Suicide of the West

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With his trademark blend of political history, social science, economics, and pop culture, two time NYT bestselling author, syndicated columnist, National Review senior editor, and American Enterprise Institute fellow Jonah Goldberg makes the timely case that America and other democracies are in peril as they lose the will to defend the values and institutions that sustain freedom and prosperity Instead we are surrendering to populism, nationalism and other forms of tribalism Only once in the last 250,000 years have humans stumbled upon a way to lift ourselves out of the endless cycle of poverty, hunger, and war that defines most of history in 18th century England when we accidentally discovered the miracle of liberal democratic capitalism.As Americans we are doubly blessed that those radical ideas were written into the Constitution, laying the groundwork for our uniquely prosperous society Our rights come from God not from the government The government belongs to us we do not belong to the government The individual is sovereign We are all captains of our own souls The fruits of our labors belong to us.In the last few decades, these political virtues have been turned into vices As we are increasingly taught to view our traditions as a system of oppression, exploitation and white privilege, the principles of liberty and the rule of law are under attack from left and right.At a moment when authoritarianism, tribalism, identity politics, nationalism, and cults of personality are rotting our democracy from within, Goldberg exposes the West s suicidal tendencies on both sides of the ideological aisle For the West to survive, we must renew our sense of gratitude for what our civilization has given us and rediscover the ideals that led us out of the bloody muck of the past or back to the muck we will go.Suicide is painless, liberty takes work. Download Suicide of the West – kino-fada.fr I think this book is meant as a NeverTrumper manifesto, an attempt to create intellectual backbone for that wispy band of conservative holdouts, who crouch behind the crenellations in their National Review fastness, wondering why the final assault on them has yet to begin not realizing it is because everyone has forgotten about them Strictly speaking, though, I have no idea what the point of this book is, because it s a jumble of thoughts, anecdotes and superficial facts, strung together with I think this book is meant as a NeverTrumper manifesto, an attempt to create intellectual backbone for that wispy band of conservative holdouts, who crouch behind the crenellations in their National Review fastness, wondering why the final assault on them has yet to begin not realizing it is because everyone has forgotten about them Strictly speaking, though, I have no idea what the point of this book is, because it s a jumble of thoughts, anecdotes and superficial facts, strung together with no clear audience and only the most simplistic of analysis It s a boneless mess And I m very conservative, so I should have liked this book But I didn t.The miniscule hard c...If by chance you weren t aware that Jonah Goldberg is not exactly a Donald Trump fan, you will discover the magnitude of his disdain for the President in the latter chapters of this book However, don t let that cause you to burn the author in effigy, or pass out from excessive glee, whichever may apply to you This book is a broad, well researched survey of centuries of history, emphasizing how unlikely it was that any nation would ever enjoy the freedoms, rule of law, free market economy, and If by chance you weren t aware that Jonah Goldberg is not exactly a Donald Trump fan, you will discover the magnitude of his disdain for the President in the latter chapters of this book However, don t let that cause you to burn the author in effigy, or pass out from excessive glee, whichever may apply to you This book is a broad, well researched survey of centuries of history, emphasizing how unlikely it was that any nation would ever enjoy the freedoms, rule of law, free market economy, and other blessings of liberty that have been the American experience Goldberg pointed out, on several occasions, that the original manuscript of Suicide of the West was twi...Really enjoyed it, apart from hanging inalienable rights from somewhere in the stratosphere.I hope readers see this as a serious book Mission accomplished It is the most serious book I have read among the abundant crop of recent books on political economy But if the original manuscript was twice as long, as the author claims, my thanks to the editor As happy as I am that I read the book, I was ultimately satisfied to put it down.Goldberg is a conservative Enlightenment liberal capitalist Neither an admirer of Trump and the alt right or the progressive left, some will think of hi I hope readers see this as a serious book Mission accomplished It is the most serious book I have read among the abundant crop of recent books on political economy But if the original manuscript was twice as long, as the author claims, my thanks to the editor As happy as I am that I read the book, I was ultimately satisfied to put it down.Goldberg is a conservative Enlightenment liberal capitalist Neither an admirer of Trump and the alt right or the progressive left, some will think of him as a traditional conservative and, as such, a rather devout constitutionalist He rejects both tribal populism and progressive identity politics, although he sees tribalism and the need for identity as hard wired into our DNA.It is always dangerous to summarize another person s thoughts, but that s what a book review i...The chapter on Trump deserves Five Stars, and then some Jonah not only nails all of Trump s bizarre obsessions and character flaws, which are too well known to be enumerated here, but provides a brilliant analysis of how the Republican party fell apart and why the Conservative movement was unable to resist him The rest of the book is barely worth one star There s all the usual Goldberg filler cheap shots at Franklin Roosevelt, horror stories about the French Revolution, condescending pop c The chapter on Trump deserves Five Stars, and then some Jonah not only nails all of Trump s bizarre obsessions and character flaws, which are too well known to be enumerated here, but provides a brilliant analysis of how the Republican party fell apart and why the Conservative movement was unable to resist him The rest of the book is barely worth one star There s all the usual Goldberg filler cheap shots at Franklin Roosevelt, horror stories about the French Revolution, condescending pop culture references, amateur anthropology, forced attempts at humor and hipness and on top of that the most obsequi...According to Goldberg, human societies are naturally tribal, greedy, violent and unequal It is only in the recent history of the human animal that ideas such as universal human rights, cooperation across borders for commerce and science and the equality of all people became widely held in the West Since these notions are not natural , Western society will revert to what is natural unless these values are carefully safeguarded and cultivated In both the politics of Obama and Trump, Goldberg According to Goldberg, human societies are naturally tribal, greedy, violent and unequal It is only in the recent history of the human animal that ideas such as universal human rights, cooperation across borders for commerce and science and the equality of all people became widely held in the West Since these notions are not natural , Western society will revert to what is natural unless these values are carefully safeguarded and cultivated In both the politics of Obama and Trump, Goldberg sees clear evidence of such devolution The antidote is promulgation of capitalism, the flo...Read something that makes you yell at the audiobook every now and then Saw the author on The Daily Show and he had some interesting thoughts in promoting his book, so I downloaded the audiobook Positive Interesting historical recitation, including relating several schools of philosophy to his thesis that the current state of American democracy is active decay Interesting juxtaposition of some social psych research, which I have read in my academic career However He has a MASSIVE habit Read something that makes you yell at the audiobook every now and then Saw the author on The Daily Show and he had some interesting thoughts in promoting his book, so I downloaded the audiobook Positive Interesting historical recitation, including relating several schools of philosophy to his thesis that the current state of American democracy is active decay Interesting juxtaposition of some social psych research, which I have read in my academic career However He has a MASSIVE habit of conflating unsubstantiated thoughts he has about the world with certain research and making sweeping generalizations and even contradicting himself Heavy on the good old days were better for the world rhetoric again, good for whom And the traditional fam... Just to clarify this is not a review,but notes I ve written about the reasons I want to read Goldberg s book, and my expectations Baysian priors, if you will The book s publication date isn t until 24 April 2018.Jonah Goldberg is attacked from the right as a RINO Republican in name only , not because he is a liberal in disguise but because he is disloyal to and willing to criticize members of the GOP who advocate the exercise of power in ways he considers antithetical to conservative princ Just to clarify this is not a review,but notes I ve written about the reasons I want to read Goldberg s book, and my expectations Baysian priors, if you will The book s publication date isn t until 24 April 2018.Jonah Goldberg is attacked from the right as a RINO Republican in name only , not because he is a liberal in disguise but because he is disloyal to and willing to criticize members of the GOP who advocate the exercise of power in ways he considers antithetical to conservative principles.I m a liberal, but I ve spent the last few ...I finished this by sheer force of will I came across Jonah Goldberg in an NPR interview and followed him on Twitter in my quest to try to see the other side aka conservatives He seems like a smart, decent human being But I m rethinking that after subjecting myself to this slog of a book The main argument that society progressed rapidly after millennia of brutal inequality and we could do well to appreciate that we aren t wallowing in the medieval muck any is salient, but can also b I finished this by sheer force of will I came across Jonah Goldberg in an NPR interview and followed him on Twitter in my quest to try to see the other side aka conservatives He seems like a smart, decent human being But I m rethinking that after subjecting myself to this slog of a book The main argument that society progressed rapidly ...Jonah Goldberg justifies inequality and a myriad of global problems as the price for Freedom, as if it existed as an absolute, almost like an object with physical dimensions and qualities The object of freedom is to make a commitment in one way or the other The massive inequality that Goldberg justifies minuses out any aspect of change Capital and its accumulation above every other consideration is not about stuff or maintaining the ability to maintain freedom , its about power commoditized Jonah Goldberg justifies inequality and a myriad of global problems as the price for Freedom, as if it existed as an absolute, almost like an object with physical dimensions and qualities The object of freedom is to make a commitment in one way or the other The massive inequality that Goldberg justifies minuses out any aspect of change Capital and its accumulation above every other consideration is not about stuff or maintaining the ability to maintain freedom , its about power commoditized and numerical which only has meaning in relation to the interests of the other holders of capital And what is that interest, the control of price and the market That society creates the space for this struggle to take place is of course something Neo liberals barely understand, its not merely the existence of night watchmen, monetary policy and prisons that make ...

Suicide of the West
  • 18 November 2017
  • Audio CD
  • 0525498788
  • Jonah Goldberg
  • Suicide of the West