As a graduate student instructor charged with the task of grading undergraduate papers, I am not easily shocked by plagiarism. The most recent case of plagiarism I have come across, however, has made it hard for me to sleep at night. While reading an anti-war article by the conservative author and talk show host Pat Buchanan, I was amazed to find a quote by the neoconservative Michael Leeden which seemed to be plagiarizing the work of the Italian Fascist F.T. Marinetti. Here is the Leeden quote:
Creative destruction is our middle name, both within our society and abroad.
We tear down the old order every day, from business to science, literature,
art, architecture, and cinema to politics and the law. Our enemies have
always hated this whirlwind of energy and creativity which menaces their
traditions (whatever they may be) and shames them for their inability to keep
pace ... [W]e must destroy them to advance our historic mission.
I should say that my graduate studies are focused on the history of fascist Italy. Realizing that the fascist Marinetti is a pretty obscure figure to the rest of the world and hoping that I was somehow wrong, that it would be crazy for someone actively trying to influence the foreign policy of the United States to plagiarize fascist rhetoric, I checked into Michael Leeden. How, I wondered, would a neocon know about Marinetti? Perhaps, it was coincidence or maybe the Leeden quote was taken out of context. I quickly discovered that Leeden in fact has a Ph.D. in history, has focused his studies on Italy, and has even written articles about Italian Fascism. So much for that hope.
My next step was to go to Leeden's text. Maybe he had actually been writing about fascism and Buchanan had conveniently left out the footnote. Leeden's book "The War Against the Terror Masters" does have endnotes, but none for the passage quoted and none referencing Marinetti. It was true; Leeden was actually trying to pass off fascist ideology as his own. He was indeed suggesting that we give the fascist obsession with violence and war another try, regurgitating the ideals of Marinetti and pretending they were new. It is worth recalling the Merriam Webster definition of plagiarizing:
to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own: use (another's production) without crediting the source... to commit literary theft: present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.
What Leeden did was not copy Marinetti word for word, but rather he stole his ideas and passed them off as his own, without ever crediting the source. Now this is not the first or the last time that some bit of fascist ideology will be resurrected and passed off as new. What makes this instance frightening are two things, the sector of fascist ideology being recycled and the recycler, a man with a great deal of influence in American foreign policy.
F.T. Marinetti helped Mussolini found the Fascist Party and is perhaps most famous for his love and glorification of violence and war. Marinetti wrote eloquently and convincingly about the beauty of violence and death. He wanted perpetual war and believed that only through continuous violent destruction could society move forward. Marinetti wrote:
We will glorify war- the world's only hygiene- militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman. We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind, we will fight moralism, feminism, every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice.
Leeden has repackaged Marinetti's ideals into a theory he calls "Creative Destruction." Like Marinetti, Leeden believes that only through violent action can society progress. Conservatives, those who resist change are the enemies of Leeden just as they were for Marinetti. Although Marinetti never used the specific phrase "creative destruction" in his own glorification of war and violence, historians have used the term to describe Fascist ideology. In his book "Political Ideologies," Andrew Heywood, eerily describes Fascism:
It represents the darker underside of the western political tradition, the central and enduring values of which were not abandoned but rather transformed or turned upside-down. For example, in fascism 'freedom' came to mean unquestioning submission, 'democracy' was equated with absolute dictatorship, and 'progress' implied constant struggle and war. Moreover, despite an undoubted inclination towards nihilism, war and death, fascism saw itself as a creative force, a means of constructing a new civilization through 'creative destruction.' Indeed, this conjunction of birth and death, creation and destruction, can be seen as one of the characteristic features of fascism.
So who is Michael Leeden and why should it concern the average American that he is offering up fascism as a new foreign policy strategy? Leeden is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and has close ties to the White House. In March, the Washington Post published a list of contacts of Karl Rove, Bush's top political advisor, also known as "Bush's brain." When it comes to foreign policy and terrorism, Rove turns to Michael Leeden. As the Post explained Rove's connection to Leeden:
The two met after Bush's election. "He said, 'Anytime you have a good idea, tell me,'" Ledeen said. Every month or six weeks, Ledeen will offer Rove `something you should be thinking about.' More than once, Ledeen has seen his ideas, faxed to Rove, become official policy or rhetoric.
Leeden, along with other neoconservatives, has been calling for the US to go back to Iraq since the first gulf war ended and believes the US should next go to war with Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia. In other words, Leeden, in accordance with his philosophy of creative destruction, gleefully sees no end to war in sight. According to Leeden, not only should we attack all of these nations, we should also attack anyone who disagrees with the theory of creative destruction, "We must destroy them to advance our historic mission."
Now every political party has its radicals on the fringes, but this is not the case when it comes to Leeden or neoconservatives. The American Enterprise Institute, the home base of neoconservatism where Leeden is a fellow, is the birthplace of the current American foreign policy. The AEI was the home of the Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, during the Clinton years. It was Wolfowitz who developed the doctrine for preemptive war once referred to as the "Wolfowitz Doctrine" which is now the official foreign policy strategy called the "Bush Doctrine." Vice President Cheney's wife, Lynne Cheney, is also a member of the institute. These are just two of the many connections between the AEI and the current administration. Furthermore, Leeden writes op-ed columns for the Wall Street Journal, in which he has already begun calling for war against Iran.
In addition to violence and death, F.T. Marinetti was obsessed with speed. Leeden similarly embraces speed, signing his columns in which he presses for more military action "Faster Please." History has shown where Leeden's philosophy of "creative destruction" leads. An obsession with death, war and violence, leads not surprisingly to more and more death, war and violence. One can only hope that we need not continue to repeat the mistake of the Italians and fall prey to demented thinkers like Leeden.