even though most never bothered to read it rather reacted to a press release. (A very authoritarian reaction approach, by the way.) A note of caution: Google searches of the subject of "authoritarianism" will produce the works of John Jay, a New Zealander and self-proclaimed "Burkean" conservative (whatever that is) - not to mention a prolific blogger. Suffice it to say that I examined Jay's work closely, and went over it with other experts, and concluded that nothing he writes in his reviews, critiques and articles provided any reason to not rely, as I have, on Altemeyer's work (as well as that of the many other researchers whose work confirms Altemeyer's empirical studies.)
Q: Why do people submit to authoritarian leaders?
A: The authoritarian personality is a product of nature and nurture. Consistent data shows that fear and discomfort with ambiguity are factors for those who submit to authority, according to information they repeatedly provide to researchers. Accordingly, post-9/11 research has shown that fear of terrorism has resulted in significant numbers of people moving to the ranks of authoritarian conservatism (and the Republican Party). This fact, needless to say, has not escaped the attention of the Bush/Cheney White House, which has increased its fear-mongering during every election since 9/11 - and it has worked to their advantage.
Q: How are conservatives (or more appropriately, authoritarian conservatives) reacting to CWC?
A: Not well, which is precisely what I anticipated. These are people who are extremely self-righteous, with a very low tolerance for criticism. As Kos no doubt discovered with Crashing the Gate, often the most vocal critics do not have a clue what is actually in the book.
Q: Is authoritarianism dangerous?
A: Indeed it is, for it is proto-fascist in nature. I did a great deal of reading and study of fascism as well, and spoke with scholars and political scientists who have studied it for decades. Most of this study has looked at whether it could happen here. There is no question it could happen here, and that terrorists could trigger it. I am not certain which is more frightening: the next escalated terror attack that will inevitably come to the United States or the way authoritarian conservatives might deal with its aftermath. That is why we need to publicly discuss the authoritarianism that now dominates conservatism.
Q: Why are you posting this on Daily Kos?
A: Because I am a daily reader of this blog and, with no wish to be patronizing, I truly believe the netroots can make a difference.
