What we believe, no matter how consciously or unconsciously, needs to be examined and brought to the light of day so that we can continue to grow in truth all the days of our lives. As you can see from other posts, I consider the Bible the central book for Christians. Beware imposters though. I would refer you to the footnoted video below at the Australian Christian Lobby (1). You can see an accredited, authentic Bible list on my Bibles and Grammar page although this isn’t an exhaustive list of Bible translations.
This article will provide you with a list of books that I have found informative and helpful and which provide elucidation of the truth about Marxist coercive regimes, governments and in the West’s case, Marxist-fuelled social coercion to think correctly, based on pagan notions of right and wrong. Book titles in this and two subsequent posts will cover different themes, three in all, which will be briefly discussed with some teaser quotes from most of the books. I am suggesting these books because all of them together, I believe, will assist in the building of a picture of what our world now faces. This week’s titles will contribute to our understanding of how Marxism, one of the great enemies of the West, and which has been chipping away at felling it for over 100 years, plays out in our everyday lives. Marxism re-gained a really strong advantage with its winning of many hearts and minds during the 1960s sexual revolution. Following are some books that will help us to cast doubt on subconscious beliefs that we might have through unawareness of the leftist brainwashing of our culture that has led to some of the most absurd and palpably aggressive lies that a person could possibly believe. You will see that I have focused on leftist totalitarianism, Marxism. This is because Marxism is the default form of totalitarianism in the West today and it has even held sway to greater and lesser degrees in the Church, as well as in the wider culture, for over 50 years.
Some of the books are not Christian but are included because of their truth value (not FULLNESS of truth) in opening up our understanding. There are many other excellent offerings but here I am providing a sampling. Although I am mentioning in this list Nineteen Eighty-Four because of George Orwell’s contribution to our understanding of how totalitarianism works, it can get a bit rough and may not be worth the bother of reading for some. Similar themes are at work in That Hideous Strength, and it is this book that I have read and enjoyed in many re-readings over the years. I recommend this one to you, especially if you are a Christian.
Life at the Bottom by Theodore Dalrymple (2). Theodore Dalrymple is an author, doctor, psychiatrist and journalist. This book will offer you wry insight into social trends that are occurring throughout the Western world, as seen through his medical experience working in a busy inner city hospital in Birmingham and in a nearby prison. An excerpt –
“If humankind, as T. S. Eliot put it, cannot bear very much reality, it seems that it can bear any amount of unreality. The intellectual’s struggle to deny the obvious is never more desperate than when reality is unpleasant and at variance with his preconceptions and when full acknowledgment of it would undermine the foundations of his intellectual worldview. Given the social history of England in the last 40 years, little wonder that collective denial should be one of the most salient characteristics of our national intellectual life.”
Theodore Dalrymple, Life At The Bottom.
NineteenEighty-Four by George Orwell (3). This book reveals Orwell as a secular prophet. He has been “owned” by conservatives and those on the left. A film made in 1984 to commemorate the novel is surely that of a leftist’s take but Orwell’s intention in Nineteen Eighty-Four was to call out totalitarianism, including that pertaining to Communism. The film only singles out Orwell’s criticism of Fascism.
Orwell had fought in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the leftist Republicans. The war “took place from 1936 to 1939. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Second Spanish Republic, in alliance with the Anarchists and Communists, fought against the Nationalists, an alliance of Falangists, Monarchists, and Catholics, led by General Francisco Franco. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war had many facets, and different views saw it as class struggle, a war of religion, a struggle between dictatorship and republican democracy, between revolution and counterrevolution, between fascism and anarchism.[11] The Nationalists won the war in early 1939 and ruled Spain until Franco’s death in November 1975.”(4)
By 1944 this was how Orwell was thinking :
“The essential fact about a totalitarian regime is that it has no laws. People are not punished for specific offences, but because they are considered to be politically or intellectually undesirable. What they have done or not done is irrelevant.”
George Orwell, writing in The Observer 24 December 1944 (5).
Reality had moved Orwell from the unreality of his former political opinion, based as it was on foolish and naive idealism, to a more “real” understanding following his experience in the Spanish Civil War. This movement in Orwell’s thought, though, helps to demonstrate that the film version of the novel is a distorted picture of Orwell’s political ideas when he wrote his book. Following is an excerpt from Nineteen Eighty-Four —
“It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party. That is the fact that you have got to relearn, Winston. It needs an act of self-destruction, an effort of the will. You must humble yourself before you can become sane.’… ’’How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?’ ‘Four.’ ‘And if the party says that it is not four but five—then how many?’ ‘Four.’
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) .
Radicals: Portraits of a Destructive Passion by David Horowitz “David Joel Horowitz (born January 10, 1939) is an American conservative writer. He is a founder and president of the think tank the David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC); editor of the Center’s publication, FrontPage Magazine; and director of Discover the Networks, a website that tracks individuals and groups on the political left. Horowitz also founded the organization Students for Academic Freedom (7). He was once a self-described leftist radical until he saw the light. Here is an excerpt –
“The desire to make things better is an impulse essential to our humanity. But taken beyond the limits of what is humanly possible, the same hope is transformed into a destructive passion, until it becomes a desire to annihilate whatever stands in the way of the beautiful idea.”
David Horowitz, Radicals: Portraits of a Destructive Passion (p. 1).
That Hideous Strength by C S Lewis (8). I consider this almost a Christian version of Nineteen Eight-Four although it was written in 1945,(9) before Orwell’s book, first published in 1949.(10) Orwell had written a review of That Hideous Strength, probably recognising Lewis’s prophetic quality, much like his own. A prophet is mainly gifted with understanding the heart of things; the deepest level of reality concerning any given state of things and of people. We see their possible common interest in the post-WW1 and WW2 technocratic movement or perhaps it was any form of totalitarianism that inspired both their books. When I first read That Hideous Strength many, many years ago, there was in most people’s minds no inkling of the level to which the West was to fall but with his sharp intellectual observations, using as his scenario for the novel a world with which he was familiar, academia, he could see where the currents of thought were drifting. The book traces the journeys of husband and wife, Mark and Jane, in this academic world. They are travelling on divergent paths. Their portrayals, as well as those of the many other characters, are presented vividly, realistically and revealingly. We see the world of scientism, power-mongering and human hubris.We see the trends in That Hideous Strength reaching fulfilment in our own day and age. C S Lewis had called this book “a fairytale for adults”. Maybe it’s not such a fairytale after all and unless we wake up and repent of turning away from God, turning instead to Him, the nightmare into the future we are now glimpsing and experiencing may not eventuate into full-blown disaster.
The Naked Communist by Cleon Skousen (11). This book gives amazing insight into the march of communism from the early 20th century and its incredible success amongst a largely unaware Western population. Excerpt –
“Marx surveyed the world and dreamed of the day when the whole body of humanity could be forced into a gigantic social image which conformed completely to Marx’s dream of a perfect society. To achieve his goal, Marx required two things: First, the total annihilation of all opposition, the downfall of all existing governments, all economies and all societies. “Then,” he wrote, “I shall stride through the wreckage a creator!” The second thing he needed was a new kind of human being.”
Cleon W Skousen, The Naked Communist .
And we call the absurdities that we are now being forced to believe, “nonsense”. The word comes nowhere near describing what is happening.
REFERENCES
- Youtube of Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) director, Martin Iles, interviewing former transgender man, Walt Heyer – Did God make people transgender-Walt Heyer
2. Dalrymple, T 2010. Life At The Bottom. ebookgenie.co.uk http://www.mondaybooks.com. Kindle Edition.
3. Orwell, G 2013. Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), Parnell Classics. Kindle Edition.
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War.
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage_to_Catalonia.
6. Horowitz, D 2012. Radicals: Portraits of a Destructive Passion, Regnery Publishing, Washington. Kindle Edition.
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Horowitz.
8. Lewis, C S 1945. That Hideous Strength, Harper Collins Publishing, London, E-Pub Edition 2003.
9. https://www.britannica.com/topic/That-Hideous-Strength.
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four.
11. Skousen, W. C 2011. The Naked Communist, C&J Investments. Kindle Edition.
Our World Our Faith 