David,
Welcome; good to know Mr. Chambers’ legacy lives on.

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You wrote: …“Philosophers have explained the world; It is necessary to CHANGE the world”… Doesn’t this sound awfully FAMILIAR?!? …

Yes, it does sound familiar. It’s Karl Marx, as my grandfather wrote — from his Theses on Feuerbach (the eleventh and last, in fact), published by Engels after Marx’s death: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/theses.htm

In the German original, it reads: “Die Philosophen haben die Welt nur verschieden interpretiert; es kommt aber darauf an, sie zu verändern.” One could translate more literally as, “Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various way: what is important is to change it.”

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mlajoie, excellent, however you left out one of the most important aspects of the book; it was sited by Ronald Reagan as the reason why he switched from being a New Deal Democrat to being a Conservative.

Chambers’ review of Rand’s book was a scathing attack. I can’t remember whether it was while he was with Time or National Review. Great read that one.

Well done, please write some more.

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Very good essay. I, too, immediately thought of Obama and his mantra for change when I read Chambers’ letter to his children. His mentors, are, indeed, those 60s radicals who were out to change the world, taught by none other than Saul Alinsky who not only wrote the now-famous Rules for Radicals but first wrote Reveille for Radicals for which Chambers also wrote a review stating it was a writing of the vision of the change but without (yet) a workable plan for achieving it. He did not live to see that book but was prescient in telling us that it was coming.
We must be as willing (no, more) to live or die-to bear witness-for our faith as they are for theirs.

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Am just done with the book and I think is a good buy.

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I just recently finished reading Whittaker Chamber’s “Witness” myself. It was my ‘airport’ book while I travel for work. It is indeed timeless in its warnings. My new ‘airport’ book is “Liberal Fascism” by Jonah Goldberg; it seemed appropriate to go from one to the other as socialism, communism and fascism all seem to be fighting for the same territory just using different colored flags.

I would recommend both; and all your observations are correct, it is scary the similarities that communism, socialism and fascism (as described by Mr. Chambers and Mr. Goldberg, respectively) have with our current President’s policies, and direction.

The ‘isms’ have this in common, an atheist theology where divinity is given to the state and to the ‘experts’ of science and intellectuals who are morally obligated to be the benevolent masters to rule and guide the great unwashed masses in every thought, breath and action from the cradle to the grave. Trust and belief in God, individual rights, freedom, and personal responsibility are anathema to the unholy troika of ‘isms’.

May God save us all indeed…

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I once read a quote attributed to Whittaker Chambers several years ago. I think it was posted in an email from the Heritage Foundation or the The Patriot Post. It so accurately summed up my own misspent youth it was stunning. Chambers was a person I was only vaguely aware of because of his notoriety during my youth. That quote moved me to purchase and read witness and as you pointed out, I found it in the letter to his children.

He made the point that the only real difference between the Communists and us was, God. If you look at the unrelenting effort to excoriate God from American life, you’ll see his point was taken by the commie/intellectuals. Old Whittaker nailed it. May God save us.

“Man without God is a beast, and never more beastly than when he is most intelligent about his beastliness.” –Whittaker Chambers

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BT in SA,

Chambers actually did a book review of “Atlas Shrugged” in which, as I recall, he was partly critical! It should be an interesting contrast to read them consecutively.

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Manish Pandey,

As I said, I don’t know for sure. I don’t think we have a “smoking gun” per se. However, if I had to guess, there is certainly a trail of evidence that points in that direction. His own identified major influence was “Frank” who certainly ran in those circles. Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers, Bernadette Dohrn, Father Fleger and most others he’s been tied to are all basically Marxist in outlook. The college exams he gave and any records he hasn’t had sealed or hidden all seem to point in that direction. The good people at this site have done a lot of work on all of that – look in their back issues for some good information.

Thanks for commenting!

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A very interesting essay.

Its promise was whispered in the first days of the Creation under the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: ‘Ye shall be as gods.’ It is the great alternative faith of mankind. Like all great faiths, its force derives from a simple vision. Other ages have had great visions. They have always been different versions of the same vision: the vision of God and man’s relationship to God. The Communist vision is the vision of Man without God

That seems a profound insight into the mentality of the Left from someone who’s been there.
It also explains why the Left are so wrong on virtually every issue.

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