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, indeed for anyone. Beware imposters though. You can see an accredited, authentic Bible list on my Bibles and Grammar page.
This article will provide you with a list of books that I have found informative, helpful and enjoyable. They offer 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 can assist in the building of a picture of what our world now faces. These titles contribute to our understanding of how Marxism, through chipping away at felling the West 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. Here are some books that will help 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 a person could possibly believe. You will see that I have focused on leftist totalitarianism, Marxism. That is because Marxism is the default form of totalitarianism in the West today and it has even held sway to greater or 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.
Life at the Bottom by Theodore Dalrymple. 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.
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. 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.
That Hideous Strength by C S Lewis. A prophet is mainly gifted with understanding the heart of things, the deepest reality concerning any given state of things and of people. C S Lewis appears to me prophetic with this creation. He unfolds his understanding of the technocratic movement, particularly that of the 1930s in America. Technocracy is described in various ways but my understanding of it is summed up in the pursuit of power by a godless elite over the many. Humans are made in God’s image so in the process of trying to turn their “wonderful” ideas into reality, Lewis’s charcters try to create their own god. See where that one leads. 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, the fairytale turned nightmare into which we are drifting may not eventuate.
The Naked Communist by Cleon Skousen. 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.
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