TheyLovedBloodand Soil but Not the Mind 223As JohnsHopkinsUniversityhistorianDorothyRossparaphrasesLieber’s creed,“Natu-
ral rightsdid not inherein the loneindividual.. .; peopleweresocialbeingswhoderived
primordial,naturalrightsfromtheir(social)humanity.”^161
As significantis progressiveeugenicistWoodrowWilson.Althoughhe wouldulti-
matelyleadthe USAin battleagainstGermanyin WorldWarOne,it happensthatin
1887,as a PrincetonUniversitypoliticalscienceprofessor,WoodrowWilsonconsidered
Prussia’s systema rolemodelfor the USAto mimic.At the time,Wilsonjudgedthat
Prussiaran an “admirablesystem... the moststudiedandmostnearlyperfected.” It
“transformedarrogantand perfunctory” bureaucracies“intopublic-spiritedinstruments
of just government.”^162
Convergence
Thusthe Romanticism-collectivism-governismaxis gainedprominencein U.S.univer-
sitiesby the formerhalfof the twentiethcentury.Resultantly,writesDorothyRoss,“the
languageof ‘control,’ withand withoutthe ‘social’ prefix,becamepervasive” amongthe
progressivesof early-1900s“Americansocialscience.”^163 Stillyet, priorto the Vietnam
War,the governistProgressives,followingGermany’s nineteenth-centurysocialists,still
castglancesof approvalupontechnologyandindustrialization.As the 1960sended,
though,it becameincreasinglyobviousto Americanleftiststhat the nation’s stockholders
wouldnot be overthrownby theiremployees.The U.S.Left beganlookingto otherphilos-
ophiesfor an explanation.Theysoughta rationalizationin the earlytwentieth-century’s
Frankfurtschoolof neo-Marxistculturalthought(whichwas,unsurprisingly,German)
anddiscoveredits critiqueagainstAristotelianrationalityandthe Enlightenment.^164 In
the 1970s,Americanleftiststookthe Frankfurtschool’s synthesisof Romanticismand
anti-capitalismand weldedit to theirowngovernism.Amongthe Frankfurtschoolmem-
berswhoepitomizedthe NewLeftthoughtof the 1970swasphilosopherHerbertMar-
cuse,himselfheavilyinfluencedby romanticistphilosopherandNazieugenicistMartin
Heidegger.^165 Hencetherewasa philosophicsynthesisin the USAsimilarto the one that
tookplacedecadesearlierin Germany.TheAmericansynthesisof Romanticismand
governismgavebirthto the NewLeftmovementpeopledby hippies,yippies,environ-
mentalists,andanimalactivists.^166 On accountof thissynthesis,writesUCLApolitical
scientistandhistorianAnthonyPadgen,“the moreradicalopponentsof ‘globalization’
havecast the Enlightenment,as Adornoand Horkheimercast it, as the apotheosisof...
science,” which“devastatesthe environment;stripsindigenouspeoplesof theirmoral
dignity... and possiblytheirculturalidentities;and condemnsmorethantwo-thirdsof
the populationof the worldto penuryand miseryin orderto supplythe excessivewants
of the otherthird.”^167 JohnGraydisparagesthatdevelopmentas “westernculturalimpe-
rialism.”^168
Consequently,TheodoreKaczynskiadmitsthatcontemporary“leftishphilosophers”
influencedby Romanticism“tendto dismissreason,science,” and“objectiverealityand
to insistthateverythingis culturallyrelative.” Thedomesticterroristthinksit “obvious
that modernleftishphilosophersare not simplycool-headedlogicianssystematicallyana-
lyzingthe foundationsof knowledge.Theyare deeplyinvolvedemotionallyin their
attackon truthand reality.”^169
To this day,Universityof CambridgechemistTerenceKealeyremindsus, the reputa-
tionof the humanmindhas “neverfullyrecoveredfromthe successof Rousseauand the
RomanticMovement.... TheRomanticsmadeit fashionableto despisescientistsas
overrational,megalomaniac,emotionalcripples,in hockto materialism,vaingloryand
greed.Thatviewpersists;a 1962surveyof Americancollegestudents’ attitudes” showed
thattheyjudgedscientiststo be “intelligent,but sociallywithdrawnandpossessedof a