It’s easy to change your political affiliation when nothing much is at stake. It’s a lot harder to recognize that your whole professional life was a mistake when you are a leading ideologue of the Left, have committed a treasonous act for the cause of leftism, and led a friend to her death because of your political delusions. David Horowitz found the courage publicly to admit his complicity with these terrible acts and rebuild his life. His autobiography Radical Son tells about his journey with great simplicity and sincerity.
Horowitz grew up in the family of Jewish-American Stalinists, and the only departure from his parents’ ideology that he allowed himself was to withdraw support from the kind of leftism that supported totalitarian regimes. He thought it was possible to have a different kind of leftism but was eventually forced to recognize that totalitarianism was the only possible destination for these political beliefs.
The horror that Horowitz experienced when Black Panthers murdered a friend of his whom he sent to work for them was a turning point in his political life. He had to reevaluate his entire trajectory and free himself from the shackles of his unfortunate beliefs.
Alongside the story of his political evolution, Horowitz tells the equally fraught story of his personal life. When he stopped trying to be the savior of humanity and became a right-winger, he still couldn’t fully leave behind the savior mentality. Horowitz married a drug-addled prostitute and tried to improve her life. The prostitute robbed him blind for 7 years, and after there was nothing left to take, moved on to a fresh mark. Horowitz began to reevaluate his life and read his father’s diaries. That’s when he found out that his father had also married a drug-addled prostitute back in his youth and also wasted 7 years on trying to “cure” her. It’s fascinating how life works.
Great book, highly recommended. I found out so much about the New Left. Do read, you won’t be sorry.
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