Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism - Books

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
In this unprecedented critique, Bernard-Henri Levy, one of the world’s leading intellectuals revisits his political roots, scrutinizes the totalitarianisms of the past as well as those on the horizon, and argues powerfully for a new political and moral vision for our times. Are human rights Western or universal? Does anti-Semitism have a future, and, if so, what will it look like? And how is it that progressives themselves–those who in the past defended individual rights and fought fascism–have now become the breeding ground for new kinds of dangerous attitudes: an unthinking loathing of Israel; an obsessive anti-Americanism; an idea of “tolerance” that, in its justification of Islamic fanaticism, for example, could become the “cemetery of democracies”; and an indifference, masked by relativism, to the greatest human tragedies facing the world today? Illuminating these and other questions, Levy also brings to life his own autobiography, highlighting the thinkers he has known and scrutinized and the ideological battles he has fought over thirty years–revealing their bearing on the present.

Above all, Levy offers a powerful new vision for progressives everywhere, one based neither on the failed idealisms of the past neither nor on their current misguided, bigoted, and dangerously sentimental attachments but on an absolute commitment to combat evil in all its guises. The “new barbarism” Levy compellingly diagnoses is real and must be confronted. At a time of ideological and political transition in America, Left in Dark Times is a polemical, incendiary articulation of the threats we all face–in many cases without our even being aware of it–and a riveting, cogent stand against those threats. Surprising and sure to be controversial, wise and free of cynicism, it is one of the most important books yet written by one of the crucial voices of our time.

Praise for Bernard-Henri Levy’s American Vertigo

“An entertaining trip, as much in the tradition of Jack Kerouac as Tocqueville.”
–The New York Times

“Perceptive, pugnacious, passionate [and] exquisitely written.”
–The New York Observer

“It’s difficult to remember when a writer of any nationality so clearly and thoughtfully delineated both the good and bad in America. [Grade:] A.”
–Entertainment Weekly (Editor’s Choice)

“Levy is a true friend of the American experiment and a comrade in the American struggle against the barbarisms.”
–The New Republic

“Levy writes brilliantly. American Vertigo is filled with insights and goodwill.”
–The Wall Street Journal

“Provocative . . . [Levy is] a writer of enormous power and vitality.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“Vigorous . . . impressive.”
–The Boston Globe

Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Philosophical treatise November 28, 2008
Very hard for Americans to get. Obtuse, intellectual. I am sure it said something great but, it must mean a lot more to the French thinker.

2 out of 5 stars

French fare November 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Interesting review of the [ mostly[ French "Left" but requires not only a knowledge of French politics but all of the interpersonal feuds and nitpicks among the French intelligentsia to understand much of the book. It is full of " I'm right and the're wrong" casting more heat than light on the differences.

4 out of 5 stars

The night comes on November 7, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

Part autobiography, part political essay & part ideological polemic, Left In Dark Times is a survey of this prominent leftwing French intellectual's political roots, a look at old & new varieties of authoritarianism and a plea for a fresh moral vision. Having observed the mindless and juvenile parroting of consensus ideas by the Stepford Left, he analyzed the development of Leftist thought, identifying the four pillars of its current manifestation as:

(a) Indifference to suffering using the excuse of relativism (b) A perverted notion of tolerance that excuses any type of barbarity perpetrated by non-Western cultures (c) Irrational & obsessive Anti-Americanism articulated in a juvenile & oddly uniform manner (d) Anti-Zionism which is the New Antisemitism, the favorite pastime of the parasites from the rubbish dumps of the planet that infest transnational bodies like the United Abominations.

Much of the book concerns French politics as Levy struggles to justify his attachment to the term "left." I found this quest totally overwrought & pointless. He is attached to a certain romantic vision of this ideology but for most it brings to mind Stalin, Pol Pot and yes, the National SOCIALISTS of Germany - murderous collectivists all of them. He however redeems himself with unique insights & unusual perspectives on other issues.

Since the implosion of the Soviet Empire, the resentment of Western Leftists has consumed them to the point of rejecting Enlightenment values. The convenient scapegoats Israel & the USA are demonized as a matter of course whilst the most savage, cruel & barbaric regimes are excused merely because they oppose the West, or their atrocities utterly ignored. Amongst those he mentions is the mediocre playwright Harold Pinter who defended the butcher Slobodan Milosevic. Fur further evidence, check out The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism: Jews, Israel, and Liberal Opinion.

A very shrewd observation of his is that the collapse of Communism has obscured the evidence of its crimes, permitting certain apologists, predominantly academia's tenured termites in the humanities, to start nurturing that deadly dystopian dream again. Amongst these are also found the supporters of thugs like Chavez, Ahmadinejad, Putin and hardcore Islamists.

Levy diagnoses European anti-Americanism as "power envy", resentment at having been liberated and protected by the USA plus the conspiracy theory of a Zionist cabal controlling the country - the latest version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This is common to both the Left & Far Right, not only in Europe but in the USA too, lest we forget Patrick Buchanan & the grinning peanut Jimmy Carter.

Levy shows how (his) Left's ideals of sympathy for the oppressed and striving for justice have been replaced by hatred; how its body is being consumed by pathogens that grow by devouring what little remains of the good. Its intellectual bankruptcy & practical failure everywhere have turned Leftism into the champion of nihilism. (There was nowhere left to go).

Leftists despise (Classical) Liberalism - here to be understood as individual freedom - and the Enlightenment that gave birth to it. That is why they embrace collectivists of all stripes, from Baathist Fascists like Saddam to Fanatical Jihadists like Ahmadinejad to terrorists like Hezbollah, as Mr Wormtongue himself, the Pol Pot fan Noam Chomsky has done. On the international stage the most visible manifestation is an emerging gas cartel which might encompass China, Russia, Belarus, the Turkic states of Central Asia, Venezuela, Iran and other Middle Eastern countries - a new Axis of Evil. More recently, in his book The New Anti-Semitism: The Globalisation of the Oldest Hatred Denis MacShane has suggested that antisemitism has become a component part of international politics, a global export industry with an impact on geopolitics which the West underestimates at its great peril.

Levy proposes a new vision based on a commitment to fight the new barbarism which is spreading worldwide. His warnings and sentiments have already been raised by an array of respectable writers on that side of the political spectrum, for example in the book A Matter of Principle edited by Thomas Cushman. I am afraid Levy will find no takers for his sensible proposals amongst the leftists at media like Le Monde, The Guardian, The New York Times or the BBC. Even just recognizing the link between terrorism and religion is avoided by these & similar media that cannot now reveal their vacuity in judgment as this will further undermine their credibility.

Robert Kagan's The Return of History and the End of Dreams paints a very foreboding picture of the future, one that neither the mass media nor the new US administration will face squarely. But facts stubbornly continue to exist despite being ignored. Left in Dark Times confirms much of what others have already exposed - a global sinisterist convergence between collectivists around the spectrum, united by their hatred of capitalism, individual freedom, Israel & the USA.

I found the author's style slightly jarring in places but that pales besides what he has to say. In 2003 Jean-Francois Revel raised many similar points to ponder in his witty book Anti-Americanism, arguing that the phenomenon is a squalid psychological need. Another French author that I very highly recommend is Chantal Delsol, in particular her two magnificent works Icarus Fallen and The Unlearned Lessons Of the Twentieth Century. She writes with great empathy and understanding.

5 out of 5 stars

A brilliant analysis of the sins of the Left October 31, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Like many of those on the sane Left Bernard Henri- Levy has become disturbed with the strange alliance of the Left with the neo- Fascists, the xenophobic, the American bashers, the Anti- Semites, the preachers of Radical Islam. The Left's abandonment of traditional values and allies is considered here by a writer who has shown not simply integrity in thought, but courage in action. Henri- Levy is one of the few well- known thinkers living today who is also a journalist in the best sense of the world, one who goes and covers the territory. He does this when its the friendly territory of the United States , and also when its the potentially hostile territory of Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is here I think especially lucid in analyzing the Left's Anti- Semitism which expresses itself as showing repulusion towards the one democratic state in the Middle East, Israel and currying favor with Radical Islam.
As a person of the Left Henri- Levy particularly feels distressed at being abandoned by those who are his true intellectual home. But he makes an effort here to point out the way to a new sane Left, one as much concerned with Equality and Social Justice as he himself is.

4 out of 5 stars

so sad October 30, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful

I had the idea that the great thinkers had given up on politics, based on how much disbelief I run into when I manifest radical tendencies. If I could limit myself to "Let's drop fascism," I would have many points in common with the universal theme that provides much of the motivation for the many intellectual threads that the book traces through the hectic politics of the present situation. When I talk about trouble, I mean what happens when I get nasty, and to get really nasty with this book, I would have to say, "This is a lot like Jack Ruby justice." My Oswald patsy portraits were never popular, but the two main pictures were Oswald telling a reporter holding a microphone up to him, "I'm just the patsy," and a picture of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald which I captioned with Nixon saying, "Two rights don't make a wrong."

For many years after World War II, Bob Dylan was getting the right picture in "With God On Our Side" by singing that we forgave the Germans and we were all friends. Levy sees how this was true almost everywhere, but he sounds like an Israeli version of a folk song, "From the Arab borders to the Arab borders, this land was made for you and me." The spiritual fathers of radical fascislamism were the best friends Himmler had when they toured Auschwitz and told Himmler they would go to their own graves happy to know that so many million Jews had been killed in an effort to rid the world of Jews.

Linkage has been a big issue for me in global politics. The British get their share of the blame in this book for selling shares that were invested in Caterpillar stock because Israel used that brand of bulldozer to destroy Palestinian homes suspected of harboring terrorists. For a while I was an engineer working on a Great Man Made River Project for Libya, prior to 1986, when the project was linked to a plan to take all the water from the Nile in Sudan so Egypt would dry up. Everything that gets tied in to efforts to clean up the world create so much confusion that I had concluded American totalitarianism demands your indifference, a position which is not far from the kind of thinking that support for Israel assumes. I tried to be contrary when the Secret Service asked me for an alias and I told them: Bruce the Amalekite because the American empire has the capacity to change the way things are by bombing a new Chinese embassy someplace else. Not that I really ever meant what the American pre-school marching ditty said:

1, 2, 3, . . .
A, B, C, . . .
Bomb the Chinese embassy.

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