JonathanHDavis reviewed War on the West by Murray, Douglas
None
2 stars
The book starts off strong before devolving into a parody of itself. I would recommend reading a different conservative book because someone must have written a better book about this topic.
At its best, Murray successfully attacks many of the absurdities of antiracism (as well as DEI or wokeism, though neither is specifically mentioned in the book). He contrasts destructive, unproductive antiracism with unapologetic praise for the West, both its ideas and its people.
But it quite apparent that Murray is deliberately ducking the hard questions. When discussing antiracism, Murray sticks to the most outlandish examples. It's not inherently bad to critique the extremes, but this is usually with a nod to the gray areas where the current social justice ideologies may offer some insight. At a minimum, the current ideas indicate there is problem with the system. Academia is producing critical race theory and antiracism. Black Lives Matter found …
The book starts off strong before devolving into a parody of itself. I would recommend reading a different conservative book because someone must have written a better book about this topic.
At its best, Murray successfully attacks many of the absurdities of antiracism (as well as DEI or wokeism, though neither is specifically mentioned in the book). He contrasts destructive, unproductive antiracism with unapologetic praise for the West, both its ideas and its people.
But it quite apparent that Murray is deliberately ducking the hard questions. When discussing antiracism, Murray sticks to the most outlandish examples. It's not inherently bad to critique the extremes, but this is usually with a nod to the gray areas where the current social justice ideologies may offer some insight. At a minimum, the current ideas indicate there is problem with the system. Academia is producing critical race theory and antiracism. Black Lives Matter found widespread support around the globe. Murray is comfortable criticizing these new ideas and movements, but actively avoids discussing the root cause. I don't doubt that Murray could provide insight the root cause, but he has deliberately chosen not to.
For example, there is an entire section about the removal of statues. He does not mention the removal of confederate statues, which I would consider a key part of the discussion. Instead of making it clear what types of statues are good or not, Murray would rather spend his time attacking the more extreme examples, like the removing statues of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. But by ducking the hard examples, Murray avoids providing framework for discussing this topic.
In a section about Churchill, Murray refuses to quote him espousing any potentially racist rhetoric. Instead, he mocks people who critique Churchill in this manner by pointing out the many times they miss quoted him. I happen to like Churchill and believe that his image will endure, even with quoting his worse comments. But Murray clearly doesn't agree with me, avoiding an actual discussion about what Churchill said. I do not think the image of Churchill is so toxic that avoiding his questionable quotes is required.
These are just of two of numerous examples of Murray sticking to the extremes to avoid a difficult conversation. Thus just like the critical race theorists, antiracists, and others that Murray is critiquing for not having any productive ideas, Murray also lacks productive ideas. Murray only devotes about 10 minutes to any talk of solutions in the audiobook, right at the very end. He offers kind words about unity, but with no meaningful tangible solutions.
When taken as a whole, the book is defending the West's legacy against the current forms of criticism. However, it offers no ideas on the root causes of the current outcry of criticism. If Murray's solution is implemented, we'd just return back in time to 2015, when things were still ready to explode, but hadn't yet. Without a meaningful discussion about why these social justice ideas gained such popularity (ex. racial wealth inequality), we are doomed to repeat the cycle. While that is good for Murray, as he will have plenty more topics to write about, it likely isn't good for the conservative readers of this book, who are given no tools to stop the next generation of left-wing ideas.
