Theodore Dalrymple: The Veneer of Civilization. Utterly removed.

The Manhattan Institute / National Review ^ | September 26, 2005 | Theodore Dalrymple

[Tolik]

Very Interesting!

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[little jeremiah]

later read/ping.

[untenured]

Outstanding. Pouring the water of Big Government into a culture whose foundations are rotting already is a sure way for the culture to collapse.

[Jaysun]

New Orleans shows us in the starkest possible way the reality of the thin blue line that protects us from barbarism and mob rule.

The veneer of civilization really is thin. Christianity plays a vital role in keeping us civilized. Those that continually seek to weaken and discredit Christianity do so at their own peril.

[clearlight]

I love this guy's work. His observations and the way he puts them into writing are just extraordinary. Anyone who hasn't read Dalrymple's book, "Life at the Bottom" would be doing themselves a favor by picking it up.

[snarks_when_bored]

The civilized veneers are much thinner on some than on others.

[squarebarb]

Dalrymple is excellent.

If you want to know what's happening in Britain, his books are a very good read.

I heard he could not get published in Brtain.

[auboy]

Bump.

[Tolik]

Yes, he is excellent, but very depressing in his honesty.

[Tax-chick]

bttt

[cornelis]

Christianity plays a vital role in keeping us civilized

OK, but why does Christianity weaken?

[windcliff]

ping

[Constitution Day]

Bump for later.

[cornelis]

Sounds divine. Isn't that part of what Christianity is about? I wonder if Bush mentioned faith-based initiatives the other night.

[Crawdad]

The culture described had been covered with a burlap bag for decades. It took 150 mph winds to blow the bag away. When it did, everyone saw what had been growing underneath.

[teawithmisswilliams]

Far from ameliorating the situation, then, the billions spent on welfare programs, and the intellectual ingenuity expended on justifying the unjustifiable in the form of affirmative action, have resulted in a hatred that is bitter and widespread enough among those condescended to in this manner to result in the scenes for which New Orleans will now long be remembered.

The fruit of liberalism is bitter.

[cornelis]

What about the billions spent on arms? Similar results? So war and poverty are the jack in the box. Can´t forget that.

[Jaysun]

OK, but why does Christianity weaken?

For one thing, there's an active campaign to weaken it. For another, the Christians still gather and worship as always, not much changes for them. I hear them say things like, "I don't need a monument to know the ten commandments.", or "My child doesn't have to be asked to pray in school." Christians have been too docile and have allowed others to attack them with impunity.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Most of this article is built on a false premise which I'm surprised the auther ignored, given how intelligent he is.  Drawing conclusions on human nature as a whole from what happened in New Orleans is to make an arguement out of context:  the people who stayed and misbehaved in New Orleans were not a cross-section of New Orleans as a whole - they were a concentrate of the worst the city has to offer.

Certainly not all but a great many were the drug dealers...the drug users....the thugs....the homeless...the mentally ill....people who had neither the resources nor the intelligence to leave the city.  People who had no where to go nor the motivation to go there.

In other words, the people who were left in New Orleans were the minority whose behavior is normally kept in check by the people who left.  When the grown-ups left, the children got to ransack the house.

It is also an informal fallacy to compare the poor of the US with the poor of Bombay.  Those two groups of people live very different lives in very different circumstances.

By and large, this article is pure intellectual dishonesty.