About book 10 Books That Screwed Up The World: And 5 Others That Didn't Help (2008)
"Pot Calling the Kettle Black"I confess I was sucked in by the clever title, and once begun, was willing to stand on the same platform with the author's claim that published ideas have consequences -- this agreeing with an axiom of my own that states, "bad ideas are not dangerous until funded."As the book makes the turn for the finish line, Wiker's own increasing ideological hyperbole leaves him the pot calling the kettle black and undermines some of his earlier thoughtful remarks. In the final chapters, his cheeky tone and smart-alex repartee with himself diminished whatever credibility he had banked with me.If you don't have the time or inclination to examine all fifteen books that he condemns, get the Cliff Notes and draw your own conclusions. Unless you are the choir he is preaching to, this book will, not in the beginning, but finally in the end, just piss you off. This book is not for everyone, but it is for me. Wiker writes from a distinctly Christian worldview about the evolution of ideas that have produced the society we live in today. It is his conviction that though these books are evil, they should not be burned but should rather be read, understood, and critiqued. But he makes no apologies for seeing that atheism is at the core of almost all of these ideas and that, in fact, a rejection of the idea of God or blatant hostility toward God's authority is one of the motivations behind most of these author's theories.I was stunned by the first few chapters of the book because I could easily recognize the effects of those ideas on our culture today and it took me aback to realize that at one point, these were just thought experiments but they've now become ideas nearly taken for granted we are so immersed in them.I was stunned by the later chapters of the book for two reasons: 1) By that point, I could see clearly how the ideas of previous thinkers like Rousseau, Hobbes, Descartes, and Darwin logically culminated in the ideas of Hitler. While we all easily condemn Hitler, I hadn't realized how much he was a product of the thinkers that had gone before them (and how much the ideas that influenced him still influence thinkers today!) and 2) I was stunned by the self-justification that inspired some of the more recent thinkers to write their works. There is much to doubt about the "scientific" methods of these researchers and thinkers.I have a great deal to say about this book. Even though I am finished reading it, I intend to keep it handy so I can continue to ponder some of the more interesting bits and continue to digest the whole progression of thought.Near the end of the book, Wiker presents a thesis that sums up the whole book: "The desire that something be true, rather than the desire for truth itself, may well be the root of all evil. It is certainly the origin of all ideology, and ideology was the source of much of the evil in the past century" (191).I found this book brilliant, fascinating, and enlightening at every turn and I recommend it highly... to the right audience. That is, I can see that this book does not win over those who don't already see the world from a Christian worldview. But if you do, I recommend it as highly as I can. It will encourage you greatly. If you don't, well, don't say I didn't warn you!As a side note, one of the most fascinating themes (in my opinion) is Wiker's observation that many of these thinkers tried to erase the Garden of Eden's story of origin and replace it with their own Edenic origin myths. For example, for Rousseau primitive man was a "carefree, make-love-not-war ancestral archetype" whereas for Hobbes primitive men were at war with one another and entered into society only on the basis of a "you don't do X to me and I won't do X to you" arrangment (and, of course, other thinkers have their own theories.) In any case, it seems that these thinkers believed there was something missing from our current societal arrangement and that we must either return to this primitive state or evolve to a future higher state would be the best way to restore whatever was missing in present day society. Many of these thinkers aimed for a utopian future or an idyllic past, and pointed to the problems of their present day as a sign that we must move in one direction or the other. In any case, there was a pattern of thinkers reimagining the origins of human society in order to explain the problems in our present day society, and I found this fascinating. These thinkers seemed to believe that it matters where we came from. On that point, I couldn't agree more.
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This book is more like a collection of book reports.
—Renee
Interesting by clearly slanted by his own biases.
—joy
utter stupidity and frothing hate from page one
—uniquestar96
