Overview

Sparklingly funny, unflinchingly realistic, and profoundly wise, these brilliant meditations on our postmodern predicament by the Montaigne of our age impart urbane pleasure and enlightenment on every page.      --  Myron Magnet, author ofThe Dream and the Nightmare: the Sixties’ Legacy to the UnderclassTheodore Dalrymple is an extraordinary essayist--mordantly funny, profound, and immensely learned. In this new book, all of his considerable talents are on display as he explores the nature of evil, the dark legacy of totalitarianism, the insidious spread of politically correct ways of thinking in free societies, and many other topics. A perfect introduction to Dalrymple's thought.         --  Brian Anderson, editor ofCity JournalAnother brilliant collection from our age’s answer to Dr. Johnson and George Orwell.  A feast of wit, insight, admonition, and plain old common sense.       -- Roger Kimball, author ofThe Rape of the Masters: How Political Correctness Sabotages Art--New English ReviewAfter Anders Breivik, a seemingly "normal" individual, methodically gunned down dozens of politically active young people at a summer camp in Norway theWall Street Journalturned to the most likely person to be able to elucidate the mystery. The Journal interviewed Theodore Dalrymple, prison doctor, psychiatrist, essayist, author of over a dozen books, most of them puzzling wryly and trenchantly over the human condition and the ways in which the social engineers who have sought to improve it have made matters far, far worse.  Readers of this book of essays will not be surprised that Dalrymple offered no easy "explanation." For the  subject to which  this eclectic group of essays repeatedly returns  is evil, its fascination for us, its permutations, and ultimately its mystery, which Dalrymple believes is never likely to be resolved.On the other hand, a few weeks later, when  rioters smashed their way through a number of British cities, Dalrymple did not hesitate to identify the "root cause." Again in theJournal--this time in an op-ed "Barbarians Inside Britain's Gates"-- Dalrymple zeroed in on the intellectuals, politicians and bureaucrats who fostered a sense of entitlement in a large segment of the population subsidized by the government in a near permanent condition of unemployment augmented by criminal activity. Such activity, up to and including murder, meets ludicrously small punishment (if any) by the criminal justice system.  Those who defend themselves are more likely to wind up on the wrong side of the law. Anyone who had read these essays  as they appeared over the last few years inNew English Review(or indeed his articles inNational Review, City Journaland elsewhere chronicling the British underclass) would have known such riots were in the cards.The reader of this book is in for an intellectual feast for Dr. Dalrymple takes us on multi-level tours all of them thought-provoking. There is a tour of Europe with reflections on everything from art to arsonists, the joys of borderless travel to the losses that come from the neglect of cultural identities.  And then there is the tour of the dysfunctional politics of Western societies, with their efforts to make life free of pain which wind up making it empty of purpose, with terrible consequences.  Finally there is the tour of the soul, its mysteries, the evil which so many pretend does not exist but manifests itself in ways small and great--Dalrymple, who spent years in Africa, gives us a glimpse into Rwanda's heart of darkness wh - --Family Security MattersAfter Anders Breivik, a seemingly "normal" individual, methodically gunned down dozens of politically active young people at a summer camp in Norway theWall Street Journalturned to the most likely person to be able to elucidate the mystery. The Journal interviewed Theodore Dalrymple, prison doctor, psychiatrist, essayist, author of over a dozen books, most of them puzzling wryly and trenchantly over the human condition and the ways in which the social engineers who have sought to improve it have made matters far, far worse.  Readers of this book of essays will not be surprised that Dalrymple offered no easy "explanation." For the  subject to which  this eclectic group of essays repeatedly returns  is evil, its fascination for us, its permutations, and ultimately its mystery, which Dalrymple believes is never likely to be resolved.On the other hand, a few weeks later, when  rioters smashed their way through a number of British cities, Dalrymple did not hesitate to identify the "root cause." Again in theJournal--this time in an op-ed "Barbarians Inside Britain's Gates"-- Dalrymple zeroed in on the intellectuals, politicians and bureaucrats who fostered a sense of entitlement in a large segment of the population subsidized by the government in a near permanent condition of unemployment augmented by criminal activity. Such activity, up to and including murder, meets ludicrously small punishment (if any) by the criminal justice system.  Those who defend themselves are more likely to wind up on the wrong side of the law. Anyone who had read these essays  as they appeared over the last few years inNew English Review(or indeed his articles inNational Review, City Journaland elsewhere chronicling the British underclass) would have known such riots were in the cards.The reader of this book is in for an intellectual feast for Dr. Dalrymple takes us on multi-level tours all of them thought-provoking. There is a tour of Europe with reflections on everything from art to arsonists, the joys of borderless travel to the losses that come from the neglect of cultural identities.  And then there is the tour of the dysfunctional politics of Western societies, with their efforts to make life free of pain which wind up making it empty of purpose, with terrible consequences.  Finally there is the tour of the soul, its mysteries, the evil which so many pretend does not exist but manifests itself in ways small and great--Dalrymple, who spent years in Africa, gives us a glimpse into Rwanda's heart of darkness where friendly, normal people turned into remorseless monsters on a dime.In one of these essays Dalrymple talks of an internet correspondent  with whom he struck up a friendship and the words well  describe Dalrymple himself: "He wrote of this and that, often of modern follies that he dissected with detached amusement rather than bitterness, for of course he had experienced a lot of folly in his time and he knew that life continued, usually with enjoyment, in spite of it."  For Dalrymple writes not only of evil and folly but of Shakespeare and fine art, of book collecting and of globalism, of religious faith (he is a respectful non-believer) and of moral ambiguity.  It is the range of his interests and the wit, style and knowledge he brings to his subjects that makes literary critic  Roger Kimball call Dalrymple "our age's answer to Dr. Johnson and George Orwell."-- Rael Jean Isaac --Family Security Matters