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| Super Duper Socialism |
Until I saw Antony Beevor on Q & A with Brian Lamb (C-SPAN) I never thought that I shared much with true historians as far as my style of conveying history to others. Professor Beevor notes that there is a German style, also alluded to as a scientific style, which is really just an illusion. All history is narrative and I approach it the same way that he does, with an open mind. Of course, I have my own biases going in, but as I find evidence I have no problem changing my mind.
Changing my mind is what happened while researching this book. As I began I knew that International Socialism and National Socialism were different only in degree, but those were the two major camps of Socialism. However, I was under the impression that American Socialism was something different, more along the lines of Mussolini's Fascism. I was very wrong.
When I 'discovered' a 1913 New York Times article about Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party platform, they used the term "Super Socialism" to describe Roosevelt's vision of a non-Marxist socialism. Over the weeks, that title echoed to the point that it finally dawned on me that this forgotten description was perfect to usher in the American accent on the Yellow/National Socialism that was sweeping western civilization.
Just a couple of decades later, the Super Socialist states of the world were allying with Marxist states and movements to battle National Socialists, not over freedom, but merely over which flavor of Socialism would rule the world. Nowhere in World War II was anybody fighting for free markets, free speech, freedom of choice, or the freedom of anything beyond the 'freedom' of the state to dictate to the people.
As time progressed after the big showy surrenders of the Axis powers to the Allies, another war began. Some call it the Cold War, which does have some merit, and some called it World War III, which really has more merit. Underlying all of that is still the war for freedom, with the True Right libertarians and Conservatives in an ideological and electoral battle against the Socialists of the Left. "Super Duper Socialism" is the label I use for American and Red Chinese hybrids of Marxist and non-Marxist Socialisms.
About the cover:
The cover has gone through more evolutions than the text. It began as a collection of Socialists with the ice ask identified as the murder weapon of Trotsky in the middle. As I was writing, a Florida Democrat Party office displayed an American flag with the field of stars replaced by a bust of Obama. I found that interesting and created a similar one on my own, with a different version of the book title scrawled across the stripes.For the current cover, that I am quite satisfied with, I replaced the white stripes with yellow, for Yellow Socialism and kept the red for Red socialism. After adding the bust of Obama I had a little room at the bottom of the field for leading American Socialists. I had more, but one can only fit so many before they shrink to the point of invisibility.
Update: The wife and the cover illustrator for some of my other books thought the first version was too busy, so I simplified it a little. Wife told me to try Powerpoint for more text effect options.
I did have a thought of giving the flag a golden fringe for the "Ohio is not a State" tax protestors, but the "Cali 05" frame brought a distressed effect that I like better. The stylized Socialism bumper sticker across the front was a bit of an accident. I wanted the white parts to be transparent, but my limited knowledge of graphics programs got in the way, so I applied it like a bumper sticker and liked that better than my original idea.
Older versions below.
As of this post, I am only about 1/4 - 1/3 of the way through my writing. Hoping to finish before the election heats up.
V/r,
JT
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| Super Duper Socialism: You were sold an illusion about the Left and Right |
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| Super Duper Socialism: You were fed an illusion about the Left and Right |
