re: Brad DeLong Lets Me Have It

July 6, 2011

David, here are a few quotes from DeLong’s hero Churchill from Nicholson Baker’s book, Human Smoke: The Beginning of World War II, the End of Civilization, which I reviewed:

“Those who have met Herr Hitler have found a highly competent, cool, well-informed functionary with an agreeable manner, a disarming smile, and . . . personal magnetism.”

“I could not help being charmed by Signor Mussolini’s gentle and simple bearing, and by his calm, detached poise . . .”

Communism is the result of “the sinister confederacy of international Jewry” (Winston Churchill, Feb. 8, 1920).

“I am strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes.”  (He was referring to innocent civilians in India and Iraq who might have resisted being slaves to the British empire).

Was there ever a worse judge of character in the twentieth century than Winston Churchill? He was a grossly bigoted, bloodthirsty alcoholic who spent most of his adult life organizing the mass murder of dissenters to the British empire, from Iraq to India. That of course is why the neocons at Hillsdale College and elsewhere are part of a Cult of Churchill, as are Keynesians like DeLong and Krugman whose fundamental economic belief is the broken window fallacy — the incorrect notion that wars are good for a nation’s economy.

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Dr. Thomas DiLorenzo [send him mail] is president of the Mises Institute. He is a former professor of economics at Loyola University Maryland and a longtime member of the senior faculty of the Mises Institute. He is the author or co-author of eighteen books including The Real LincolnHow Capitalism Saved AmericaLincoln UnmaskedHamilton's CurseOrganized Crime: The Unvarnished Truth About GovernmentThe Problem with Socialism; and The Politically-Incorrect Guide to Economics