Left Imperialism

What we call the "left" today is massively different from what it was only a generation ago. Dr. Gindler contends that such transmogrifications are not unusual in the history of the left. The problem traces to a root about which few speak: an elitist utopianism that always begins with an emancipatory aim but retreats to aggressive statism when the ideological utopia fails to happen in the real world. This is how the promise of freedom ends in new levels of imposition and compulsion. This lack of willingness to grapple with the realities of the world around us, as it is in all its imperfections, unleashes terrible things on the world. Dr. Gindler's provocative argument deserves careful attention from anyone who is mystified by the antics of today's left and worried about the next stage of its philosophical evolution.—Jeffrey Tucker, Brownstone Institute


By connecting the dots from Richelieu to Schwab, Gary Gindler proves there is nothing new under the sun. The enemies of liberty take on many forms from era to era, but their driving impulses and ambitions are always the same -- power and control. Nor can you construct a means by which to avoid such anti-human movements, for they are coming to "fix" humanity whether you like the fix or not. The only way out of these varied tyrannies is through. You must defeat them.— Steve Deace, best-selling author and The Blaze


I am delighted to find books that make me smarter. Gary Gindler’s  Left Imperialism is one of those books, in fact among the best of those books. A Russian born physicist who now lives in New Jersey, Gindler brings an international perspective to bear on America’s everyday problems.


In impressively lucid prose, Gindler walks the reader through the very language we use and misuse to describe our politics: left-right, liberal-conservative, nationalist-globalist. Having established a common language, he is better able to explain the “functional asymmetry” of the leftist imperative—in biological terms, “left-wingers mainly offer mutations, and right-wingers carry out selections to a high degree.”


A muted optimist, Gindler enjoys the “grimly comic” spectacle of leftist self-destruction. “Ultimately, the current incarnation of Left Imperialism will fail,” he argues, “because it has nothing to offer—not in the long run or the short term.” Unfortunately, not even a spike through its hollow brain will stop the Left from rising again in some new and equally disruptive mutation. Fasten your seat belts.—Jack Cashill, author, documentary producer, Ph.D. in American studies


Gary Gindler's book is indispensable for those trying to understand the evil forces and foreign ideologies trying to destroy America today"—Roger Stone, author, political consultant, talk show host


Imperialism is often portrayed as a problem created by conservatives and the right more generally. Gary Gindler, however, shows us that the political left is deeply immersed in an intellectual, political, and economic imperialism of its own that has done - and continues to do - immense damage to key institutions of Western civilization, ranging from the rule of law to constitutionalism and the market economy. If you want understand much of the cultural and economic wreckage that surrounds us, read this book.—Samuel Gregg, American Institute for Economic Research

Left Imperialism is an exercise in a novel field: ideology archaeology.


Is the United States Constitution conservative or liberal? Where does the conservative-liberal dichotomy originate? Are American conservatives related to British conservatives or not? Who are the anarchists—left-wingers or right-wingers?


Left Imperialism offers the answers to these questions and many more, taking on a spectrum of ideologies from a brand-new evolutionary perspective. For example, the book traces the origin of many standard political terms—like "left-wing" and "right-wing"—from their inception to the present through all their perturbations. It also examines in distinctive detail political movements like Conservatism, Fascism, Liberalism, Marxism, Anarchism, and many more, from as far away as Cardinal Richelieu's epoch through World War II and into the present.

The book's narrative has one overriding theme: the evolution of freedom.


Left Imperialism presents a novel concept in political philosophy called the "individual-state paradigm," which generalizes and extrapolates the Right-Left distinction.