Confessions of a Coward

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=1409 ^ | David P. Goldman aka Spengler

[ventanax5]

Early in April, with the publication of the May issue of First Things, I stepped out from behind the pseudonym Spengler to begin arguing my more considered ideas under my own name. The experience has been an interesting one: constricting in some ways and yet freeing in others.

My Spengler columns actually began as a joke. In 1997 the Asia Times asked me to write a humor column, and the name Spengler seemed a funny touch: the author of The Decline of the West as a comic writer for an Asian daily. The print edition of the newspaper soon went under, but I revived the persona for the online-only edition in 1999. Contrary to my expectations, it won an audience and became a vehicle for more than I had originally imagined it would be... In reviewing my own missteps in life, I feel that temptation to represent myself as a monster in order to cover up something even more painful: I was a coward. I was afraid of being Jewish. Everything else is rationalization. My intellectual life really began only a quarter-century ago when I reconciled myself to being Jewish. The truth is that I did not think my way into praying. I prayed my way into thinking.

[Finny]

Thanks for posting. Interesting read that gives much insight.

[Philo1962]

This is a great article that reveals many things about the author but, more importantly, it reveals a lot of things about the inner workings of the Larouche organization, where he worked for many years. Nobody can expose the truth as well as an insider.

If you want to know more about Larouche, his dangerous way of thinking, and how he promoted himself and demonized his opponents, read this article.