Woefully outdated and uncomfortable

As a conservative I found this painful to listen to and not at all prescient about the future. He has a few good points mixed in, but his repeated returns to racism as a conservative value are extremely uncomfortable and his fear that the Soviet Union would bury the West was long ago disproven. He seemed to believe the West was only strong when it had political and military control over a growing segment of the world. He fails to see that it is western ideology that is its strength and that as this spreads, the West continues to benefit. In the end, he wore the same blinders he accused the liberals of wearing.

10 persone l'hanno trovata utile

The Future is Now!

What made the experience of listening to Suicide of the West the most enjoyable?

Suicide of the west should be looked at by Western Free market Libertarians as Nostradamus's quatrains. Look at the world events we see now, the collapse of European parliamentary democracy’s crumble under the weight of debt created by the liberal policies of social idealism.

What did you like best about this story?

The book was written in 1964 a year before I was born and this great book has been out there all this time. I glad I found it and thanks to Audible for having it.

10 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Cogent analysis of liberalism that remains relevant today.

Burnham’s Suicide of the West presents a cogent argument for liberalism as one of the expressions of the contraction (“suicide”) of the west. He presents his analysis of liberalism in its essential attitudes and beliefs from a variety of angles and with compelling prose.

While the book was written in 1964, it is still relevant in explaining the phenomenon of liberalism, what many would now call “leftist progressivism.” The present political situation in America is largely a result of the “liberal ideology” Burnham so expertly exposits in this book.

3 persone l'hanno trovata utile

amazing

the examples are dated but the themes are timeless
I enjoyed it greatly
I need 15 words

2 persone l'hanno trovata utile

A message from the past explaining why we are here

A must read if you want to understand why and how the US (and the West) is being destroyed by a demented ideology called Liberalism. Get it!!!

2 persone l'hanno trovata utile

The Truth is simple: isn't that a double lie?

If you are a stalwart communist or progressive, you very well may be off put by this author's anti-idealism.

Furthermore, his race and ethnic realism, though not explicitly racist, may be uncomfortable to some.

However, you cannot deny his lucidity and accuracy regarding what it means to be a liberal, and how such a belief affects the mind of one who believes in such ideals. He even chronicles the transition from classical liberalism to modern progressivism.

Overall, if you are a conservative, classical liberal who dislikes progressivism, or a culturally conservative realist libertarian, this is a must listen. And for those of you who are otherwise politically: it might be useful to listen to a critique of you viewpoints from the standpoint of an agnostic realist and former communist.

For those of you who are centrist or undecided politically, I'm sure there are a handful of better books, but this is a decent listen and definitely worth your time. You will appreciate the agnostic viewpoint and independent nature of his commentary -- especially near the beginning.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Straw man argument crying over loss of old-style power

Fails to define liberalism (von Mises, does not appear), setting up straw man argument. Valid complaints about the contradictions of liberalism (I’m no fan of the version he attacks) and other shortcomings of particular liberal views, but no alternatives, no relation to the founding principles of the enlightenment, or argument why those should be abandoned.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Militant Racism

We would not have to worry about WWIII any more if men with beliefs like this author infected our morals and ran our country we'd be fighting WWIV with sticks and stones.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

A little dated, still very good ref. point

As the title mentions this is a very good reference point. However is a bit dated and needs to be updated with current examples. On the other side, this is one of the few factual documents about the left vs right discussions going on in the world.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Very important

If you could only read one book this whole year, read this one. 1970’s and Burnham already sees that the train has jumped the shark.