rialists or patriotic isolationists.rnTrue democracy, in the spirit of Thomas Jefferson, meansrnthat the government leaves people alone —not simply as individuals,rnbut as families and members of communities. A trulvrndemocratic state may not attempt to engineer an artificial unityrnof diverse regions and peoples, as the Italian fascists did; or suppressrnreligion and shift populations, as Stalin did; or manipulaterninternal boundaries and laws to benefit one group at the expensernof another, which is done in the United States today inrnthe name of minority rights and in the old Yugoslavia. All theserntricks, whatever pretty names thev are called by, should be seenrnfor what they are; parts of a political system that aims at totalrncontrol over human social life.rnIn the United States, this revolutionarv project began to takernshape about the same time as Marxist revolution in Russia, butrnit was not until the 1930’s that American political leaders beganrnto impose a national-socialist regime that paralleled developmentsrnin Italy, Germany, and the Soviet Union. The Americanrnideological state, however, is distinguished from the others inrnone important respect: Instead of relying on coercive force, onrnjackboots and lager, gulags and Pravda, the new American staternemployed the art of seduction. Consumerism, sexual immorality,rnprescription tranquilizers, and commercial ‘W more effectivelyrnundermined the old American character than any of therndevices employed by the hard totalitarian states.rnFifteen years ago in Chronicles, we began to point out thatrnAmericans were no longer citizens of a republic but subjects ofrnan empire, and that this imperial system has been erected onrnthe ruins of our old republic. The new American religion ofrnfalse democracy, rigged markets, and multicidtural mass culturerncan only complete the destruction of Europe that was begunrnin Serbia by American bombs.rnFor our leaders, the ongoing task is to find ethnic brush warsrnin Chechnya or Kosovo that demand a graduated response ofrnconcern, alarm, condemnation, and intervention. The evidencernof Bosnia and Kosovo suggests that this degraded Westernrnelite will not be satisfied until the entire world is a Disneylandrnreplica of San Diego. P”or them, nations do not existrnexcept as local administrative units of the global marketplace;rnthis attihide was revealed recentlv when a top Clinton administrationrnofficial asked for an expanded role for the United NationsrnHigh Commissioner for Refugees to protect refugees withinrna state —in other words, to give the UNHCR the implicitrnright to intervene in internal struggles.rnWhat is the American left’s public response to the economicrnwing of the New World Order? Riots staged by androg}’nousrnhooligans who have watched one too many PBS documentariesrnon the 60’s. “You say you want a revolution . . . “—but they dornnot. A revolution requires courage and discipline.rnWe have seen these faces before, chaotic, resentful, stupefied.rnThey danced in the streets at the Festival of Reason; theyrndrank and fornicated behind the Paris barricades in 1848; andrnthey greeted the Bolsheviks as the liberators of the human spiritrnfrom God, morality, mathematics, and hygiene.rnThe cultural left defines itself by its hatred of Christendom,rnbut there are remnants of a more humane, almost Chestertonianrnleft that sees the New World Order as the realization of thernRockefeller dream of one market/one state/em Reich/einrnFiihrer. They can see the mark of the beast on the faces ofrnMadeleine Albright and George Soros, and—who knows?—inrnstiuggling against these devils, they may join the side of the angels,rncrnDICTATIONSrn”No Man Is an Island”rnI n claiming that each of us is a part of the whole, JohnrnDonne was not criticizing King James I for his isolationistrnforeign policy. Donne’s reflections on human unityrnwere spiritual, not political—though how each man’s deathrndiminishes me is something 1 do not at all understand. It isrna long stretch from mankind’s spiritual unit}’ in Christ to thernforcible unification of the globe under one super-state, andrnattacks on political isolationism illustrate the danger of applyingrna Christian concept (in this case, human brotherhood)rnto anti-Christian conditions (U.S. global hegemony).rnIn the early 192()’s, “isolationism” began to be applied asrna term of abuse to members of Congress (mostly Republican)rnwho got in the way of Woodrow Wilson’s fantasies ofrnworld government. Many of the Republican leaders (e.g.,rnHenr}’ Cabot l.,odgc) were not isolationist at all, but economicrnimperialists who thought the League of Nationsrnmight obstruct the expansion of .iTierican business interests.rnpA’en principled “i.solationists” like Bob La Follette andrnBurt Wheeler disliked the term and always insisted theyrnwere not arguing for ^^merican withdrawal from the woddrnbut only for a just and responsible foreign policy.rnBut what is wrong vi’ith being an “isolationist”? To some,rnthe image conjures up a medical ward where patients infectedrnwith plague or tuberculosis are isolated from the restrnof the hospital. But the basic meaning of “isolation” is to bernin the condition of an island. Wlien Sir George Foster toldrnthe Canadian parliament in 1896 that the British Empirern”stands splendidk’ isolated in Europe,” he was praising thernmother countr’s self-sufficiency and rugged independence.rnNo one in his right mind would accuse England of withdrawingrnfrom tlie world or of sticking its head in the sand.rnIf isolation was good enough for the British Empire, itrnought to be good enough for American republicans. Somernisolationists have proudly spoken of America as an islandrnfortress, and the syiTibol could still be a potent political talisman.rnIslands engage in trade and diplomacy, send and receivernvisitors, and —in the case of Britain—even fight aggressivernwars (though the British post-colonial experiencernshould be enough to discourage even a Kristol from imperialism).rnWhat intelligent islanders do not do, however, is engagernin ri.sky and profitless adventures around the world.rnTwenty-five years ago, the United States —in an act ofrncowardice and betrayal worthy of the Kissinger who orchesh^rnated it—tinned its back on the Vietnamese people it hadrndragged through war. We have learned nothing from thatrnexperience. Vv,[ E’.ugcnc McCarthy observed in 1969 is arnperfect description of our current dilennna: “America isrnmore isolated than it has been since the heday of isolationism,rnnot by our withdrawing from the world but by the withdrawalrnof most of the world from us.”rn—Humpty Dumptyrn12/CHRONiCLESrnrnrn