The War on the West (2021)

Written on July 14th, 2022 by James

Author: Douglas Murray

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Douglas Murray is a conservative writer whom I’ve only tangentially known about. I’m trying to read books by authors I may have general differences of opinions with. This is one of them.

I have to admit I found myself mostly agreeing with his views on a range of issues. I’m a believer in Western values like democracy, free speech, and I also have a built in belief about a human progress. I think the West is going through an identity crisis at the moment. Murray believes this to be a existential crisis.

I tend to want to beleive that this crisis is demonstrative of the West’s ability to self assess, change, and reconfigure – maybe it is actually the strength of Western values rather than a fundamental breakage in those values that we’re seeing?

I do tend to worry, like Murray does, that bad faith actors are edging us toward fundamental changes that are net negative for human society and progress.