Theodore Dalrymple

If you want a collection of dyspeptic essays, here it is. The educated elite have destroyed the culture within the cities of Britain. Also, Paris is fucked, no one can state difficult truths, Islam is to rigid an ideology to support free inquiry and progress (the same progress elsewhere derided.
His observations are undoubtedly accurate, and worth some of the time reading them, but by no means all the book requires. Dalrymple's conclusions are not as convincing but should be considered.… (more)

Hard to say that I /enjoyed/ this. It's really quite sad (and in some cases disturbing - read at your own risk if you're sensitive to suffering and cruelty). That said, it inspired me to continue to do my best to live as a good and decent person and to raise my children the same way. Our world seems to be growing more mad by the day. It's strange to remember that this book was written back in the late 90's and early 2000s!

Overall, I wish the author had given a bit more named credit to the worldview that made Britain (Christianity. It was Christianity) rather than just lamenting that it was lost.

Still, an excellent read.

"The idea that it is possible to base a society on no cultural or philosophical presuppositions at all, or, alternatively, that all such presuppositions may be treated equally so that no choice has to be made between them, is absurd."… (more)

"I was rather proud of my deduction – which admittedly it took me an unconscionable time to make – that within an established totalitarian regime the purpose of propaganda is not to persuade, much less to inform, but rather to humiliate. From this point of view, propaganda should not approximate to the truth as closely as possible: on the contrary, it should do as much violence to it as possible. For by endlessly asserting what is patently untrue, by making such untruth ubiquitous and unavoidable, and finally by insisting that everyone publicly acquiesce in it, the regime displays its power and reduces individuals to nullities."

Fantastic read. Dalrymple has become a new favorite!… (more)

It was mostly a pleasure to read the author’s dissection of selections from the NEJM in 2017. Writing under a pseudonym, he covers problems in logic and philosophy and some in statistics. Most of these are well-known, but journal articles can be stultifying, and Dalrymple can cut through bullshit like a knife. On the other hand, his role here is the curmudgeon, and he is sometimes merely argumentative. So, he specifically admits to ignorance about the earth sciences, but then presents his potentially destructive opinions about global warming; he attacks the use of B.C.E. for B.C. in a footnote calling it contemptible; he strongly believes that it is inappropriate to see drug addiction as a disease; and, although he is most helpful to us when logical fallacies are revealed, he might be accused of occasionally succumbing to a false analogy, appealing to ridicule, steering us to a slippery slope, and using a rare vacuous truth.… (more)