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The Generation That Knew Not Josef: A Critique of Marxism and the Religious Left
1985, hardcover edition, Multnomah Press, Portland, OR. 217 pages. Most interesting critique of Marxism and the religious left.
217 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 19, 2017
A masterful critique of the Left by citing the lives of two groups of people; of one who left the West for an Utopia and remained loyal to the regime, and another set of people who learnt the truth & came back to the West. The book exposes the crimes that the socialist governments committed and how the religious left uses style & words to further their cause.
February 5, 2025
Though 40 years old, this book is very much pertinent today for reasons made clear in the book: Religious left folks are too blind to see the carnage of Marx, socialism and totalitarian regimes. It is the testimony of many former leftists who vigorously promoted these planned but utterly failed societies that was most compelling. After they actually experienced these societies they were dismayed and felt like betrayed fools. It is their testimonies that the modern left ignores, suppresses, or re-interprets as they narrow-mindedly advocate and promote their own destruction.
The segment of western advocates for socialism and communism who remained true believers even when faced with the grim realities of Soviet poverty and cruelty and oppression was enlightening as well. These people resorted to writing such blatant fairy tales about the planned society that were utterly laughable. For example, Anne Loise Strong wrote that under Soviet socialism the criminal element applied for prison because conditions were so good, and they had to be convinced to leave when their term was up. She didn’t likely sing that song when Stalin jailed her. Jilted by one dictatorial monster, she didn’t give up the delusion. She moved to China and befriend Mao.
We get to hear the testimonies of several people who abandoned the leftist dream because of its impossible promises and deadly track record. Malcolm Muggeridge, Arthur Koestler, André Gide, Miljovan Djilas, George Orwell, and Pierre Charente to name most of them. People who knew Stalin personally, one a Vice President of communist Yugoslavia, all saw the festering rot of these unholy regimes.
And it dives into the minds of leftist Christians who support these socialist and communist regimes with an irrational kind of ignorance and willful blindness to facts. Former communist party member Arthur Koestler is quoted saying:
“The well meaning progressives of the left persist in following their old, outworn concepts. As if under the spell of a destructive compulsion, they must repeat every single error of the past, draw the same faulty conclusions a second time, re-live the same situations, perform the same suicidal gestures. One can only watch in horror and despair, for this time there will be no pardon.”
This book is a very enlightening read which has inspired a host of other books to be ordered. Books generally ignored by today’s left because the speak the truth about what socialism always, without fail, in all places it has been imposed, is failure, misery and poverty.
The segment of western advocates for socialism and communism who remained true believers even when faced with the grim realities of Soviet poverty and cruelty and oppression was enlightening as well. These people resorted to writing such blatant fairy tales about the planned society that were utterly laughable. For example, Anne Loise Strong wrote that under Soviet socialism the criminal element applied for prison because conditions were so good, and they had to be convinced to leave when their term was up. She didn’t likely sing that song when Stalin jailed her. Jilted by one dictatorial monster, she didn’t give up the delusion. She moved to China and befriend Mao.
We get to hear the testimonies of several people who abandoned the leftist dream because of its impossible promises and deadly track record. Malcolm Muggeridge, Arthur Koestler, André Gide, Miljovan Djilas, George Orwell, and Pierre Charente to name most of them. People who knew Stalin personally, one a Vice President of communist Yugoslavia, all saw the festering rot of these unholy regimes.
And it dives into the minds of leftist Christians who support these socialist and communist regimes with an irrational kind of ignorance and willful blindness to facts. Former communist party member Arthur Koestler is quoted saying:
“The well meaning progressives of the left persist in following their old, outworn concepts. As if under the spell of a destructive compulsion, they must repeat every single error of the past, draw the same faulty conclusions a second time, re-live the same situations, perform the same suicidal gestures. One can only watch in horror and despair, for this time there will be no pardon.”
This book is a very enlightening read which has inspired a host of other books to be ordered. Books generally ignored by today’s left because the speak the truth about what socialism always, without fail, in all places it has been imposed, is failure, misery and poverty.
August 3, 2023
10/10
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews