"Architects of the Culture of Death"
I recently completed reading the book "Architects of the Culture of Death" co-authored by Professor of Philosophy Donald De Marco and Lecturer in Science and Theology Benjamin Wiker. I was surprised to learn how much these architects of the Culture of Death impacted my own thinking.
This excellent study by De Marco and Wiker deals primarily with philosophers, (or influenced people whose philosophy has significant emphasis on our society). The persons discussed lived in modern times since they have the most immediate impact on today's society. The book is broken into seven sections in addition to the introduction and conclusion.
Section one consists of three chapters with one chapter each dealing with a specific person (the same format is followed throughout the book). Section one is titled "The Will Worshippers" and discusses Arthur Schoepenhaur (1788-1860), Friederich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Ayn Rand (1905-1982). Ayn Rand was very popular when I was young and many of you may have read either "Atlas Shrugged" or "Fountainhead" (which was made into a movie).
Section two is titled: "The Eugenic Evolutionists" covering Charles Darwin (1809-1882), Francis Galton (Darwin's cousin)(1822-1911) and Ernst Haekel (1834-1919)
Section three is titled: "The Secular Utopioanists" covering Karl Marx (1818-1883), Auguste Comte (1798-1857), and Judith Jarvis Thomson (born in 1929).
Section four is titled: "The Atheistic Existentialists" covering Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), Simone de Beauvoir his partner (1908-1986), and Elizabeth Badinter (born in 1944)
Section five is titled: "The Pleasure Seekers" covering Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957), and Helen Gurley Brown (born in 1922) author of "Sex and the Single Girl" and former editor of "Cosmopolitan" magazine.
Section six is titled: "The Sex Planners" covering the anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978), Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956)the most disturbing chapter to read, Margaret Sanger 1879-1966), Clarence Gamble (1894-1966), and Alan Guttmacher (1898-1974).
Section seven is titled: "The Death Peddlers" covering Derek Humphry (born in 1930), Jack Kervorkian (born in 1928) and Peter Singer (born in 1946).
Reading these capsulized accounts of these "Architects" as the author notes it becomes obvious that "...in the main, they are both atheists and individualists". By "individualist" the author is not relating to their "individualism"; rather to people whose attention is dedicated to self, i.e., selfishness (at least one advocating having total disregard for others and to be totally selfish). A philosophy which has matured into what came to be referred as the "me generation". [One point I need to make, there are atheist who are very good people, who are altruist, who actually put some of us people of faith to shame.] Two things also came across in the book, those discussed who have died for the most part have had sad deaths and as a person reads these accounts, it also becomes obvious that these people's philosophies are interrelated. It saddened me as I read this book, regardless of these persons' intentions, I came to recognize the destructive impact they have had on our society.
Do I recommend reading this book? A definite "YES" Why? I believe for any of us who wish to call ourselves "a people of life", we need to know the driving thinking of the "culture of death". I'm convinced if many people who support much what the philosophies of these "Architects" advocate were told the truth they would change their position. Reading this book also motivates the reader who advocates "life" to heed the guidance and instruction given by our Holy Fathers and others advocating the "culture of life".
Though this book deals with "heavy" material which could be very depressing, because of the authors approach it is readable and I dare to write, offers a degree of hope.
The book is published by Ignatius Press, 2004, ISBN 1-58617-016-3.
This excellent study by De Marco and Wiker deals primarily with philosophers, (or influenced people whose philosophy has significant emphasis on our society). The persons discussed lived in modern times since they have the most immediate impact on today's society. The book is broken into seven sections in addition to the introduction and conclusion.
Section one consists of three chapters with one chapter each dealing with a specific person (the same format is followed throughout the book). Section one is titled "The Will Worshippers" and discusses Arthur Schoepenhaur (1788-1860), Friederich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Ayn Rand (1905-1982). Ayn Rand was very popular when I was young and many of you may have read either "Atlas Shrugged" or "Fountainhead" (which was made into a movie).
Section two is titled: "The Eugenic Evolutionists" covering Charles Darwin (1809-1882), Francis Galton (Darwin's cousin)(1822-1911) and Ernst Haekel (1834-1919)
Section three is titled: "The Secular Utopioanists" covering Karl Marx (1818-1883), Auguste Comte (1798-1857), and Judith Jarvis Thomson (born in 1929).
Section four is titled: "The Atheistic Existentialists" covering Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), Simone de Beauvoir his partner (1908-1986), and Elizabeth Badinter (born in 1944)
Section five is titled: "The Pleasure Seekers" covering Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957), and Helen Gurley Brown (born in 1922) author of "Sex and the Single Girl" and former editor of "Cosmopolitan" magazine.
Section six is titled: "The Sex Planners" covering the anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978), Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956)the most disturbing chapter to read, Margaret Sanger 1879-1966), Clarence Gamble (1894-1966), and Alan Guttmacher (1898-1974).
Section seven is titled: "The Death Peddlers" covering Derek Humphry (born in 1930), Jack Kervorkian (born in 1928) and Peter Singer (born in 1946).
Reading these capsulized accounts of these "Architects" as the author notes it becomes obvious that "...in the main, they are both atheists and individualists". By "individualist" the author is not relating to their "individualism"; rather to people whose attention is dedicated to self, i.e., selfishness (at least one advocating having total disregard for others and to be totally selfish). A philosophy which has matured into what came to be referred as the "me generation". [One point I need to make, there are atheist who are very good people, who are altruist, who actually put some of us people of faith to shame.] Two things also came across in the book, those discussed who have died for the most part have had sad deaths and as a person reads these accounts, it also becomes obvious that these people's philosophies are interrelated. It saddened me as I read this book, regardless of these persons' intentions, I came to recognize the destructive impact they have had on our society.
Do I recommend reading this book? A definite "YES" Why? I believe for any of us who wish to call ourselves "a people of life", we need to know the driving thinking of the "culture of death". I'm convinced if many people who support much what the philosophies of these "Architects" advocate were told the truth they would change their position. Reading this book also motivates the reader who advocates "life" to heed the guidance and instruction given by our Holy Fathers and others advocating the "culture of life".
Though this book deals with "heavy" material which could be very depressing, because of the authors approach it is readable and I dare to write, offers a degree of hope.
The book is published by Ignatius Press, 2004, ISBN 1-58617-016-3.
Labels: Culture of Life
posted by Paul Amrhein | 2:43 PM
1 Comments:
I have heard of this book for a long time, and as always with Wiker, his skill and simple clarity makes him one of the best conservative writers around.
As with his Ten Books The Screwed Up the World, though, one is left wondering at some choices in the light of the much greater secularisation of Europe, Canada and New Zealand in comparison to the United States. This makes me think Kinsey is overemphasised because Pat Buchanan shows he was not that original in his thinking at all (it's odd that both his advocates and his detractors overstate Kinsey's originality). The same is true of Judith Jarvis Thomson. I think that Keynes, who in effect created a philosophy emphasising material pleasure above all else, could have been included, as could Bertrand Russell, whose philosphy influenced the modern "daddy states" of Europe. The fact that the authors are not economists probably prevented them considering Keynes for the book, but Russell's omission is questionable at best.
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